Some time back the Round Table was approached by the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) to ask if we would make a donation to help them save more land at the Gaines' Mill, Cold Harbor and Deep Bottom battlefield sites.
As those members of the ACWRT (UK) who attended, either in person or via Zoom, our AGM in November 2021 will know, we asked members to vote on whether we should make a donation and the proposal gained overwhelming support.
The Trust had already been working on saving land at these sites for some time when, a year ago, the opportunity came up to save 108 acres at the joint Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor sites.
As most of you will know, Gaines' Mill was fought in 1862 and was part of the Seven Days battles fought by George McLennan in his unsuccessful bid to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond.
Two years later, General Grant's army fought a very bloody battle at virtually the same spot.
It is very rare for two battlefields to intersect as these two do, so this is an almost unique opportunity to help saves two vital bits of Civil War land at the same time.
In addition to this, the chance to save 51 acres at the Battle of Deep Bottom which took place during General Grant's ongoing attemps to besiege Petersburg and then for the Confederates to abandon Richmond and effectively lose the war, also came up.
This was too good an opportunity to support the ABT to save land at three battlefield sites at the same time.
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