Groups seek to save hallowed ground in Princeton

PRINCETON - The battle was going against the Americans.

Gen. Hugh Mercer was knocked to the ground when his horse was shot out from under him. He was surrounded by advancing British troops and bayoneted seven times.

American soldiers were falling back in disarray when "a tall man on a white horse could be seen galloping toward the scene of battle," wrote historian Richard M. Ketchum.

Gen. George Washington had arrived. He rode between the lines, calling out to his men, "Will you give your general to the enemy?"

The bold move helped turn the tide at the Battle of Princeton on Jan. 3, 1777, leading to a patriot victory.

Now another battle is being fought, to save those grounds and others where history was made during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

The effort is being led by two national historic-preservation advocacy groups, the Civil War Trust and the American Revolution Institute of the Society of Cincinnati, that are to announce their initiative - and plans to purchase more than four acres of the battlefield - at noon Tuesday, Veterans Day, next to the Princeton Battle Monument.

They will be joined by members of the Princeton Battlefield Society and state and local officials.

The national effort - called Campaign 1776, a project of the Civil War Trust - follows the organization's preservation of 40,000 Civil War battlefield acres in 20 states over the last three decades. The trust raised millions of dollars in private donations to purchase the land.

Now, in partnership with the National Park Service and other groups, it's working on three fronts - three wars.

It will start in New Jersey and work with the state Green Acres program and the municipality of Princeton to raise $1 million by the end of the year to purchase the land for Princeton Battlefield State Park.

"The truth is, we would have preferred another organization to take up the cause, but none came forward - and it's now or never," said Jim Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Trust and Campaign 1776. "We're the best at preservation.

"What better way to honor the memory of our veterans than to save the places where they created history, where they fought and died," said Lighthizer, whose Campaign 1776 is to donate $25,000 and begin accepting other donations.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress - and will likely come up for a vote in 2015 - to provide federal funds to match private donations to purchase Revolutionary War and War of 1812 tracts in the same way money is provided for Civil War battlefields, said Mary Koik, a spokeswoman for the Civil War Trust.

The trust had been discussing expanding its preservation efforts into other wars when it was approached in 2013 by the National Park Service, which had completed a study of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields.

"They asked us to get involved," said Lighthizer. "We looked at it and wondered, how are we going to do it?

"It was a significant undertaking," he said. "We decided to make it a special project of the Civil War Trust."

Large donors came forward, providing $300,000 toward the Campaign 1776 project's operations. The trust hopes to raise a total of $800,000 by March.

The Princeton Battlefield seemed a good place to begin, since it was a key clash, "the first American victory over British regulars by Washington," said Lighthizer, whose great-great-great-grandfather George Lighthizer, a German indentured servant, fought at Princeton. "This was enormous in American history."

The land is privately owned. Its purchase would protect it from potential development, according to officials.

The wider preservation effort is focused on 10,000 to 15,000 acres of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battlefields across the nation, while 200,000 to 250,000 acres of Civil War battlegrounds remain, Lighthizer said.

There are fewer acres for the earlier wars because the armies were smaller and more years have passed, allowing for development.

Campaign 1776 hopes to save two to four sites in 2015 and five to six in 2016, officials said.

"Beyond the highways and the strip malls, some of our great historic places survive, substantially as they were 150 or 250 years ago. . . . And in too many cases, they survive unprotected," said Jack D. Warren Jr., executive director of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of Cincinnati, in a statement. The society was formed by Continental Army officers in 1783 to perpetuate the memory of their service.

"We can save these battlefields where our independence was won, but we have to do it now," Warren said. "We cannot have this conversation in 50 years. We cannot have it in 20, and in some cases, we cannot have it in 10."