Fury at casino's Gettysburg address

MORE than 140 years after the final shots were fired in the American Civil War, a new conflict has broken out at the scene of the greatest battle ever fought in the United States.

A group of investors have announced a plan to build a massive casino and leisure resort at Gettysburg, where up to 10,000 Confederate and Union troops lost their lives in a three-day battle in 1863 that changed the direction of the war.

Civil War historians have branded the plan tasteless, tacky and a desecration to the memory of the soldiers whose sacrifice was recognised by US president Abraham Lincoln in his infamous Gettysburg Address later that year.

Jim Lighthizer, president of the 70,000-member Civil War Preservation Trust, said: "Gettysburg is America’s most sacred shrine to our nation’s Civil War dead. It’s such an inappropriate location for a casino that it’s hard to believe the proposal is receiving serious consideration.

"It was here that Lincoln first talked about a new birth of freedom during ceremonies honouring those who fell. Casinos can be built anywhere but land where thousands of Americans gave ‘the last full measure of devotion’, to use Lincoln’s words, cannot be moved."

The trust, which has won protected status for about 21,000 acres of Civil War battlegrounds, but claims that up to 30 acres are lost to development each day in the US, faces one of its biggest challenges in halting the project.

The investors intend to build a luxury hotel and spa, a restaurant complex, a shopping mall and casino less than a mile and a half from the boundary of the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania.

The head of the consortium, popular local businessman David LeVan, insists that such a development would be sympathetic and respectful to the area’s history, would create hundreds of new jobs and bring in tens of millions of dollars to the local economy.

LeVan, who has contributed generously to other Civil War preservation efforts in Gettysburg, says he has also inserted a provision that a percentage of the gaming profits would be returned to Adams County’s government and schools, a figure he estimates would be about $10m a year.

He said: "I don’t see, the way others see it, the conflict between this and the tradition and history of Adams County. "It’s not in view of the battlefield and it’s not going to have a Civil War theme. The only thing it’s going to have in common is the name Gettysburg."

His sentiments cut little ice with those who want to preserve as fully as possible the site of the battle in which Union commander George G. Meade's forces defeated Confederate troops under the command of General Robert E Lee, repelling their second and final northern advance of the four-year war.

Parts of the expansive battleground lies outside of the military park’s boundaries and casino opponents say some of the construction would take place on a site where Confederate troops assembled before the fighting, which involved more than 162,000 soldiers.

Several other nearby parcels of land of historical significance to the war have already been built upon, and the busy six-lane highway that would host the new resort already boasts two large commercial developments including a hotel and entertainment complex.

Lighthizer said: "The proposed casino is the symptom of a much larger problem, the avalanche of development that is overwhelming the area. If steps aren’t taken quickly to ensure this area doesn’t further succumb to sprawl, it is likely that unchecked development will eventually overwhelm the battlefield park.

"We are particularly concerned about the proximity of the casino and adjacent sprawl to the East Cavalry Field battle site. We’ve invested considerable resources to protect the cavalry battleground, and it would be a tragedy if this work was undone because of the casino project."

Noted Civil War historians have also weighed into the dispute. James McPherson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1989 book Battle Cry of Freedom, said it would be an insult to the legacy of those who fought and died. "It would be a desecration of their memory and sacrifice to establish such a tawdry and tasteless enterprise next to their fields of honour," he said.

The investors hope to cash in on Pennsylvania’s liberal new attitude to gambling, confirmed in the passing of a new law 10 months ago that allowed slot machines on non-Native American owned lands. The state is eyeing high-rolling gamblers from neighbouring cities such as Washington DC and Baltimore.

"By including slots in our plan, we are ensuring that we receive the millions of additional dollars that a slots licence will produce," LeVan said. "Every other region of our state is poised to receive these local funds and we deserve our fair share."

The trust, meanwhile, argues that a casino might take away some of the income that out-of-town visitors bring to the area. It published a study last year that claimed that visitors to the battlefield spent $121m, supported 2,650 local jobs and generated more than $17m in state and local taxes.

"In addition to being hallowed ground, the Gettysburg Battlefield is a gold mine for the regional economy," Lighthizer said. "It would be folly to flood that gold mine with a wave of inappropriate development.

"While we have documented proof of the economic benefits provided to the community by preserving the battlefield, the proposed casino is a shot in the dark."

Victory at Gettysburg was crucial to the Unionists, who suffered a string of defeats to the southern states after the war began in 1861, and whose forces were being pushed further back into Pennsylvania and Virginia. Grant’s men were outnumbered but successfully defended their higher ground around the town against a series of bloody and ill-advised charges by Confederate men. The defeat was crushing for the South, partly because it ended any remaining hope that the British would intervene in the war on their behalf.

Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, less than a month before the last of the Confederate armies surrendered.