PEA RIDGE — State preservationists are trying to raise money and support to preserve the site of a Civil War battle that took place near the Battle of Pea Ridge.

But Christene Ashlock, the woman who has led the preservation effort, said recently that she is unsure how to proceed, since the property is no longer for sale.

Paul Brush, the owner of the property, said he doesn’t know whether he’d sell the property to preservationists or anyone else in the future.

“I’m not going to say it’s a yes and I’m not going to say it’s a no,” he said. “It’s a big maybe.”

Brush said the property has been in his family since 1951.

The site, known as Dunagin’s Farm, is just southwest of the Pea Ridge National Military Park.

“It’s actually pretty unchanged since the battle took place there, and some people would say it’s hallowed ground,” said Vanessa McKuin, executive director of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas.

The battle at Dunagin’s Farm took place on Feb. 17, 1862, a few weeks before the Battle of Pea Ridge. It was the first Civil War battle in Arkansas, said John Scott, superintendent of the PeaRidge Military Park.

The field and adjacent property, about 145 acres in all, were for sale for about the past two years.

The listed price was $1.8 million.

Brush said he decided to take the property off the market because his wife died.

“I just don’t know where else to go,” he said.

Ashlock, an amateur historian from Harrison, said she first learned about the battle at Dunagin’s Farm when she was reading a book about the Pea Ridge battle.

She began researching the battle on the Internet.

“The first thing it pulled up was a real estate website, that it was for sale,” she said. “It just kind of stirred something in me that made me want to see it protected.”

Since then, Ashlock has contacted preservation groups around the state, talked with Scott and researched how to accept donations toward the purchase of the property. She created a Facebook page, which as of Friday had 160 “likes.”

She has not approached Brush, she said, but is considering doing so now that the property is no longer for sale.

Scott said he started the process of incorporating the battlefield into the park’s general management plan. Doing so requiresapproval from Congress and will take at least a year, he said.

The battlefield has to be in the park’s general management plan in order for the park to be able to bid on it, should it come up for sale, Scott said. Finding the money to pay for it would be another challenge, he said.

Troy Banzhaf, a park ranger at Pea Ridge, pointed out where the lines formed in the Dunagin’s Farm battle.

A dirt road cut between two fields rustling with long grass follows the same path as the roadUnion soldiers followed into the battle, Banzhaf said.

A worn metal sign at the side of the road is the only indication of the battle.

Banzhaf said the tree lines and shape of the field are basically unchanged since the time of the Civil War.

Confederate soldiers placed their troops across Telegraph Road, near a farm owned by James Dunagin, according to the National Park Service website.

Federal cavalry came across the southern line and an hour-longbattle ensued.

Three Confederate soldiers were killed and 17 were wounded. Confederates killed or wounded 20 Union soldiers and 60 horses, according to the website.

That, Ashlock said, is why she will continue to care about the site.

“To me, it’s just as important as Gettysburg or Antietam or the Wilderness,” she said. “It’s just as important as any of those other battlefields, because Americans died there to protect what they believe in.”

Sports, Pages 9 on 06/29/2011