PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- The National Park Service has awarded more than $1.2 million in grants to preserve and protect 100 battlefield properties across the nation.
“These lands,” NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis said in a prepared statement, “are symbols of individual sacrifice and national heritage that we must protect so that this and future generations can walk these places and understand the struggles that define us as a nation.”
Virginia received three of the grants.
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation won $61,500 to “create a new battlefield preservation and planning website … in preparation for the Civil War Sesquicentennial,” the NPS reported.
The website will include a mapping application for the 15 battlefields located in the Shenandoah Valley.
Shenandoah Valley Network, meanwhile, was given $21,500 to “secure improved local zoning and planning in two Shenandoah Valley counties,” according to the NPS. “The effort will preserve the rural character, agricultural base and national and historic resources on which the futures of six nationally significant Civil War battlefields depend.”
And finally, Stafford County was selected to receive $77,700 to help recognize one of the first naval engagements of the Civil War, the Battle of Aquia Creek.
At this site, considered a gateway between the cities of Richmond and Washington, Union and Confederate forces fired nearly 1,000 rounds.
“This project,” NPS reported, “will conduct an archeological survey that will include underwater archeology and will produce a National Register nomination application.”
Acceptance onto the National Register opens the door to even more federal funding.
Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-530-3903.
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