After serving 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Manuel Lujan of New Mexico was named secretary of the interior by George H.W. Bush in 1989. In July 1990, during the 129th anniversary commemorations for the Battle of First Manassas, he responded to costly emergency preservation efforts at that field and the loss of other important historic landscapes by proposing the creation of a federal commission to study the status of Civil War battlefields. As part of this vision, the American Battlefield Protection Program was established within NPS in 1991, and the landmark “Report of the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission” was released in 1993.
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The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 52,000 acres in 24 states!
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