American Battlefield Trust Launches $1 Million Campaign to Preserve 40 Acres at Chalmette, First Major Effort in a Century

The American Battlefield Trust has launched a $1 million fundraising campaign to protect a 40-acre property at Chalmette, Louisiana — site of Andrew Jackson's victory in what historians mark as the War of 1812's final major battle. The organization describes the effort as the first significant preservation push at the site in a century.

The Capital Commitment

At $1 million targeting 40 acres, the campaign represents a direct land-protection play by the American Battlefield Trust, a nonprofit that works to preserve American battlefield properties. The Chalmette site, located outside New Orleans, has gone unprotected at scale for roughly one hundred years — a gap the Trust is now moving to close.

The fundraising structure — a public campaign rather than a completed acquisition — means the $1 million target represents money still being assembled, not deployed. Donors and supporters are being solicited to hit the threshold needed to secure the acreage.

Why Chalmette

Chalmette is the ground where Andrew Jackson's forces repelled British troops in the engagement that ended the War of 1812. The battle's place in American military history gives the site a preservation profile that the American Battlefield Trust considers worth a nine-figure fundraise — and a century of comparative neglect makes the timing notable.

Battlefield land near a major metropolitan area like New Orleans carries development pressure that grows over time. Locking in 40 acres now is the kind of irreversible asset-protection move that preservation organizations treat as time-sensitive: land acquired is land removed from competing uses permanently, while land not acquired can be lost.

What Comes Next

The American Battlefield Trust has not specified a timeline for closing the fundraise or completing the land transaction in the source materials available. The $1 million figure represents the campaign's stated goal; how much has been raised to date was not disclosed in the launch announcement.

For a site silent for a century, the Trust is treating Chalmette as a now-or-never proposition. The acreage number is fixed. The clock on fundraising is not.