Cedar Mountain Battlefield, Culpeper County, Va.
Save More Than 340 Acres at Four Civil War Battlefields
Cedar Mountain, Chickasaw Bayou, Fredericksburg, The Petersburg Breakthrough
The Opportunity
The Trust saved its first acre at Cedar Mountain decades ago, and we’re not finished yet. Today we can save five parcels totaling more than 340 acres at four important Civil War battlefields: Cedar Mountain, Chickasaw Bayou, Fredericksburg, and The Breakthrough.
The total for all the land is worth nearly $4 million, but thanks to anticipated grants and other funding sources, we only need to raise the final $115,000 to preserve this land in perpetuity.
That means every dollar you give today can be matched $35-to-$1!
The History
Cedar Mountain
The largest of the five tracts at Cedar Mountain is this 337-acre parcel of land in fast-growing Culpeper County, Virginia. Here, wide-open space seems to disappear as development encroaches further into historic battlefield territory.
The threat is real. This tract is a prize for developers, even though on August 9, 1862, in the suffocating summer heat, Union and Confederate troops fought through woods and farmers’ fields until darkness finally ended the bloodshed. The Confederate Army claimed victory, and more than 4,000 soldiers became casualties that day.
Remarkably, much of the landscape they fought over still survives, but it is unprotected, and now is our chance to save it.
A residential subdivision here — on land that rests in the shadows of Cedar Mountain itself — would not only devastate the battlefield, its viewshed, and the history that unfolded there, but it would also attract more development to the area and put even greater pressure on the surrounding historic battlefields. That would be a disaster.
We don’t want future generations to look across this land and see rooftops, roads, and fences where soldiers once marched, fought, and died. They should see the battlefield as it appeared in 1862.
Preserve Historic Puzzle Pieces
In addition to this history at Cedar Mountain, we’re working to acquire four small parcels that will help reconnect and restore historic landscapes at Chickasaw Bayou, Fredericksburg, and The Breakthrough.
Once modern structures are removed and the sites are restored, visitors will be able to experience these battlefields in a way that is much closer to what soldiers saw during the war.
These four battlefields tell a larger story.
At Cedar Mountain, Chickasaw Bayou, and Fredericksburg, Confederate troops forced back their opponents. But the Union armies kept fighting. They regrouped. They adapted. They endured setbacks and losses. They learned from their mistakes. And eventually, at The Breakthrough, after a year of setbacks and doggedness, month-by-month, the Union’s perseverance helped bring the war to its conclusion.
For the American Battlefield Trust, persistence and determination have protected thousands of acres that otherwise would have been lost.
What exists as open countryside today could become a large residential subdivision or a utility-scale solar farm tomorrow. And once that happens, the land is lost and the battlefield changed forever.
Your gift will be matched $35-to-$1 when you give today to help save five tracts of historic battlefield land. Please make a donation today.
