Battlefield preservation charges ahead

Almost 150 years later, there's still plenty of fighting going on over Civil War battlefields.

A 20-year battle to preserve the Resaca Battlefield in Gordon County, Ga., and another effort to save land where re-enactors gather in Bridgeport, Ala., underscore the challenges preservation groups face even as they come up on the heralded 150th anniversary events.

"It's not something to get into if you're depressed easily," said Charlie Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

In Bridgeport, the Tennessee Valley Authority wants to buy a family farm where a re-enactment has been held for 16 years. In Resaca, plans to turn the battlefield into a state historic site have stalled and nearly fell through, although the plans are back on track.

Because many Civil War battles happened near key transportation hubs or important geographic features, many battlefields are "under siege from development," said Mary Koik, a spokeswoman for the Civil War Preservation Trust.

"Those places are still in demand today just as they were in the 1860s," she said.

At the same time, however, local governments and preservation groups are trying to build and promote their resources in time to draw tourists for 150th anniversary events.

Mary Ann Peckham, executive director of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, said there is "growing interest in battlefield preservation."

"I think that's only going to increase," she said.

Ms. Koik agreed.

"That period is just really on people's minds right now," she said.

The 150th anniversary is different from those in the past because ties to the past rapidly are disappearing.

"There's no substitute for actually going out and walking the ground where history happened," Ms. Koik said. "If we don't (preserve) it now, our children and our grandchildren for that 200th anniversary aren't going to have the same opportunity."