More expensive Civil War land

The Civil War News has an article by Gregory L. Wade about yet-another land acquisition:

After many years eyeing the location, Franklin, Tennessee city and preservation leaders announced the nearly three-million-dollar purchase agreement for almost two acres adjacent to and south of the Carter House.
Franklin’s Charge, a coalition of local preservation groups active in land preservation since 2005, and the Battle of Franklin Trust, which manages both the Carter House and the Carnton Plantation, are buying the property. They have one year to raise the money and complete the transaction.
The Carter House Farm, with house and outbuildings, is considered to be the center of the heaviest fighting in the 30 November 1864 Battle of Franklin, and had long been one of the few preserved battle areas.
The tract to be purchased from Reid and Brenda Lovell, now occupied by a florist shop and dwelling, is seen as a key piece of the rising Battle of Franklin Park at Carter Hill.
The tract has long been sought as perhaps some of the most bloodied ground in American history. After the battle the ground was so littered with dead and wounded a person could walk and not touch the ground, according to historians.
Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West said of the benefit to future generations: “When we celebrate the bicentennial, even the tricentennial, Carter Hill will be here.” Carter Hill is the name given to the overall evolving park in downtown Franklin, now comprised of about twenty acres.
Among the Franklin preservationists who attended the purchase agreement signing were Franklin’s Charge co-founders Julian Bibb and Robert Hicks, longtime preservation leader Ernie Bacon, the mayor, and several aldermen.
Alderman Michael Skinner said: “We have a history in this town of getting things done and I am sure we’ll be able to complete this purchase.” Skinner was involved in other projects and is a member of the City of Franklin Battlefield Preservation Commission, a municipal advisory board made up of representatives of various preservation groups.
In his remarks to the crowd, Reid Lovell noted his five ancestors who fought at Franklin, saying: “My family and I have a hundred-and-fifty-year relationship with this property.” He said there had been other opportunities to sell the land, but it had to be “right”.
It is anticipated the Civil War Trust might be involved in an advisory capacity initially helping the local entities with their applications for possible federal grants which could be a significant component of the cost. At least one-million-plus will remain to be raised locally.
Several other tracts have been purchased in the last few years. The Civil War Trust recently contracted to buy the Eley Tract, an empty house on part of an acre, for $250,000 with closing costs. It is a short walk from the Lovell land.
The Trust asked the city to match the Trust’s $62,500 contribution to meet the required match for a $125,000 grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program.
The preservation of roughly twenty acres over the last several years, which was difficult in an urban environment, is one of the largest land reclamation success stories in American preservation history.

Rico says it's good that someone is willing to spend this kind of money...