The National Park Service awarded Princeton Battlefield Area Preservation Society a $47,100 grant.
PBS plans to use the grant to complete and archaeological study on 29 acres of land at the Battle of Princeton. This project will also prepare an application to expand the boundaries of the American Revolution-Stonybrook Settlement Historic District to include the property.
According to PBS first vice president Kip Cherry, “the focus of the grant will be the D’Ambrisi property, which the State of New Jersey is in the process of acquiring with assistance from the Municipality of Princeton, Mercer County and Princeton Open Space.”
During the time of the battle, the property was used as place to contain troops before fighting and a area of retreat. It is also the likely burial site for British and American soldiers. This area is marked by a colonnade with a medallion placed behind it.
PBS president Jerry Hurwitz said this property has never been explored for artifacts. Plans for the property begin with historical research, followed by ground penetrating radar to determine whether there are any anomalies or indications of artifacts. Next, the property will then be plowed and cross-plowed followed by a full regimen of metal detection.
The grant calls for GIS-based mapping and Key Terrain Observation and Fields of Fire, Cover and Concealment, Obstacles, Avenues of Approach (KOCOA) analysis similar to what was done for the site of the counterattack on Maxwell Field under a previous National Park Service Grant. The product of that grant, prepared by John Milner associated, was formally entitled Battle of Princeton Mapping Project: Report of Military Terrain Analysis and Battle Narrative. It is often referred to as the “Milner Study.”
The grant is part of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program. It is one of 21 grants from the National Park Service totaling $1.358 million to preserve and protect significant battle sites from all wars fought on American soil. Funded projects preserve battlefields from the Colonial-Indian Wars through World War II and include site mapping, archaeological studies, National Register of Historic Places nominations, preservation and management plans.
More information is online at nps.gov/abpp.
