FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2015 file photo, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington. The nation’s main education law, long overdue for an overhaul, is headed for a major revision in the Senate. Lawmakers plan to vote July 16 on a bipartisan bill to rewrite the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act, a day after voting 86-12 to limit additional debate on further changes to the bill and move forward to a vote on final passage. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander today introduced legislation that would expand the boundary of Shiloh National Military Park to include three Civil War battlefields in Tennessee and Mississippi.
The bill would also designate Parker's Crossroads as an affiliated area of the National Park System, according to a news release from Alexander's office.
"As Americans, we have a special obligation to preserve and protect our heritage," Alexander said in the release. "Including these Civil War battlefields in the National Park System will honor that commitment, while providing an opportunity to attract more visitors to Tennessee and strengthen the local economies."
The legislation would designate battlefields at Davis Bridge and Fallen Timbers in Tennessee and Russell House in Tennessee and Mississippi as part of Shiloh National Military Park. The National Park Service has already determined that these battlefields are nationally significant and in need of preservation and protection, and the majority of the land included in this legislation is currently owned by the state of Tennessee or the Civil War Trust, which would speed the process of including these areas in the system, the release said.