At the Trust, we’ve spent the last few months working to secure highly-threatened tracts of land and funding for one of our most critical Western Theater campaigns in Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Stones River.
This is one of the best chances we will ever have to hold the developers at bay and secure two decisive preservation victories!
Last year, Tennessee had its largest population growth in 15 years, placing a major strain on Western Theater battlefields, including the two I’m sharing more about today.
For example, in Murfreesboro, where the Battle of Stones River took place, there are new housing tracts and shopping centers sprouting up everywhere in one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
Seeing hallowed ground lost to development rends our hearts.
Without question, the land at Stones River will be lost to commercial or high-density apartments if it is not preserved. And the acreage at Shiloh is attractive for development, too!
When you give bulldozers to developers, it seems like nothing is sacred.
The lands where men fought, bled, and died, and the places where America’s history was shaped and defined, are deeply sacred to me, and I know they’re sacred to you, Paul.
Besides, history teaches that the opening days of a battle don’t always determine the victor. That’s true of Shiloh, and it’s true of Stones River as well.
The two large parcels of land we are working to acquire and preserve right now both played crucial roles in those early hours and days when no one knew what the outcome of the battles, and the Civil War itself, would be!
We must act now.
With more than $8 million in anticipated government grants and pledged gifts, we have $421,000 to raise to see this land preserved forever. This means your gift to save this at-risk land in Tennessee will be multiplied by a factor of 20!
Help preserve 184 acres of hallowed ground at two of the bloodiest battles of the entire Civil War by making donation today.
‘Til the battle is won,
David N. Duncan
President
American Battlefield Trust