Congress has called for an update of the 1993 Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields to be undertaken by the American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) of the National Park Service. This update will identify preservation opportunities and reflect changes in conditions and threats for the 384 Civil War battlefields listed in the 1993 report. The final report is intended to not only provide Congress with an update of the 1993 report, but also to provide information for Federal, State, and local agencies, and non-profit organizations to aid in planning for the preservation of Civil War battlefields.

In order to update the report, The ABPP has undertaken a resurvey of the 384 battlefields. The study has been divided into two parts: surveys for each battlefield, and collection of preservation information from organizations administering battlefield lands. The size and scope of the 1993 battlefield Study and Core area boundaries are being reassessed and surviving areas that retain integrity are being identified. The preservation information being gathered for each site includes acreage of protected lands, documentation of existing site interpretation, and cataloguing of preservation activities undertaken since 1993. To date, field surveys have been conducted at 314 battlefields in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.