Jim Webb nails it once again, this time on preserving our "living memorials to the 620,000 Americans who sacrificed their lives to fight in the Civil War." Thank you Senator.
Mr. President, I rise today to discuss an issue that has held a special place in my life for many years, the preservation of our nation's civil war battlefields. Our historic battlefields--outdoor classrooms where visitors may walk in the very footsteps of heroes from past generations--are under threat. More than 200,000 acres of historically significant battlefield land remain unprotected and are threatened by development pressures. That is why I urge my colleagues to fully fund the Civil War Battlefield Protection Program. This arm of the National Park Service is an invaluable tool to preserve our nation's history.
In 1990, Congress established the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission, a blue- ribbon panel empowered to investigate the status of America's remaining Civil War battlefields. Congress also tasked the Commission with the mission of prioritizing these battlefields according to their historic importance and the threats to their survival. The Commission ultimately looked at the 10,000-plus battles and skirmishes of the Civil War and determined that 384 priority sites should be preserved. The results of the report were released in 1993 and they were not encouraging.The 1993 Commission report recommended that Congress create a $10 million-a-year emergency program to save threatened Civil War battlefield land. The result was the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program. To date, the Preservation Program, working with its partners, has saved 14,100 acres of land in 15 states.
The key to the success of the Preservation Program is that it achieves battlefield preservation through collaborative partnerships between state and local governments, the private sector and non-profit organizations, such as the Civil War Preservation Trust. Matching grants provided by the program protect lands outside of the National Park Service boundaries and do not add to the Park Service's maintenance costs.
But for the Preservation Program and their partners with the Civil War Preservation Trust, we would have lost key sites from such national shrines at Antietem. Chancellorsville. Fredericksburg. Manassas. Harpers Ferry. Bentonville. Mansfield. Champion Hill. Their names still haunt us to this day. Had the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program not intervened, the sites would have been lost forever to commercial and residential development. Now they have been protected for future generations to enjoy and learn about our nation's history. They are islands of green-space in a seemingly endless sea of commercial sprawl.
The need to protect our nation's battlefields is far too great for any one well-intentioned federal program. That's why the partnership with the Civil War Preservation Trust is so critical. This visionary preservation group is able to work with other foundations, state and local governments and their membership to match federal funds by 100%. How often can we tout such an achievement with other federal programs? The Trust receives no financial gain from the Preservation Program and, working with their non-Federal partners, has raised more than $30 million to secure key battlefield sites in 15 states. They are in this fight for all the right reasons. This partnership truly serves as a model in bringing all stakeholders to the table to tackle pressing national issues.
For me, these hallowed grounds, these living memorials to the 620,000 Americans who sacrificed their lives to fight in the Civil War, have special, personal significance. Ancestors of mine fought on both sides during the war, including William Jewell, who was wounded in the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Culpeper County, Virginia, wounded again at Antietam and was finally killed in action at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. It's not everyday you can visit these battlefields sites and have an immediate, direct connection with your ancestors. We must preserve these sites so that future generations might see and touch the very places where so many sacrifices were made, by soldiers and civilians alike, to settle the unresolved issues from the American Revolution of slavery and sovereignty. We are a stronger, more diverse and genuinely free nation because of these sacrifices.
Many Shenandoah Battlefields are entirely in private hands such as Cross Keys & Port Republic, while the neighboring Harrisonburg battlefield sits underneath an apartment complex built in the late 1980's.
There is still much work to be done in our Commonwealth alone.