Nearly 136 years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, many Tennesseans are still fighting.
But in today's battle, preservationist are pitted against commercial and residential development in an ongoing struggle to save the state's Civil War battle sites.
Throughout the state, land that was once witness to some of the most savage, gallant and storied fighting during the war is now littered with mini-malls and residential homes, according to Lee Millar.
Millar, who is a board member of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, said unless the citizens of this state make a commitment to the preservation of the battlefields, many remnants of the war that helped define this nation will be swallowed up by the current development sprawl and lost forever.
"An acre of this state's battlefields are bulldozed every 10 minutes," Millar said.
While many of the threatened battlefields are nationally registered as historical sites, federal funding to preserve them is largely unavailable, leaving the organization as the sole competitor with developers to gain ownership of the land.
In addition, many of the sites are currently being commercially zoned, which has inflated the property value, and has rendered the preservationist largely incapable of competing with the superior financial resources of developers.
"In just a few short years, the property value of many of the battlefields has skyrocketed," Millar said. "We certainly need help, but for now we can save one acre at a time."
There were about 3,000 documented engagements of mortal combat between Union and Confederate forces on Tennessee soil, with Shiloh being the only one to remain unscathed by the pressures of development, and protected by federal law, according to Millar.
Despite the preservationist efforts to keep some of the battlefields away from developers, the incredible cost of the land has warranted a "Battlefield for Sale" campaign from the organization, asking private citizens to donate funds to save some of Tennessee's hallowed ground.
While the TCWPA, as well as other organizations, have been successful in saving many of the more historically significant areas of many battlefields, others will likely be lost in the shuffle.
For instance, the battlefields at Gettysburg, Pa., and Franklin, Tenn., where scores of men clashed and died for their respective countries, are currently at high risk of being lost.
"The very spot where thousands of soldiers, including six generals, engaged in some of the most ferocious fighting the war had seen, and died, is now home to a Pizza Hut and an industrial park in Franklin, Tennessee," Millar said.
In Franklin, people who want to stroll among the historical enclaves of the site must look past the bright lights of the industrial park, to visualize the ferocious affair that occurred there on a cold November Tennessee morning.
While there are still about 2,000 salvageable acres of battlefields in the state, the total price for the properties is in excess of $8 million.
"We know that we are unable to save all of the remaining land, but we are not about to walk away from our heritage and history," Millar said.
