About the Civil War Battlefield
Preservation Program (CWBPP)

The Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program (CWBPP) is a matching grants program that promotes preservation of the most historically important Civil War battlegrounds. The program, financed through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, encourages partnerships between local governments and the private sector.

In 1993, a blue-ribbon panel created by Congress recommended that an “emergency” matching grants program be established to protect high priority Civil War battlefields. This emergency program was first funded in FY1999 through a Congressional earmark. In December 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act, which authorized funding up to $10 million a year for five years.

CWBPP matching grants are competitively awarded by the American Battlefield Protection Program, an arm of the National Park Service (NPS). Because only a small percentage of America’s Civil War battlefields are preserved within the Park Service, CWBPP is used to target hallowed ground outside NPS boundaries (and thus does not contribute to NPS maintenance costs).

CWBPP’s matching grants formula encourages both public and private sector investment in battlefield protection. The program preserves historic sites by working with willing sellers when properties become available. CWBPP matching grants can be used for both fee simple and easement acquisition. The Civil War Preservation Trust is the primary nonprofit advocate of the program.

In the summer of 2007, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House and Senate to reauthorize this successful land conservation program. In the House, Congressmen Gary Miller (R-CA) and Bart Gordon (D-TN) introduced the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act of 2007 (H.R. 2933) with the support of 22 original cosponsors. In the Senate, Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) introduced a similar bill (S. 1921) with 17 original cosponsors. Both bills reauthorize funding up to $10 million a year for five years, through FY2013.

CWBPP grants have been used to save 14,000 acres of hallowed ground in 14 states. Among the sites saved as a result of this program are historic properties at Antietam and South Mountain, Md.; Champion Hill, Miss.; Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and Manassas, Va.; Chattanooga and Fort Donelson, Tenn.; and Harpers Ferry, W.Va.