CWPT, Officials Celebrate Virginia’s Preservation Record
The public-private partnership that led to the preservation success was recalled and celebrated on March 24 during a press conference at the scene of the bloody Dec. 13, 1862, battle. The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) invited key Virginia state officials to promote battlefield preservation and be acknowledged for their role in preserving the Slaughter Pen Farm where the Union almost won the Battle of Fredericksburg. Unlike the complete failure of Union troops to cross the Sunken Road and seize Marye’s Heights on the northern end of the battlefield, Union troops at the southern end penetrated the Confederate lines and nearly won before being turned back by a fierce counterattack at the Slaughter Pen Farm. In 2006, the largest ever single purchase of land for historic preservation took place as the farm’s 208 acres were purchased by the CWPT, backed by a coalition of partners, for $12 million. Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine was the press conference featured speaker. He explained the centrality of the Old Dominion’s role in the war and, by implication, in preservation as well. “The Commonwealth was home to one third of all the definitive battles in the Civil War,” Kaine said, noting that the state with the next most sites, Tennessee, was home to fewer than 10 percent of the battles. “So Virginia is the place where this epic struggle to define what America was took place.” Kaine said the 123 significant battlefields in Virginia originally encompassed 1.1 million acres. “Today, 710,000 of those acres still survive with enough integrity to make them worthy of protection.” He said, “Only 74,000 of the acres (about 10 percent) are protected by governments and non-profit organizations. The remaining 636,000 acres are at risk – at risk of development, at risk of being lost to all future generations.” When Kaine took office in 2006, he announced an ambitious goal to preserve 400,000 acres of “open space” land by the end of his four-year term (governors are limited to one term in Virginia). Kaine clarified at the press conference that the 400,000 acres are not just any “open space.” “We want to put a particular focus on spaces that are either ecologically significant or historically important.” Civil War battlefield land fits into Kaine’s larger goal. (A state Web site tallies nearly 330,000 acres preserved to date.) The governor touted the economic benefits of historic preservation and of Civil War battlefields that bring visitors and tourism dollars to the state. “The Virginia Tourism Corporation says that Civil War visitors are spectacular guests that are energetic, they’re respectful, they’re involved, they’re willing to stay in our area longer than other travelers,” Kaine said. Such visitors support local jobs, spend tens of millions of dollars and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenues for state and local governments. Property owners can reap economic benefits when they donate their land for historic preservation through the Land Preservation Tax Credit program for easements on historic properties. Kaine ticked off statistics showing his administration’s Civil War battlefield preservation successes. In 2006 the General Assembly established the Civil War Historic Site Preservation Fund. The Department of Historic Resources (DHR) holds easements on 24 Civil War battlefields protecting over 2,400 acres, he said. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, whose board the governor appoints, has protected more than 490 acres of Civil War battlefields in the last three years. Kaine said these include parts of Cool Springs, Amelia Springs, Trevilian Station and the Saltville battlefields. “All combined over the last three years in the Commonwealth, we have awarded about $6.5 million in state funds – grants – to protect 2,100 acres on 26 tracts at 16 different battlefields, including a $500,000 contribution to the purchase right here at Slaughter Pen Farm.” Kaine recalled how CWPT offered to match Virginia grant money two-for-one if the state would put up $5 million. Working with state House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell, who attended the press conference, Kaine found a way to meet CWPT’s challenge last year. “We put $5 million in the budget in a tough time when we were making other cuts, to try to preserve these beautiful spaces, and it was overwhelmingly supported by legislators of both parties,” according to the governor. CWPT President Jim Lighthizer praised many people who have helped preserve battle land, including Kaine and Howell and state Senator Edd Houck and Kathleen Kilpatrick, Director of the Department of Historic Resources, both of whom spoke. Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant drew Lighthizer’s praise, as did Bryan Mitchell with the federal American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) administered through the National Park Service. Kaine had pointed out earlier how the ABPP has preserved 7,100 acres in Virginia. The Central Virginia Battlefield Trust (CVBT) “is a great private partner,” Lighthizer commented. The CVBT has acquired land on all four of the Fredericksburg area’s battlefields. Mike Jones, of Tricord Homes Inc., a Fredericksburg developer, was critical to the Slaughter Pen Farm success, Lighthizer said. The property owner would not sell to the CWPT, but Jones “got the contract and he gave us that contract and he didn’t mark it up a nickel.” Continuing the story of how the Slaughter Pen Farm deal came together, Lighthizer said, “Then we went to SunTrust Bank, who had no business making a $12 million full value loan to a non-profit like us, but C.T. Hill, [SunTrust Mid-Atlantic Chairman and CEO] had the courage to do that, and we were able to get the financing.” “The consequence is we got to save one of the more important pieces of heritage land in the United States of America,” Lighthizer said.
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