Civil War battlefields bill OK'd Rep. Miller's measure allocates matching grants for preservation By Bill Hillburg , Washington Bureau- The U.S. Senate Wednesday unanimously approved a measure by Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, that allocates $10 million a year to preserve and expand Civil War battlegrounds. President Bush is expected to sign M The U.S. Senate Wednesday unanimously approved a measure by Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, that allocates $10 million a year to preserve and expand Civil War battlegrounds. President Bush is expected to sign Miller's American Battlefields Protection Program Act of 2002. The Department of the Interior will provide $10 million a year in matching grants over five years to communities and private groups seeking to acquire more land at historic sites threatened by development. Miller, a keen student of the War Between the States, said he was moved to introduce the measure after visiting a battlefield in Memphis, Tenn. That site, surrounded by new housing tracts, had been reduced to a few acres. No funds are expected to be allocated in California, as no major battles were fought in the state during the war years of 1861-65. The only major Civil War site in Southern California is Drum Barracks, a preserved Union Army post in Wilmington. Miller has a nonspeaking role as a Confederate artillery officer in "God and Generals,' a Ted Turner-Warner Bros. Civil War movie that will premiere in February. Miller stressed his screen role had nothing to do with his sponsorship of the bill. Turner also drafted Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Phil Gramm, R-Texas, for cameo roles. Bill Hillburg can be reached at (202) 662-8925. http://www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205%257E12220%257E1006660,00.html Desoto Joe/The Record Man ==== MO-CW Mailing List ==== "Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery, but only begins." Frederick Douglass ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237