The American Battlefield Trust is mounting a fresh campaign to reshape local history, launching a fundraising drive to purchase roughly 40 acres of land that border the Chalmette battlefield in St. Bernard Parish. The parcel is tied to the Battle of New Orleans and would mark the first expansion of the historic site in about a century, preserving ground now boxed in by industrial development and offering historians new space to study the British approach and entrenchments from the Jan. 8, 1815 clash.
In a press release from the American Battlefield Trust, the nonprofit pegged the purchase price at $3.6 million and said it needs to raise about $1 million in private donations by Sept. 2 to close on the property and trigger federal and state matching funds. The anticipated public support includes help from the federal American Battlefield Protection Program and an award from the Louisiana Outdoors Forever Program, and the group pointed to its decades-long record of battlefield preservation across the country.
The tract, which parish assessor records list as owned by Genie Holdings LLC and zoned for industrial use, sits directly beside the Jean Lafitte park unit in Chalmette, according to NOLA.com. St. Bernard Parish President Louis Pomes told the outlet he fully backs the effort to bring the land into the national historic park.
What the Trust Is Pitching
Trust officials say the extra acreage would open up ground where British forces once staged and would let the park tell a more complete story of the 1815 battle, rather than relying only on the compact footprint currently preserved. Calling the opportunity unusually rare, David Duncan, president of the American Battlefield Trust, tied the effort to a broader arc of national history. "Just days ago, we marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence... now, we are delighted by this rare opportunity to preserve a portion of the Battle of New Orleans," Duncan said in the release from the American Battlefield Trust. The organization says the matching grants would significantly shrink the private fundraising burden if donors come through by the Sept. 2 deadline.
History On The Ground
The Chalmette unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park currently protects a relatively small slice of the battlefield and its cemetery, while much of the land that once framed the fight has been reshaped by industry and infrastructure. The National Park Service notes that the federal government acquired nearby property in the 1960s to open up sightlines for the battle's 150th anniversary commemoration, a project that included razing the Fazendeville community, and that the Chalmette battlefield was later folded into Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in 1978. Visitors today travel to the battlefield's visitor center at 1 Battlefield Road in Chalmette, where park rangers walk them through the battle and the site's complicated layers of history, according to the National Park Service.
What's Next
The American Battlefield Trust says it plans to finalize the purchase later this year if the fundraising campaign hits its mark, then team up with local and federal partners to manage and interpret the newly protected ground. Residents and history buffs who want to track the effort or chip in can find more information about the campaign and donation options through the American Battlefield Trust.
