From Civil War Trust/American Battlefield Trust:
There are a handful of preservation projects that I would categorize as organization defining, and the $12-million effort to protect the Slaughter Pen Farm at Fredericksburg tops the list. Today, at long last, it is a singular honor to declare victory on this 16-year fundraising campaign!
No, you’re not dreaming: After 16 long years of asking for your help to pay off the largest and most complex private battlefield preservation effort in the nation’s history, the American Battlefield Trust owns the 208-acre site deemed by historian Frank O’Reilly as “the very heart and soul” of the Fredericksburg Battlefield free and clear. Thanks to your outpouring of support and the generosity of an anonymous major donor, we made the final payment on our loan in May, two years early.
Although the Battle of Fredericksburg is most famous for the doomed Union assault on Marye’s Heights, the fight was won and lost further south, as troops in blue and gray struggled across an undulating farm field and toward the slopes of Prospect Hill. The intense fighting on the south end of the Fredericksburg battlefield produced some 9,000 casualties, many of whom fell on a piece of ground dubbed "the Slaughter Pen" by soldiers and locals alike.
Over the years, the Trust was able to successfully discourage inappropriate development proposals targeting the site until, in early 2006, 208 acres of farmland were put up for sale on the open real estate market, advertised as the “prime light industrial development site in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” They carried an alarming purchase price of $12 million. But with a history as rich as this, we couldn’t let the lofty price tag scare us away, nor could we bow to a seller adverse to preservationists.
It was time to be bold and get creative. The tale of how we secured and ultimately paid for this land is dramatic and unexpected, involving preservation-friendly housing developers actively working on our behalf, a groundswell of dynamic local activism and bankers willing to offer remarkably generous financing terms. Truly, the story occupies an entire chapter of Fighting the Second Civil War, the book that tells the history of the modern battlefield preservation movement.
Plenty of people thought we were in over our heads! Closing occurred in June 2006, and we proceeded to use all available resources to pay off the loan — from federal matching funds via the American Battlefield Protection Program to a noteworthy contribution from the Commonwealth to the sale of Virginia tax credits to a remarkable $1 million pledge from our friends at the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. We even took advantage of the ups and downs in the economy to refinance our loan, saving us several percentage points — and tens of thousands of dollars in interest.
But the key to our success has always been you! Nearly half of the $12 million raised for Slaughter Pen Farm was through private funds, with many donors expressing their passion and generosity in the form of recurring gifts that chipped away at the loan. Tens of thousands of individual donors contributed to this project and I am thankful to each and every one.