Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating, and Registering America's Historic Battlefields. National Register Bulletin

摘要

Battlefields represent some of our nation's most significant historic properties. Our nation achieved independence through the trial of battle, and military action often determined the very boundaries of this country. The momentous decision of whether we would remain one country or two was settled by war. The great clash of cultures between the first Americans and the later European settlers was determined in military engagements. Battlefields are an important type of cultural landscape. They are places that have been profoundly marked by human endeavor. While the significance of many battlefields derives from a brief and extraordinarily violent moment in time, the basic principles for identifying, evaluating, documenting, registering, and protecting these historic properties can be applied more broadly, particularly to significant historic rural landscapes. The characteristics that define a broad range of rural landscapes natural features, land uses, vegetation, historic building types also define many battlefields.