Your preservation dollars at work

The Civil War Preservation Trust has clamped down on news about its deal to buy 140 acres of Chancellorsville battlefield land from developer Tricord. Yesterday, there was a deadline; Central Virginia Battlefield Trust was due to turn over $250,000 to CWPT to help pay for the land. We do not know if the land has been paid for, the deal done, or whether there are sales contingencies tied to payment dates.

That's not information worth putting up on a website.

Meanwhile, a surprise announcement from faraway Wirral and Liverpool, England:

... they have been named an American Civil War Heritage Site, only the second place outside the US to achieve this. Both local authorities are now mapping out a tourist trail incorporating historical sites on both sides of the Mersey.

Howso?

CWPT have made this designation; and for anyone asking "by what authority?" - the Liverpool paper says they are "a historical group backed by the White House."

I kid you not. CWPT, "A historical group backed by the White House."

Nor is this a project devised by Englishmen. "The decision was made by the White House-sponsored Civil War Preservation Trust."

The White House again. Hey, Liverpool, show me the business cards these folks were passing out. I'd love to see them.

The newswriter notes that

A delegation from the group will visit Merseyside later this year to make the official presentation.

The first of many such trips, I'm sure. And you know that other famous Civil War battlefield, Cherbourg, France, is just a short hop across the water. CWPT designated that an ACW site, too.

Please don't write me explaining Cherbourg's and Liverpool's Civil War connections; I think I know this better than even the historians of the White House-backed Civil War Preservation Trust. I also know what patronage is, what junkets are, and what people who donate for the preservation of battlefield land have in mind when they write checks.

This Liverpool item has not found its way into the American press yet. Not worth a news release stateside, I guess. Here's the foreign link.

Prediction: Nassau, Bahamas, will be the next ACW historic site designated by the CWPT. ("Here's where the blockade runners drank their mint juleps.") Meanwhile, business trips to France and England are not cheap. Donate generously.

(And whenever CWPT feels it appropriate to tell you what your Chancellorsville donation bought, whether or not they now own Tricord's 140 acres, they'll get around to that. It's been kind of hectic lately.)