New Photography Book Dramatically Captures Impact Of Trust’s Preservation Mission
Jared Herr, (202) 367-1861 x7252
(Washington, D.C.) — Some of the most compelling photographs of the Civil War were taken on battlefield land saved by the American Battlefield Trust. A new book, Battlefields in Focus: Hallowed Ground Through the Camera Lens by Garry Adelman, the Trust’s Chief Historian, and Bob Zeller, the president of The Center for Civil War Photography, features dozens of these vintage photos along with modern battlefield photographs taken by the organization’s corps of volunteer photographers. The freshly published volume is currently available exclusively to donors of the Trust’s new effort to protect land across five Western Theater Civil War sites.
“So many Civil War photographs show Trust-saved battlefield land — including famous Alexander Gardner images of combat dead in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Antietam — that it was time to compile the best of them in a single volume,” said organization president David Duncan. “Referencing the many landscape features that remain 160 years later, truly emphasizes the power of place that preservation work seeks to capture.”
The 114-page book uses 115 vintage photos across 29 chapters to illustrate the benefits of battlefield preservation, with 72 modern photos showcasing the natural beauty that is saved along with it. A generous selection of then-and-now photo pairs allows readers to see wartime landscapes as they look today. Each chapter also includes brief battle summaries and a short review of the Trust’s preservation record there.
The book comes as a special offer to those helping the Trust’s crucial campaign to save land at five battlefield tracts in the Civil War’s Western Theater. From the battles at Fort Heiman and Fort Henry on the Kentucky/Tennessee border to Brown’s Ferry at Chattanooga and Spring Hill in Tennessee and Bentonville in North Carolina, each of these clashes helped propel the war toward its conclusion in 1865. The Trust’s fundraising goal from its members and supporters for this five-battlefield campaign is a modest $70,000, despite the land carrying a staggering value of $3.8 million. Through federal and state matching grants, partner organization contributions and a generous donation from one of the landowners who had long stewarded the land, every private dollar raised by the Trust will be multiplied 54 times over.
- At Fort Heiman, Kentucky, (associated with Fort Henry, Tennessee), we aim to save a small but extremely valuable waterfront tract in an area now threatened by high density residential development. In 1862, before Gen. U.S. Grant and the Union Army could achieve his objective of capturing Fort Donelson on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, he had to first conquer Fort Heiman and Fort Henry.
- At Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Trust is working to save a 31-acre tract with intact Civil War-era earthworks adjacent to already saved land at Brown’s Ferry on the Tennessee River, a crucial Union-held crossing that allowed the North to thwart a Confederate siege of the city in 1863.
- The Trust also seeks to save 12 acres of core battlefield land adjacent to preserved land at Spring Hill, Tennessee, the site of a Union victory on Nov. 29, 1864, the day before the battle at Franklin.
- And at Bentonville, North Carolina, the Trust aims to preserve two separate tracts totaling 118 acres that were key to the action in the Battle of Bentonville, a Union victory on March 19-21, 1865, that was the last major battle in the Western Theater.
The new book, Battlefield in Focus: Hallowed Ground Through the Camera Lens, is a visual tribute to the preservation accomplishments of the American Battlefield Trust, a grassroots organization started by historians nearly 40 years ago that has grown into one of the most successful historic land preservation and education organizations in the United States.
The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected nearly 60,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War across 160 sites in 25 states, from Massachusetts to New Mexico. Learn more at www.battlefields.org.
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