ELMIRA, N.Y. — U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has introduced legislation that would allow a Revolutionary War battlefield currently owned by New York state to become a national park.

The measure introduced by the New York Democrat earlier this month would authorize the federal government to conduct a study to evaluate the significance of the Newtown Battlefield State Park, just outside the city of Elmira, and the impact of making it a national park.

Gillibrand says making the site a national park would attract more tourism to the Elmira area.

In August 1779, Newtown was the site of a battle between British forces and their Iroquois allies and American troops. Known as the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, Gen. George Washington sent two armies into Iroquois country in retaliation for bloody raids carried out by the tribes on the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers.