House Votes to Acquire Civil War Battle Site
The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to have the government take a developer’s 542-acre tract of land adjacent to a historical Civil War battlefield in nearby Virginia.
By a vote of 307 to 98, the House approved a bill to acquire the land of a developer who has proposed a shopping complex, add the tract to the 4,600-acre Manassas National Battlefield Park, close two roads running through the battlefield and build new roads around the park.
The measure now goes to the Senate for action. No similar bill has been introduced there.
The Administration opposes the measure as being too costly. One of the major floor debates was the cost of the measure--estimated from $15 million to $100 million--versus the preservation of American heritage.
Historians and preservationists complain that the development site includes a bluff from which Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee commanded Southern troops in the Second Battle of Manassas.
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