By David A. Graham
As the U.S. gets ready to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, there’s still a fierce battle raging between preservationists and developers. Battlefields once located deep in the countryside are threatened by urban sprawl or industrial operations, and in many cases the national parks established to protect them don’t include major stretches of land where Northern and Southern forces fought and died. (Read more about the struggle.) Here are a few of the battlefields that are under the gun—or have already seen acreage eaten up. Shown here is a cannon at Gettysburg, the site of the Civil War’s turning-point event in July 1863.