Edward T. Wenzel

Ed Wenzel is one of the pioneers of the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement. A co-founder of both the Chantilly Battlefield Association and the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (APCWS), a predecessor of the American Battlefield Trust, he has dedicated decades to protecting and commemorating historic battlefields in Northern Virginia.

A resident of Vienna, Virginia, Wenzel was a driving force in the Save the Battlefield Coalition at Manassas, working alongside fellow preservationist Annie Snyder in the late 1980s to successfully oppose a regional shopping mall approved for the Second Manassas Battlefield.

A retired topographic map compiler with the U.S. Geological Survey, Wenzel joined fellow Edwin C. Bearss Lifetime Achievement Award honorees Clark B. Hall and Brian Pohanka in 1986 to establish the Chantilly Battlefield Association. Together, they helped save 4.1 acres at Chantilly Battlefield.

Wenzel has remained a tireless advocate for the preservation and commemoration of Civil War history, particularly in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 2015, he published the first volume of his authoritative Chronology of the Civil War in Fairfax County, documenting the county's wartime history.

Through his leadership, research and preservation efforts, Wenzel has helped protect important Civil War landscapes and advance public understanding of Northern Virginia's historic battlefields.