Existing comment:
An Enduring Legacy
The largest, most significant artifact of the soldiers' legacy is the landscape itself. In the 1880s, veterans from both North and South felt strongly that the fields of the American Civil War should be preserved. The battlefields would serve as outdoor classrooms to visit, learn and remember.
The legislation that helped create this battlefield stated:
"A nation should preserve the landmarks of its history. The field on which the battle took place is practically unchanged from what it was on the day of the action, save the cutting down of some trees, and presents today, as it did in 1862, the most open field on which was fought any of the great battles of the rebellion, a field of which the eye at one sweep can take in all points. It is proposed to maintain the field in the same condition as to roads, fields, forests, and houses."
-- Committee on Military Affairs, February 28, 1891 |