"Slaughter Pen" project

The collaboration between faith-based developers Tricord and Civil War Preservation Trust - of which I had been so critical and suspicious - has yielded a surprise bounty.

Tricord has purchased land associated with "The Slaughter Pen" at Fredericksburg at market prices when that land recently became available. Tricord is holding it for Civil War Preservation Trust, which has gone into overdrive to raise $12 million needed to gain title.

This is a very clean deal - the model of what preservation should be - leading to fee simple ownership and tourist boots on the ground. To donate, start at this page on CWPT's website.

• At the bottom of the page, you'll see a table with dollar amounts. Click one of them. Let's say you clicked $25. It will take you to a page called Donation Selector.
• You'll see an empty field for "Quantity." (This is confusing and why I wrote these directions.) Your quantity will be the number of donations you want to make. Enter the number 1. (This will eventually produce a result that is equal to 1 x $25.)
• After entering 1, click Continue.
• Donation Selector now displays a number of tables. The top table is labeled “Current Appeal”– look at the Total Amount column on the right – it should display (in this case) $25. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.

After this you will see a series of easily understood payment pages with clear instructions to follow. I could spend more time on explanations, but this should get you through the payment process.

Let's encourage CWPT in this kind of battlefield preservation.