UC Riverside

This dissertation considers the changing place of race at nationally preserved battlefields from the Civil War and Indian Wars. As sites of contestation and carnage, these preserved spaces serve as strong indicators of the power of place that dominated America's ethos and national identity during the nineteenth century. The battles themselves resulted from power struggles over land, property, economic expansionism, and race-based debates. These conflicts over place and people did not end with a defeat or victory on the battlefield. They transitioned into a second phase that continued to use battlefields as sites of negotiation over racial entitlement and disenfranchisement. This dissertation argues that preserved battlefields are landscapes expansive in nature, crossing time and space. They are not evidence of one year, one day, or one event. These battlefields actually reproduce historic environments to fit the needs of those preserving and viewing them. In other words, the spaces are cultural landscapes, representing constructed spaces reflecting the processes in which culture--and cultural conflict--manipulates, affects, and frames nature over the long twentieth century (1865-present). While contending with the challenges of contemporary America, preservationists and visitors used these battlefields to contribute to the larger national project intent on (re)defining who had the power and access to be included in the national narrative.

Historically, the Anglo male dominated collective memory on the preserved battlefields. As such, it is presumed that these battlefields are purely masculine and Anglo in nature. This dissertation indicates that this is not the case. Sentimentalism was a key tool utilized by preservationists to control memories. Through sentimentalism, battlefields became semi-fictitious spaces based on selective and dramatic accounts of the past. They did not preserve a pure narrative of nineteenth century warfare; instead, they preserved desired interpretations of the past to better serve the present. Today, Native Americans and African Americans utilize preserved battlefields to present their own voices, inserting themselves into the nation's collective memory. It is the ongoing relationship between memory, nature, and nineteenth century warfare that is at the heart of this research.