Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130340
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission, set up in 1990, proposed matching states' or nonprofit preservation groups' spending over the next seven years to purchase land at 50 of the most significant battlefields threatened by development.
About half the 232 battlefields in good or fair condition are threatened with development in the next decade. Most of these sites "will be lost or seriously fragmented" unless steps are taken soon to preserve them, the panel said Monday in a report.
"The nation's Civil War heritage is in grave danger," historian Holly Robinson, the panel's chairwoman, wrote. "It is being demolished and bulldozed at an alarming pace. It is disappearing under new buildings, parking lots and highways."
The panel also proposed that Congress spend $17.5 million by the year 2000 to help landowners preserve the historic features of privately owned battlefield property.
It also recommended giving the Resolution Trust Corp. authority to turn over historically significant tracts of land it obtains from failed S&Ls for battlefield parks. The panel estimated this would cost the government $3 million to $5 million in lost revenue.
RTC's inventory includes 321 acres associated with the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia and another 421 acres near the Richmond National Battlefield Park, which includes the sites of several Civil War battles.
The panel recommended that the National Parks Service conduct a $500,000 study of Civil War battles and campaigns that have not been commemorated to determine which other sites need protection.
The commission was set up two years after a fight in Congress over a proposal enacted by lawmakers to spend $100 million to acquire 600 acres of land from a developer near the Manassas Battlefield National Park in Manassas, Va., site of two significant Southern victories.
"The Civil War shaped and defined the kind of nation we would become," commission member James McPherson said. "The battlefields . . . are indeed hallowed ground."
Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., said he would draft a new bill to authorize spending the money.
\ THREATENED BATTLEFIELDS\ CIVIL WAR SITES ON COMMISSION'S LIST\ \ Battlefields with less than 20 percent of the core area protected:
Bentonville, N.C., Cedar Creek, Va., Cold Harbor, Va., Fort Donelson, Tenn., Gaines' Mill, Va., Glorieta Pass, N.M., Malvern Hill, Va., Mobile Bay, Ala., Perryville, Ky., Petersburg, Va., and Port Hudson, La.
Battlefields with more than 20 percent of the core area protected:
Antietam, Md., Chancellorsville, Va., Chattanooga, Tenn., Chickamauga, Ga., Gettysburg, Pa., Second Manassas, Va., Spotsylvania Church, Va., Vicksburg, Miss., and Wilderness, Va.
Class B battlefields: (Less threatened, but historically important).
Allatoona, Ga., Boydton Plank Road, Va., Brandy Station, Va., Brice's Cross-Roads, Miss., Bristoe Station, Va., Chaffin's Farm, Va., Chicksaw Bayou, Miss., Corinth, Miss., First Kernstown, Va., Fishers Hill, Va., Fort Davidson, Mo., Glendale, Va., Harpers Ferry, W.V., Honey Springs, Okla., Kennesaw Mountain, Ga., Mill Springs, Ky., Mine Run, Va., Monocacy, Md., Newtonia, Mo., North Anna, Va., Port Gibson, Miss., Prairie Grove, Ark., Raymond, Miss., Rich Mountain, W.V., Ringgold Gap., Ga., Secessionville, S.C., Second Deep Bottom, Va., South Mountain, Md., Spring Hill, Tenn., and White Oak Road, Va.
- States News Service
by CNB