Report Names Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields

Medium-sized image unavailable for this photo.
Schoolhouse Ridge, a National Historical Park, was illegally
bulldozed last summer.

Credit: Harpers Ferry NHP

A SuperTarget on a Civil War battlefield?

That's what's in the works for Spring Hill, Tenn., where construction of a 62-acre shopping center began in January.

Spring Hill is one of the country's 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields, according to the Civil War Preservation Trust, which unveiled its annual report on the state of America's battlegrounds this week.

The 2007 list includes:

1. Harpers Ferry, W.Va., where developers dug illegal trenches on National Park land in August and now want to build houses nearby.

2. Gettysburg, Pa., where sprawl is encroaching on the area. Casino denied in Dec. 2006 >>

3. Cedar Creek, Va., which the O-N Minerals Company wants to re-zone and mine an area, 60 percent of which is "core battlefield," the trust says.

4. Fort Morgan, Ala., a deteriorating fort built in 1864

5. Iuka, Miss., where roads and a motel mar the 1862 battlefield.

6. Marietta, Ga., where unprotected historic trenches and fortifications were bulldozed.

7. New Orleans, three forts damaged by Katrina

8. Northern Piedmont, Md., Pa., and Va., where Dominion Virginia Power and Allegheny Power want to erect power lines through 48,000 acres of easement-protected land.

9. Petersburg, Va., the site of 18 battles, whose Fort Lee will expand thanks to last year's Base Realignment and Closure commission's report.

10. Spring Hill, Tenn.

The Civil War Preservation Trust has saved 23,500 acres of battlefields since 1987. 

For more photos, stories, and tips, subscribe to the print edition of Preservation magazine.

 

Comments

Submitted by BILL at: July 21, 2009
We have to protect these civil war sites where americans on both sides fought for what they believed in and now we have to fight corportation greed. If they want to spend money why don't they help the people who lost homes and people who are living in the streets.

 

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