Grants Support Land Acquisition to Preserve Civil War Battlefields

Massenutten Mountain part of the viewshed landscape at Cross Keys and Tom’s Brook Battlefields in Virginia.

As part of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, more than $3.8 million in grants were awarded in June to help with land acquisition at six Civil War battlefields. Grant projects include easement purchases at Cross Keys, Virginia ($181,125); Tom’s Brook, Virginia ($25,000); Buckland Mills, Virginia ($3,350,060); and fee simple acquisition at Mill Springs, Kentucky ($90,800); South Mountain, Maryland ($149,000); and Bentonville, North Carolina ($45,325).

These grants help achieve Call to Action: Action 22, “Scaling Up” to promote large landscape conservation to support cultural resources, by preserving battlefield landscapes at these six important battlefields in four states. The National Park Service is also commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, a defining event in our nation’s history and its legacy in the continuing fight for civil rights.

The grants were made from the American Battlefield Protection Program to help states and local communities acquire and preserve threatened Civil War battlefield land outside the boundaries of National Park units. Priority was given to battlefields listed in the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields (CWSAC Report). Funds were awarded based on the property’s location within CWSAC-defined core and/or study areas, the threat to the battlefield land to be acquired, and the availability of required non-Federal matching funds.

The grant funds were made available under the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-10) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-74), which appropriated a combined $17,967,600 for the Civil War battlefield land acquisition grants program. Applications for the balance of the funds are accepted at any time. Criteria to consider in the applying for the Civil War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants include:

• The LWCF Civil War Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants are awarded through a competitive process to units of state and local governments.
• Private non-profit groups may apply in partnership with state or local government sponsors;
• Each grant requires a dollar-for-dollar non-Federal match.
• Grants are available for the fee simple acquisition of land, or for the acquisition of permanent, protective interests in land at Civil War battlefields listed in the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s (CWSAC) 1993 Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields.
• Higher consideration will be given to proposals for acquisition of endangered lands at battlefields defined as Priority I or II sites in the CWSAC report.
• Complete guidelines for grant eligibility and application forms are available online at: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp

For further information, contact Kristen McMasters, Grants Manager, at 202-354-2037 or kristen_mcmasters@nps.gov.