Emanuel “Tersh” Boasberg III

Since the first years of the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement, Tersh Boasberg has been a tireless advocate for saving hallowed ground. Boasberg, a Harvard Law School graduate and Washington, D.C., lawyer specializing in preservation and land-use issues, provided the legal muscle for the Save the Battlefield Coalition, Annie Snyder’s grassroots organization that defeated a mall on the Manassas battlefield. He helped start the Brandy Station Foundation and worked closely with preservationist and fellow Bearss honoree Clark B. Hall to defeat plans for a race track and a massive residential/industrial development on the Brandy Station battlefield. His call for a study of the state of battlefield preservation, published in The Washington Post in 1992, helped lead to the establishment of the congressional Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. From 2000 to 2011, Boasberg chaired the District of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Review Board.