The National Park Service recently announced the award of 32 grants totaling $1,367,144 to assist in the preservation and protection of America’s significant battlefield lands. With an increase in funding this year, the grant program was able to support a dozen more projects than in 2007, projects that will help preserve more than 100 battlefields nationwide.

This year’s grants provide funding for projects at endangered battlefields from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Second Seminole War, Civil War, World War II and various Indian Wars. Awards were given to projects in 24 states or territories entailing archeology, mapping, cultural resource survey work, documentation, planning, education and interpretation.

Priority was given to those groups submitting applications for nationally significant battlefields. The majority of awards were given to battlefields listed as Priority I or II sites in the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation’s Civil War Battlefields and the Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States.

The National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) administers these grants. Federal, state, local, and tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions are eligible to apply for these battlefield grants each year.