American Battlefield Trust

ABOUT

The American Battlefield Trust, the leading heritage land preservation group in America, preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters. Its purpose is to inspire appreciation of America, its history, and its promise of liberty through an understanding of the wars fought on its soil, and of the sacrifices of earlier generations of Americans.

In addition to preserving and restoring historic landscapes, the American Battlefield Trust conducts programs designed to inform the public about America’s first century conflicts and the consequences of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War.  These programs include hosting a widely acclaimed National Teachers Institute each summer, creating educational content design for classroom use, and producing top quality videos that tell the inspirational stories of what happened on our nation’s battlefields.

HISTORY

The American Battlefield Trust’s roots can be traced to the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, founded in 1987 by historians and Civil War buffs in Northern Virginia to protect hallowed ground in the area from development.  In the early 1990s, it expanded its mission to include sites in Louisiana, Missouri and other Western Theater states.

In 2000, it merged with a second battlefield preservation organization, the Civil War Trust and became the Civil War Preservation Trust. Under its President, Jim Lighthizer, the joint organization set new standards of success and efficiency in battlefield land preservation. Averaging 40 acquisitions per year, to date it has preserved forever over 57,000 acres across 26 states.

Over the years, the organization expanded its mission into educational programming, focused on classroom-friendly resources and battlefield interpretation, both traditional and digital. Importantly, in 2018, the Trust received the Friend of History Award from the Organization of American Historians.

Moreover, the Trust has begun taking the additional step of restoring land to how it looked at the time of a battle.  Major efforts in this vein — removing numerous modern structures and rehabilitating the landscape — have been undertaken at Antietam, Brandy Station, Chattanooga, Petersburg, and Robert E. Lee’s Headquarters at Gettysburg.  

In 2014, the Trust expanded its mission to include preserving battlefields from the American Revolution and the War of 1812 and telling their stories. As a result, in May 2018, the Civil War Trust was rebranded as the American Battlefield Trust and continues forward with a name befitting its broader mission.

GRANT PROJECT

The Americana Corner Preserving America grant awarded to the American Battlefield Trust allowed the Trust to greatly expand its educational offerings for the American Revolution.  The grant provides fellowship funding to help emerging scholars conduct research, create and review content and perform other tasks that help to bring American Battlefield Trust products to the public.  The most visible of these are the more than 100 Revolution videos the grant has helped to fund.  These include 4-minite topical summaries, BattlefieldU, answers to basic questions, animated maps, battlefield-based videos, short videos for students and more.  The grant has also funded a dedicated website, the American Revolution Experience, a touring App for the Liberty Trail in South Carolina, five Revolution traveling trunks that crisscross the nation’s classrooms, support more Revolution coverage in our National and Virtual Teacher Institutes, have helped send more than 1,000 students to Revolution sites via our History Field Trip Grant program. and more!  

Americana Corner is proud to assist the American Battlefield Trust with its mission to preserve the Great American Story and to help our fellow citizens grow their love of country.