FRANKLIN (AP) — The National Park Service is awarding $637,500 to help buy and preserve part of a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee that has been threatened by development.
The Park Service announced Thursday that the Franklin Battlefield will receive an American Battlefield Protection Program grant.
The award helps the city of Franklin, the American Battlefield Trust and Franklin's Charge preserve less than an acre of land.
The American Battlefield Trust says it has saved 178 acres (72 hectares) at the Franklin Battlefield, with an opportunity to save more. For example, a site with a Pizza Hut on it was bought and restored in 2005. A strip mall was secured in 2012.
The trust says the Union victory at the Battle of Franklin in 1864 included more than 2,300 Union deaths and 6,200-plus Confederate casualties.