Four Tennessee Battlefields In Need of Additional Funds

Shannon Andrea of the National Parks Conservation Association recently contacted me with the following important preservation news:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 19, 2009

NEW STUDY FINDS TENNESSEE CIVIL WAR NATIONAL PARKS NEED ADDITIONAL FUNDING TO PRESERVE HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS AND TELL CIVIL WAR STORIES

Knoxville, Tenn.-As we commemorate National Armed Forces Day, the nation’s leading voice for the national parks, the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), today released a new assessment recommending additional federal funding to maintain several of the nation’s historic Civil War battlefields. The report, which features four Civil War parks in Tennessee: Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Shiloh National Military Park, Stones River National Battlefield, and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, also finds that adjacent land development threatens historic views that are essential to understanding the important battles and history that took place there.

View full press release at:

http://www.npca.org/media_center/press_releases/2009/tennessee_civil_war_state_of_parks.html

View the full report at:

http://www.npca.org/stateoftheparks/civil_war_national_parks/

Download Tennessee Civil War National Parks photos at:

www.flickr.com/photos/30346074@N04/sets/72157618115135311/

Associated Press story:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/19/npca-says-4-tn-civil-war-battlefields-threatened/

This is a chance for those who love studying the Civil War to be proactive.  Let’s help to prevent the possibility of what is happening to the Wilderness Battlefield with the possible intrusion of a Wilderness Wal-Mart!  I last was able to visit Shiloh in 2003, and the movie shown there really is badly in need of updating.  I’m more concerned, however, with the possible encroachment of suburban sprawl on the other Tennessee battlefields mentioned above and at the links provided.  Save these battlefields and the ability to interpret what happened there almost 150 years ago before it is too late.  Once a battlefield is gone, there is no going back.

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