30 Images of the Trust’s 30 years

Threats to the Grove Farm prompted the founding of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation and earned the battlefield a spot on the first National Trust for Historic Preservation's "11 Most Endangered" list. Eventual protection of the land marked the first cooperative effort involving both APCWS and the original Civil War Trust.

Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, a host of development threats emerged at the Brandy Station Battlefield, most of which were successfully defeated. Historian Bud Hall shows a Trust-protected parcel that had once been slated for a Formula One racetrack

Exceptional Trust-led preservation efforts at Glendale and Malvern Hill – the final two of the Seven Days‘ Battles outside Richmond in 1862 – have resulted in 1,632 acres of protected land, compared to only 131 acres acquired independently by the National Park Service.

While APCWS had accepted donations of battlefield land previously, three small properties at White Oak Road, Va., constituted the organization's first outright purchases during the summer and fall of 1989.

The Trust often works with parks to move quickly when a high-priority property becomes available. Stones River National Battlefield holds the distinction of inspiring the smallest parcel in our land records: a 0.12-acre tract acquired at public auction.

The view from atop the commanding heights of The Coaling at Port Republic, Va. Accepting donation of this property marked the first “victory” for the new APCWS.

Through the end of 2016, the Trust had protected more than 2,500 acres associated with the 10-month siege of Petersburg, Va., but nearly 80 percent of that land was outside the authorized boundary of Petersburg National Battlefield. However, after many years of advocacy by the Trust and other conservation groups, Congress voted to expand the park boundary, meaning this important land can become the property of the American people.

Susan Paddock of No Casino Gettysburg with the National Park Conservation Association’s Alan Spears and CWPT’s Mary Koik gathering petition signatures among parade attendees on Remembrance Day 2006.

With a 2010 bill signing at the Jackson’s Flank Attack site, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell created the first state-level matching grant program for battlefield preservation, and bestowed the first funding to the Trust.

The Trust’s Battle App® guides – GPS-enabled mobile battlefield tours – combine outstanding interpretation and cutting-edge technology to bring history alive in preciously unimagined ways.

A second casino proposal in Gettysburg that emerged in 2011 bitterly divided the community. Savvy advocacy, including the use of social media and digital techniques, won the day for preservationists.

The launch of Campaign 1776 on Veterans Day 2014 began a whole new era of battlefield preservation, with the Trust bringing its unique expertise and abilities to the aid of the critically threatened battlefields of America’s first century.

With more than 1,000 acres now saved through Trust-led efforts, the Perryville Battlefield is largely substantively complete. Moreover, the state has made significant headway reintroducing native plant species to 625 acres of Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, which will, in turn, encourage populations of native birds and other animals to return.

Development on the Manassas Battlefield was a major flashpoint in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It dominated Volume 1, Issue 1 of APCWS’s Hallowed Ground newsletter and went all the way to the halls of Congress. A controversial legislative taking saved Stuart’s Hill and helped keep the park an island of green. It also inspired federal infrastructure to support and fund battlefield preservation.

In July 2002, CWPT “went to war” against a developer who sought to build 2,350 residences and 2.4 million square feet of commercial space on hallowed ground at Chancellorsville. The plan sparked massive community outcry, including hundreds of protestors at a candlelight vigil in the now outside a county board of supervisors meeting. The Coalition to Save the Chancellorsville Battlefield ultimately brokered a win-win-solution and, in 2006, the Trust’s 215-acre First Day at Chancellorsville battlefield park opened to the public.