Tweet
I think Doug Cooper has this picture posted in the Mansfield folder but I thought the story behind it would be nice to know
New Map, Land Donation Good News for Mansfield Battlefield
Feb. 11, 2004--A photograph of Louisiana's Mansfield Battlefield taken from orbit, and combined with a map of the areas where fighting took place is giving viewers a very graphic look at just how close lignite mining operations are coming to chewing up the historic site. The non-profit Friends of the Mansfield Battlefield, Austin Civil War Roundtable and Civil War Preservation Trust partnered to cover the less than $2,000 that it cost to secure the satellite photograph by DigitalGlobe Quickbird Satellite.
Gary Joiner, a historian, author and Friends president, said the satellite image would be used as an educational tool for the public, for research into individual troop locations and for further preservation activities.
The picture is graphic, clearly showing the two separate seams of lignite being stripped from the earth, one of which reaches into the Phase III battle area. A careful look can even see the massive dragline machines that scoop vehicle-sized loads of dirt to reveal the buried lignite, a low-grade coal normally used by power plants to generate electricity.
The photo was shot while the satellite orbited over the area on Dec. 20, 2003. The more than 3,000 acres that already have been mined appear in light gray and white tones in stark contrast to darker timber-covered property and pasture lands surrounding the mining operation.
Joiner told the Shreveport Times that he has already showed the picture to the John Bell Hood Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Other interested groups also are quickly lining him up as a guest speaker.
"You might think this is a DeSoto Parish issue. Absolutely not. I'm answering inquiries from Washington state, Idaho, Ohio, New York, Iowa, Illinois and California," Joiner said. "That's excluding the 256 members of the Friends. They're asking why the state is not doing anything about it and who to contact."
While the state may not be acting, a local resident has stepped up to the plate. Andrew Porter, a Shreveport dentist, agreed to sign over 42 acres in Phase 1 that sits west of state Highway 175. That brings to 220 the total number of acres now protected.
Porter retains ownership and recreational use of the family land, but he's agreed not to lease it for mining or change it through construction. The donation was arranged through provisions of the U.S. Farmland and Ranchland Protection Act, the same law which was used in a recent conservation easement near Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri.
"The land has been in the Porter family forever. I talked to the kids and the family about it, and they all agreed to this," Porter said. "It was the historical and conservation aspect that really intrigued me. ...We've found tons of bullets and other stuff there over the years."
Joiner hopes other surrounding landowners share the same thoughts. "This is the first property that's been saved that's on the Confederate side of the fighting. ... We're already talking to other landowners."
There are around 5,000 acres in the battlefield area, of which the core battlefield included roughly 3,120 acres. Phase III, considered a transitional part of the battlefield where the Union troops first collapsed, is the most threatened by mining activity. Of the 566 acres located in the section, 129 acres, or 22 percent, have been mined.
Even more would be lost if mining moves westward across state Highway 175. In Phase II, mining has touched only 13 percent of the 728 acres. The 1,827 acres in Phase 1, which includes the Mansfield State Historic Site, are untouched.
The continued mining threat led to the Civil War Preservation Trust last year putting the Mansfield battle site at the top of the most endangered Civil War battlefields in the nation. CWPT will be announcing the 2004 Endangered Battlefields list on Feb. 24.
Almost 300,000 Confederate and Union soldiers fought in the Battle of Mansfield, one of the largest battles west of the Mississippi River and one of the last Confederate victories. It also halted a planned invasion and occupation of Shreveport and Texas known as the Red River Campaign.
Comment