Racing to Preserve Buckland Church

Buckland Church at Buckland Mills battlefield has been hosting Sunday services for over 160 years.

Buckland Church, courtesy of the VA DCR.

Recipient: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

Amount: $ 55,000
Acres: 1

Crossing Broad Run on the morning of October 19, 1863, Union cavalry advanced against what appeared to be the rearguard of a Confederate screening force led by Major General J.E.B. Stuart. Unknown to the Union Commander - Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick, the Confederates had prepared a trap. As half of Kilpatrick’s command was drawn away to the southwest, Confederate cavalry attacked near Buckland Mills, isolating the Union troops from reinforcements. Outnumbered and in danger of being surrounded, the Union line broke, causing such a severe route, the Confederates derisively named the Union retreat the “Buckland Races.”

The property protected today by a Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant awarded to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and their preservation partner, the Conservation Fund, is near the center of the Buckland Mills battlefield and is occupied by a small historic church. Used during the battle as a Union command post, and possibly a field hospital, this house of worship still hosts services for a local congregation. The building and its small cemetery will now be protected from development in perpetuity by a conservation easement, adding to the nearly 160 acres of surrounding land already preserved in partnership with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grant opportunities: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, and the Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation Grants. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.