As a history buff and former Navy secretary, it shouldn't surprise many that Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb is a fan of preserving Civil War battlefields. But there's something more. In explaining his push to extend the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program for an additional five years, he cites his lineage from a Confederate soldier who served under Gen. Stonewall Jackson: William John Jewell, injured twice before dying at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. "We must preserve these sites so that future generations might see and touch the very places where so many sacrifices were made, by soldiers and civilians alike, to settle the unresolved issues from the American Revolution of slavery and sovereignty," says Webb.
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