Battlefield Preservation

Battlefield Preservation. Saving America's Historic Battlefields. The surrounding landscape here is part of a larger battlefield network preserved by the efforts of many dedicated people. Early battlefield preservation movements were often led by local history advocates and students studying the Civil War. Battlefield preservation began immediately following the Civil War and has continued into the present., The first battlefield parks, including those at Gettysburg and Antietam, were created in the 1890s under the War Department. At the same time, memorial groups began to erect monuments to both Confederate and Union soldiers, a trend that lasted well into the early twentieth century. At Brandy Station Battlefield, the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated a marker in 1926 on Fleetwood Hill. For decades, that marker was the only interpretation of the Civil War's largest cavalry battle, in which 12,000 Union soldiers clashed with 9,500 Confederates and inaugurated the Gettysburg campaign., By 1987, development plans increasingly threatened unprotected battlefield land. From concern for Virginia battlefields and others across the country, the Fredericksburg-based Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS) was formed. APCWS is now renamed the Civil War Trust, a national battlefield preservation organization located in Washington DC., In Culpeper County, development pressures increased in the late 1980s, especially within Brandy Station Battlefield. The local Brandy Station Foundation formed in 1989 with funding from APCWS. Much of the battlefield today has been preserved, including Fleetwood Hill, parts of the Cedar Mountain Battlefield, and Hansbrough's Ridge, the site of the 1863-1864 Army of the Potomac winter encampment., Sidebar: , Interested in learning more? , Fleetwood Hill features several additional interpretive markers with views of the battlefield and discussions of the cavalry action there. For more information on Hansbrough's Ridge, explore the signs located throughout Stevensburg., Visit the Museum of Culpeper History, Salubria, and other local museums and historic sites to see how the preservation movement has impacted what you see around you today.