Celebrate Our Victories

Civil War bastion. Beacon of freedom. Neighborhood touchstone. Preservation hot button. Renaissance symbol. Fort Negley’s past may be complicated, but as the latest chapter in its story concludes, the future looks brighter than ever for this Nashville landmark. 

On December 17, 1862, the Battle of Goldsborough Bridge erupted, marking the final engagement in a series battles and skirmishes in eastern North Carolina known as Foster's Raid. Today, we celebrate the preservation of 54 crucial acres—our 160th battlefield— where the heaviest fighting of the battle took place. This land, now safeguarded for future generations, stands as an enduring tribute to the brave men who fought and fell here.

The summer of 1864 saw some of the most brutal and determined fighting of the Civil War, with now seasoned soldiers and generals resolute to bring the conflict to its end. As steadfast as the armies stood, so have we. Thanks to you, 160 years later, we can commemorate that summer of ’64 with 53 acres preserved forever associated with two of its notable battles, Reams’ Station and Second Deep Bottom.

Slaughter Pen Farm’s last modern structure, a postwar farmhouse, is now gone! After many long years, on Friday, July 26, the structure was demolished! Removal of the house is the final phase of a complex restoration process that has cleared numerous non-historic structures from the landscape over the past decade and a half, clearing the way for a new interpretive plaza and restoration of the landscape to its 1862 appearance. We couldn’t be more excited for that, and we thank YOU for your hard work, patience and generous giving that has made this moment possible. The acquisition of the Slaughter Pen Farm on the Fredericksburg battlefield in 2006 was a landmark purchase for the American Battlefield Trust. Not only was the $12 million purchase price the highest, by far, in Trust history, but the acquisition was the most complex we had ever attempted.

During its fourth annual Victory Week, which falls squarely within Historic Preservation Month, the Trust announced an impressive round-up of recent preservation victories. Composed of four battlefields in three states, the 2024 Victory Week declaration covers nearly 40 historic acres protected by the nation’s premier battlefield land preservation organization, including crucial sites in Gettysburg associated with Pickett’s Charge and the first hallowed ground saved at Chickasaw Bayou.

It’s no secret that land on and near where the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville raged in Virginia is often threatened by new developments, which is why we’re especially pleased to tell you we’ve had a big win in the area: as a result of and with your help, can now declare victory on nearly 44 acres of land associated with an iconic site at the Flank Attack during the Battle of Chancellorsville, including land associated with the original Chancellor plantation and Dowdall’s Tavern.

Sometimes big things come in small packages! We asked for your help saving a little more than 400 acres across four sacred battlefields of the Western Theater. The smallest parcel of ground included just six-tenths of an acre in Corinth, Miss.— a small plot of land that played a big role in the Battle of Corinth. Located literally across the street from the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, it was our hope to purchase the land, steward it and transfer it to the National Park Service for incorporation into the Corinth Battlefield Unit of Shiloh National Military Park. With the help of our members and donors, we’ve done just that! 

Our mission is to “Preserve. Educate. Inspire.” So, it’s not enough to just save battlefield land, we want to use it to teach and inspire future generations. In order to do that, we sometimes have to restore the landscape. We can’t just acquire lands that have been compromised and corrupted by decades of neglect and development and leave them as they are. We have to restore hallowed ground. With the help of our members, donors and partner organizations we have done that at these locations in Gettysburg, at Lookout Mountain and at Eutaw Springs.

As we commemorate the more than 22,000 casualties of the September 17, 1862, Battle of Antietam, 161 years ago on America’s Bloodiest Day, the American Battlefield Trust announced its latest victories which save nearly 150 acres of battlefield land associated with the Maryland Campaign, including the Jacob Avey Farm, some of Antietam’s most hallowed ground, and the historic farmhouse where the Avey family lived. The victory also includes six additional acres of battlefield land at Antietam, originally part of the historic Reel Farm, and 122 acres of pristine land associated with the Battle of Shepherdstown.

Our most recent victory of 144 acres saved at Bentonville, North Carolina, marks a new kind of milestone for us. With the now completed transfer of that land to the state and its incorporation into the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site, the Trust, with the help of our members and partners, has saved more than 2,000 acres of battlefield land at Bentonville, the most acres saved at any battlefield outside of Virginia and the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. Preserving this land helps us share with future generations a more complete history of the conflict.

The American Battlefield Trust’s latest Revolutionary War battlefield victories, have helped the Trust meet a new milestone: 57,000 acres of battlefield saved. Thank you! We’ve claimed victory on four more acres at Eutaw Springs, S.C., land that witnessed significant fighting September 8, 1781, between Continental Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s vanguard and British dragoons. A witness tree from the time of the battle still stands sentinel on the land we’ve just saved. We’re also announcing victory on more than a half-acre of land in North Carolina, where the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was fought, a battle many claim was “the largest and most hotly contested action” in the American Revolution’s southern theater.

Bringing back Tennessee battlefield one parcel, one acre at a time, is arduous work, but work that’s worthy of our efforts. The American Battlefield Trust’s most recent victory includes an acre saved at the epicenter of the Davis Bridge battlefield and with our partners, the Battle of Franklin Trust, the Friends of Franklin Parks, Franklin’s Charge, and Save the Franklin Battlefield, two more acres of the Franklin Battlefield. Described by Battle of Franklin Trust CEO Eric Jacobson as “one of the last available, most important unpreserved properties in Franklin,” the site was a high priority for acquisition and the Trust is proud to claim victory here while it endeavors to save additional land.