Digging With The National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program - New Battlefield Research To Start The Next 100 Years

DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas Scott.

As conflict archaeologists have developed techniques for documenting where and how battles took place, battlefield research has moved from documentation and description of past warfare to behavioral and experience assessment of those who were involved. To understand the actions of combatants, archaeologists need conceptual tools that can explain the physical record of conflict. Battlespace is a conceptual tool that has the potential to aid in that explanation. As presented in modern military...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Kirk.

In the early morning of May 29, 1813, British and Canadian provincial troops launched an amphibious assault on the American shipbuilding facility and fortifications at Sackets Harbor on Lake Ontario in northern New York. An ABPP grant sponsored a wide-scale metal-detecting survey of the battelfield and detailed artifact analysis of the resulting assemblage. Besides shedding new light on the battle’s controversial narrative, the study also subjected musket balls to blood-residue analysis to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Philip Shiman. Julia Steele. David Lowe.

The last year of the Civil War witnessed a dramatic change in military tactics from open-field fighting to trench warfare as the soldiers increasingly covered themselves with fortifications on the battlefield, leading to the entrenched gridlock at Petersburg.  When under fire or if combat was imminent, the soldiers used an innovative process in which they fortified progressively, starting with basic shelters and gradually building them up into complex and impregnable earth-and-wood defenses. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rita F. Elliott. Daniel Elliott.

Explore nine conflict archaeology projects funded through the American Battlefield Protection Program that have created myth-busting, fact-finding, context-developing, landscape-defining, community-collaborating results! The LAMAR Institute’s work on these projects in Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina encompassed Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, and other conflict archaeology sites. Project areas lay in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Presenters examine the tangible successes of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth S. Vehmeyer.

Created in 1991, the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) promotes the preservation of significant historic battlefields associated with wars on American soil. The ABPP provides professional assistance to individuals, groups, organizations, or governments interested in preserving historic battlefield land and sites associated with battles. The ABPP also awards grants to groups, institutions, organizations, or governments sponsoring preservation projects at historic battlefields;...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Selig. Wade Catts. Matthew Harris.

After a series of military disasters that threatened to end the Revolution, the Battle of Princeton was the first American victory in the field against British regulars and followed on the success of the first Battle of Trenton ten days earlier. A comprehensive mapping study funded by the American Battlefield Protection Program offers a reinterpretation of the battle through the use of documentary, graphic, and archeological resources, and the correlation of the historical record with the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle D. Sivilich. Gary D. Ellis.

Gulf Archaeology Research Institute, a nonprofit scientific research organization, has a 20-year history of integrating biological and physical sciences to better understand and protect Florida’s vanishing natural and cultural resources. Population growth, development, and natural threats from sea level rise to climate change are all rapidly diminishing our cultural resources. Necessity has required innovative approaches to understand and protect historic landscapes. Partnering with the Seminole...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Jacobson. Nina Versaggi.

The inclusion of community is vital for the protection of historic sites.  However, issues related to present day property rights, economic development, and historic struggles can present obstacles for integrating communities into a preservation project. The Revolutionary War’s Sullivan-Clinton campaign involves a complex history centered on the violent conflict between Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Delaware, and Continental forces.  Historic tensions between the Haudenosaunee and the American and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lori Frye. Edward Salo. Benjamin Resnick.

The Battle of Ewa Plain began in the morning of December 7, 1941 and was part of the larger surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on United States military forces stationed at Pearl Harbor. Home to the former Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), Ewa, and several plantation villages, this area was subjected to waves of strafing by Japanese aircraft. Working closely with local preservationists, a National Register nomination was prepared for the battlefield including a somewhat novel KOCOA...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven D Smith.

Battlefield, or Conflict Archeology, has made great progess in South Carolina thanks largely to the American Battlefield Protection Program funding and guidance.  This paper summarizies numerous successful efforts to identify, delineate, and preserve South Carolina's battlefields.  In many cases, these efforts have gone beyond preservation; initiating and investigating research questions that have resulted in important new knowledge.  This paper concludes with a few personal observations on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin A. McBride.

The National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program has provided funding to research and document several battlefields associated with the Pequot War (1636-1637) and King Philip's War (1675-1676) in southern New England. These battlefield surveys have yielded hundreds of battle-related objects including weapons, projectiles, equipment, and personal items associated with the Colonial and Native American combatants. These battlefield surveys have also provided significant information...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen L. McMasters.

Since its inception, the ABPP has made over 559 planning grants with over $18 million available to preservation professionals for the long term care of battlefield resources.  Approximately 40% of those funds have driven both underwater and terrestrial archeological projects since 1996.  The vast majority of those battlefield projects have centered on resource identification, inventory, assessment and setting boundaries for aggressive resource protection.  A system of identification of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer F McKinnon. Toni Carrell. Genevieve S. Cabrera.

A recent ABPP-funded project explored community consensus building for the protection of WWII-related caves on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The project utilized radio and television public service announcements for the purpose of sharing a local message of protection and preservation of caves with the island community. This paper outlines the process of community engagement and involvement, recording privately owned WWII cave sites, developing a...