The National Park Service (NPS) announced it will award more than $4.5 million in an effort to protect 193 acres at a pair of important Civil War battlefields in Virginia.
According to a March 30 release, a total of $4.54 million has been awarded as part of Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants. $660,500 will be awarded to Chaffin’s Farm/New Market Heights Battlefield in Henrico County, Virginia, to preserve 49.09 acres of land.
The Second and Third Winchester Battlefield in Frederick County, Virginia, is getting $3.88 million to preserve 144.62 acres.
“Battlefields are hallowed spaces where every American can honor the history that has shaped and defined our nation,” NPS Director Charles Sams III said. “The state and local government partners that receive American Battlefield Protection Program grants are dedicated to ensuring that unparalleled battlefield landscapes across the country are protected for generations to come.”
The New Market Heights Battlefield is home to Haskins Farm, where Black soldiers, part of the United States Colored Troops, raised mounds of earth to build barriers to defend themselves and win the Battle of New Market Heights, according to a release by NPS.
The 22nd Division was able to push Confederate troops out of an 800-foot area that led to a Union victory at the site and an eventual capture of Richmond. The battle took place Sept. 29, 1863.
An easement granted to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation will go toward preserving the woodland ecosystem and the surviving Confederate earthworks area at the site.
The other grant is to protect 144.62 acres of the McCann property, which was where the second and third battles of Winchester, Virginia, took place.
The grant will protect an area where “in September 1864, Union forces hoped to re-capture Winchester for the final time and launched an attack on Confederate defenses of the city," the NPS release said.
"In one of the largest cavalry charges of the Civil War, mounted federal troops collided with Confederate cavalry and infantry on the McCann property. The Union charge successfully contributed to the Confederate’s final withdrawal from Winchester on Sept. 19, 1864,” according to NPS.
All is funded through the American Battlefield Protection Program Grants. The awards were made possible by the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
