Once billed as the most desirable property for industrial development in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the site that historians argue determined the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg is saved forever following a 16-year, $12-million fundraising campaign to ensure its protection. To seal the deal on the largest and most complex private battlefield preservation effort in the nation’s history, the American Battlefield Trust enlisted the participation of a preservation-friendly developer, a flexible financial lender and forward-thinking government officials, as well as tens of thousands of individual donors.