Gettysburg Battlefield Expanded
Last Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the National Park Service has purchased a 95-acre tract of land with the help of the Civil War Trust and the Conservation Fund. The land was the site of heavy fighting that took place on July 1, 1863, on what was previously known as the “Emanuel Harman Farm.”
The purchase takes place only weeks before the Gettysburg National Military Park kicks off events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The land is located on the Chambersburg Pike west of Gettysburg, which saw heavy fighting between Union and Confederate troops on the first day of the battle.
The land was previously owned by the now-closed Gettysburg Country Club. Gettysburg Battlefield was recently listed as one of the ten most threatened Civil War battlefields. Therefore, the National Park Service, which has been trying to obtain the land for years, feels that the purchase is a major victory in its preservation efforts.
