GRAVE DISTURBANCE

A coal-mining excavation at the site of the Battle of Mansfield, the last major Confederate victory of the Civil War, threatens the burial ground of the Union soldiers who died there in 1864.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

By Mark Schleifstein - Staff writer
New Orleans Times Picayune

A new battle is taking place at the Civil War battlefield in Mansfield as history buffs and environmentalists unite to fight the expansion of a coal strip mine into a section of the battlefield where the remains of Union soldiers, including African-Americans who enlisted in New Orleans, are buried.

AEP-SWEPCO, an electric utility, recently notified the state it plans to mine portions of the battlefield in the next five years. The company leases 30,000 acres in De Soto Parish, including much of the battlefield.

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