Clarification On Battlefield Preservation

The Civil War Preservation Trust sent out a press release late yesterday to correct information in several news stories filed immediately after a morning news conference with Va. Gov. Tim Kaine at the Slaughter Pen Farm near Fredericksburg.

Although the news conference had been billed as a major event by the Trust, it was not intended to convey that the state was putting additional funds into the preservation, according a Trust spokesman, Mary Koik.

"Today's event was meant to celebrate the outstanding work the Commonwealth has done in preserving battlefields in the last three years through the Virginia Historic Battlefield Preservation Fund," she wrote in an email.

Koik said the Trust particularly appreciated the state's $5.2 million appropriation last year for battlefield protection.

The news conference was also meant to "reiterate the state's commitment to protect battlefields across the state in the future" Koik wrote. "Slaughter Pen Farm was one of the first sites to receive funding through the state program when it was created back in 2006.We just held the event there because it's the highest profile site to benefit from the program."

"Virginia has already made a very generous contribution through the matching grant program toward the Slaughter pen campaign, but did not promise any additional money for this particular site," Koik wrote.