Champion Hill not the only battle to suffer the same fate

Preservation fights going on across the nation

Kyle Marshall

DM Senior Staff writer

On some of the battlefields where the blue and the grey once fought, new battles are being waged. These often involve a clash between those who want to develop on or around a Civil War battlefield and those who want to make sure that these sites are preserved, although things aren't always that simple.

Some of the most recent fighting is happening in Georgia, where Bill Torpy, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote less than two weeks ago of a case where Georgia wants to preserve the Battle of Resaca, which is about 70 miles outside of Atlanta. The site is in the hands of Scott Fletcher, the CEO of American Weavers, and it appears that it will remain there. Torpy reported that the state of Georgia was hoping to purchase the part of Fletcher's land on which the battle took place.

"The pristine site, which abuts I-75 about 70 miles north of Atlanta and has miles of surviving trenches and earthen fortifications, had historians, war buffs and state officials salivating at the prospect of preserving it as a commemorative battlefield," Torpy wrote.

The state pulled out of negotiations to buy the part of Fletcher's land on which the battle took place after it was decided that an agreement could not be reached. "I just don't want a state park in my front yard," Fletcher is quoted as saying.

Another place with a similar controversy is at the site where the Battle of Gettysburg took place in Pennsylvania. Plans for a new visitor center have been proposed, but not everyone supports the idea.

Mary Leonard of the Boston Globe wrote that although a new visitor center would probably be an improvement on the old one, one group does not like the plans because, in their current form, a few older buildings would have to be torn down to make space for the new one.

Leonard also reports that since the old visitor center was located in the town, restaurants and tourist shops dependent on visitors for business also don't like the new site because it will be located in the park, not in town.

But Leonard also points out that a new visitor center would greatly improve the quality of the housing of Civil War artifacts, a job not well accomplished by the "14 cramped rooms uncontrolled for temperature, humidity, bugs or dust" that make up the current visitor center storerooms.

Dr. James Cooke, an Ole Miss history professor, explained that not every site can be realistically preserved, even though, as a historian, he wishes that as many could be preserved as possible. One reason is that many smaller skirmishes occurred. This can be seen by just looking at Mississippi.

"It's been said if you take every day of the year from 1862 to 1865, there is some engagement somewhere in Mississippi every day," Cooke said.

The effects of this can be seen today in the monuments around campus and town, but also in other ways. "I was planting a flower garden in my yard and dug up two mini-balls," Cooke said.

When asked if there were sites in Mississippi where preservation had been superseded by progress, he named two. "Jackson and Tupelo. The defensive lines of Jackson, for example, in the Battle of Jackson, now basically are developments, housing developments and things," Cooke said.