Don Pfanz
Historian and battlefield preservation advocate Don Pfanz passed away on September 2, 2025.
Donald C. Pfanz was a National Park Service historian at Petersburg National Battlefield in 1987 when he wrote a letter that led to the creation of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS) and launched the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement. Horrified by the rampant development of the battlefield at Chantilly, Pfanz called for an organization “to preserve battlefield land by direct purchase” and other means in a letter to historian Brian Pohanka on April 22, 1987. Pfanz expressed “my concern over the widespread destruction of Civil War sites in Virginia…” and “…the need for an organization whose sole purpose was to preserve Civil War sites.” The letter prompted an organizing effort that resulted in the creation of APCWS on July 17, 1987, with Pfanz as a co-founder. APCWS is one of the predecessor organizations of the American Battlefield Trust.
Born in Gettysburg, Pa., Pfanz was the son of the late Harry Pfanz, former chief historian of the National Park Service and Gettysburg National Military Park. Don Pfanz also had a lifelong career as a National Park Service historian after graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1980. He served for 32 years at Petersburg National Battlefield, Fort Sumter National Monument and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park before retiring in 2013.
Pfanz authored or co-authored 10 books on the Civil War, including Clara Barton’s Civil War; Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier’s Life; War So Terrible: A Popular History of the Battle of Fredericksburg; and Spotsylvania National Military Park and Fredericksburg: A Comprehensive Civil War Guide. He is a recipient of the American Battlefield Trust’s Edwin C. Bearss Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust’s Ralph Happel Lifetime Achievement Award in Civil War Preservation. Pfanz died at his home in Spotsylvania County, Va., on Sept. 2, 2025.
READ Central Virginia Battlefields Trust's tribute
