The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation - by Timothy B Smith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The 1890s, argues Timothy B. Smith, represented the pinnacle of battlefield preservation in America. But what makes this decade so important?

This decade was the perfect time for the establishment of these national parks. Five Civil War battlegrounds--at Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Antietam, and Vicksburg--were commemorated as national sites during this time. Just past the bitterness and racial tensions of Reconstruction and prior to the explosive growth brought on by the Second Industrial Revolution, the time was right for the war's veterans from both sides to come together, in a spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood, to lead the efforts to open the parks. As yet unmarred by development, these battlefield sites were preserved mostly intact, just how the veterans would have remembered them. To date, they represent the country's finest preserved battlefields.

Smith's book is the first to look at the process of battlefield reservation as a whole. He focuses on how each of these sites was established and the important individuals--the congressmen, the former soldiers, the veteran commissioners--who were the catalysts for the creation of these parks.

The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is a watershed book about an essential period in the history of battlefield preservation and will be of interest to any reader who wishes to have a better understanding how such preservation efforts were initiated.

Timothy B. Smith is the author of This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park and The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield. He is a former park ranger at the Shiloh National Military Park and now teaches at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Review Quotes

"As the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War fast approaches, a grateful nation is experiencing a renaissance of battlefield preservation to secure for posterity those once bloody, now hallowed, fields where Americans in blue and gray struggled and forged a nation in the crucible of war. Modern preservationist will hail the release of this work which documents with passion, power, and clarity, the efforts of those veterans that resulted in the establishment by Congress of five of the more significant battlefields as national military parks. May it also further serve to inspire the current and future generations of Americans to revere those who serve with similar gratitude and appreciation for their selfless devotion to duty." -Terrence A. Winschel, author of the two-volume Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign

"I join Edwin C. Bearss in admiration of Timothy B. Smith's fine book. These Civil War battlefields contain layers of memory, built upon this "Golden Age" of preservation, when veterans navigated the complex world of preservation politics to inscribe their memories on these grounds. It is a fascinating story, told well." -Edward T. Linenthal, author of Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields.

"Tim Smith has done it again! He has given Civil War battlefield addicts another well-researched and richly detailed study. While focusing on the creation and preservation of battlefields, cemeteries, and monuments, Smith leads us on a complex tour of nationalism and reconciliation, racism, perceptions of honor, egos, politics, vandals, and even Supreme Court decisions. Crafted with Smith's most friendly writing style, Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is essential reading for students of the Civil War and historic preservationists alike." -Dwight T. Pitcaithley, former chief historian of the National Park Service

About the Author

Timothy B. Smith is the author of This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park and The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield. He is a former park ranger at the Shiloh National Military Park and now teaches at the University of Tennessee at Martin.