Civil War Preservation Trust | Blue and Gray Education Society
Preserving the Civil War is a multifaceted endeavor and includes the writers, publishers, and producers who keep the memories alive via print and electronic media. Books like Michael Shaara's Killer Angels, Shelby Foote's trilogy, and James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom have compelled thousands of people to study the Civil War in greater detail. A torrent of new books are published each year on the subject. Many of these recent publications focus on individual units and generate interest in the Civil War among reenacters, local communities, and people who are looking for genealogical information.
Yankee and Rebel reenacters, and their families, play a key role by using living history to demonstrate how people lived and fought during the Civil War era. Additionally, movies like "Gone with the Wind," "Glory," and "Gettysburg" have dramatized The War Between the States in a different way and reach a broader audience. Both living history and theatrical productions foster increased interest in this conflict.
Today, many people are taking advantage of the new cyberspace frontier to create comprehensive web sites that cover the gamut of Civil War historiography-from broad overviews to specific topics (like medicine or photography) to regimental histories. Meanwhile, more archives and history centers are putting online their entire collections, or just listings, which has become a wonderful service for researchers.
In this section of Civil War Legacy, however, I'll primarily focus on national and local organizations that work diligently to preserve and interpret historical sites. I will first cover those associations that I have had personal contact with and branch out from there to other key groups.
Besides protecting hallowed sites and keeping the soldiers' stories alive, there are also people and organizations dedicated to preserving rare artifacts, documents, books, etc. from the Civil War. This is an area that is often overlooked but museums, dealers, private collectors, etc. play a major role in preserving the Civil War. Often their work motivates someone to delve further into a subject and write articles about the rare items they've seen firsthand. Sometimes people are so inspired that they end up writing a book about a Civil War unit based on the memorabilia that they come across–that is precisely what happened with my Patrick White collection, which spurred me on to write a history of the captain's company: Chicago's Battery Boys: The Chicago Mercantile Battery in the Civil War's Western Theater.
Battlefield Preservation Civil War Preservation TrustOne of my favorite associations is the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), which has done an incredible job of saving America's fast-disappearing battlefields. Today's organization was formed by merging the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (which I joined in 1995) with the Preservation Trust. Jim Lighthizer and his dedicated staff perform a number of valuable services including government lobbying, real estate planning, land acquisition, site transportation solutions, and education. Currently there are approximately 70,000 members in this organization. In future updates I will write more about the CWPT and the work it does to protect our Civil War sites.
The Trust produces a quarterly magazine called Hallowed Ground. This fine publication features information on key "at-risk" sites and includes summary articles on various battles. CWPT produces some excellent maps for its magazine and fund-raising campaigns, which are very useful for battlefield touring.
The need for preservation is acute. It is anticipated that most of the unprotected Civil War lands will be gone in 20 years. CWPT estimates that about 30 acres of Civil War battlefield land are destroyed each day. Ouch!
Below is a listing of highly endangered battlefields; I have put an asterisk beside the ones that CWPT is actively working on:
Civil War Preservation Trust
1331 H Street, NW
Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005
1.800.298.7878
Another group that I have actively supported is the Blue and Gray Education Society (BGES), which was started by Len Riedel. Len has developed a premier tour organization and also does a lot of work behind the scenes to produce interpretive signs for Civil War sites (e.g., North Anna, South Mountain, Cedar Creek, and Holly Springs). Len has also worked closely with Ed Bearss to sustain his legacy. One of the recent BGES projects was take videotapes from 25 of Ed's favorite battlefield tours, transcribe them (a extraordinarily difficult task), and provide them to the National Geographic Society, which is publishing a book dedicated to Ed's interpretation of Civil War history sites.
Blue and Gray Education Society
P.O. Box 129
1100 Franklin Turnpike
Danville, VA 24543-0129
1.888.741.2437
blue-grayedsoc@mindspring.com
www.blue-and-gray-education.org
