Satellite Photo Aids Mansfield Battlefield Supporters
By Deborah Fitts

May 2004 MANSFIELD, La.

The nonprofit Friends of the Mansfield Battlefield have acquired a new tool to study the battlefield and the mining operation that is slowly gobbling it up.

A photograph from space was taken Dec. 20 expressly for the Friends by DigitalGlobe Quickbird Satellite. The Friends split the nearly $2,000 cost with two supporting organizations, The Austin Civil War Round Table and the Civil War Preservation Trust.

"This is going to be the wave of the future in preserving battlefields," said Friends President Gary Joiner. He overlaid the battle action on the photo, siting individual artillery batteries and regiments. The extent of the lignite strip mine is clearly visible, providing, Joiner said, "a snapshot" of the battlefield today against which to compare in the future.

"Up to this point nobody could estimate the size of the damage to the battlefield," Joiner said. "The lignite mine has just been chewing away. We wanted to see how much damage has been done."

The Mansfield battlefield comprises 5,000 to 6,000 acres, according to Joiner, with 3,200 acres considered "core." Of that total, 177 acres is preserved as a state park. Joiner would like to save another 1,000 acres.

The Trust has also secured an easement on 42 acres abutting the park. Some of the funding is provided by the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Act, but matching dollars must be raised.

Joiner said of the Trust, "The Friends could not ask for a better partner. They are on the side of the angels."

He said that thanks to "pressure" on the mine owner, AEP-SWEPCO, from the Friends, the Trust, the Austin round table and others, "I feel very strongly that we're going to save land that is planned for mining."

The Trust recently placed Mansfield on its annual list of the top 10 most endangered battlefields. The April 1864 battle, a Confederate victory, was the largest battle fought west of the Mississippi River.

The nonprofit Friends of the Mansfield Battlefield totals 280 individuals and groups, according to Joiner. He is a professor of history at Louisiana State University at Shreveport and a consulting historian-cartographer for the Civil War Preservation Trust.

As a fund-raising initiative, the Friends are offering a specially commissioned commemorative medallion marking the 140th anniversary of the battle this year. Information is available by contacting Friends of the Mansfield Battlefield, P.O. Box 44144, Shreveport, LA 71134.