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STATE BATTLES SPRAWL

April 16, 2008 1:33 am

By RUSTY DENNEN

Civil War battlefield preservation efforts here could get a big boost from the state--and private donors.

Among Gov. Tim Kaine's amendments to the 2008-2010 budget bill is a $5 million addition to the Civil War Historic Site Preservation Fund.

The infusion of cash, supported by House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, could be used to purchase important, privately owned land.

Private preservation groups such as the Civil War Preservation Trust have to raise $2 for every dollar they receive in state funding for the purchases.

The General Assembly will take final action on Kaine's budget plan April 23. The preservation fund addition is one of 41 amendments on the table, totaling about $8.9 million.

"This is crucial. It's something we've been working on for three years," said Jim Campi, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Civil War Preservation Trust.

About $500,000 from the fund, created in 2006, was used by the national nonprofit preservation group toward its $12 million purchase of the 210-acre Slaughter Pen Farm along Tidewater Trail in Spotsylvania County.

About $200,000 was used last year toward the purchase of land at the Glendale battlefield near Richmond. There, as in the Fredericksburg area, Congress sets the battlefield boundaries and some significant land remains in private hands within and outside the boundaries.

Preservationists told the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission last fall that those parcels must be obtained quickly before they are swallowed by development. The years 2011-2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

"There are some key properties that we still think need to be acquired land associated with Chancellorsville and Spotsylvania, the Wilderness and at Brandy Station in Culpeper," Campi said.

Howell, who chairs the sesquicentennial commission, has been a supporter of battlefield preservation and supports the budget amendment.

"It's very important It's a good public-private partnership," Howell said yesterday.

Without CWPT's efforts and the money from the state fund, "Slaughter Pen would be a shopping center," Howell said. The farm, part of the 1882 Battle of Fredericksburg, earned its name because of the fierce fighting on the property.

State Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania County, also worked to secure the state funding.

"This is a huge deal," said Linda Wandres, executive director of the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

"Though we were not involved with the discussions with the state, we hope to jump in and use the process," Wandres said.

"We care about this because there are so many economic, environmental and educational reasons for saving this land," she said, along with promoting heritage tourism.

"The ground itself has to be seen and walked for someone to understand the depth of commitment and sacrifice" of the soldiers who fought and died, Wandres said.

In a report last week, the National Parks Conservation Association warned that 1.8 million acres of private land within national parks is under growing pressure to be developed or sold.

Most national parks, including the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, have little or no money for land acquisition. So private, nonprofits are taking up the slack.

The military park includes the Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Wilderness and Chancellorsville battlefields.

"This may be the last best chance to preserve Civil War battlefields in Virginia," said Russ Smith, superintendent of the military park.

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com