Saving History Saturday: American Battlefield Trust Preservation Updates

This month we are going to look at several preservation projects that the American Battlefield Trust is currently fundraising for.

The American Battlefield Trust (ABT) has current preservation projects in 6 states that they are fundraising for. The most recent project is to save 20 acres at Antietam, including the Jacob Avey Farm.

On September 17, 1862, some of the fiercest fighting during the Battle of Antietam took place across this land. In 2020 the Elliott Burial Map, drafted in 1864, was discovered, which revealed the farm as the site of several Confederate burial sites. This land also includes the historic farmhouse.

To learn more about this opportunity, click here.

ABT is also currently fundraising to preserve 820 acres at 5 different battlefields in Virginia. This includes 702 acres at Mine Run; 96 acres at Reams Station; 12 acres at Boydton Plank Road; 8 acres at Dinwiddie Courthouse, and 3 acres at the Breakthrough at Petersburg. The Boydton Plank Road and Dinwiddie Courthouse are first time efforts at those battlefields. Learn more about all these properties here.

The final project involves 343 acres at 5 battlefields in 4 states on the Western Theater. ABT is working to save 4 acres at Chickamauga, Georgia; 95 acres at Brice’s Cross Roads in Mississippi, where ABT’s already help save 1,500 acres; 2 properties, totaling 86 acres at Wyse Fork, North Carolina; 2 tracts totaling 158 acres at Bentonville, North Carolina, and finally 2 acres at Shiloh in Tennessee. More information about these projects is available here.

In the coming months, we will continue to look at all aspects of preservation, saving and telling the story of Civil War history.