Historians Battle Wal-Mart Over Key Civil War Site

LOCUST GROVE, Va. — Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannonshot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site.

A who's who of historians including filmmaker Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough sent a letter last month to H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., urging the company to build somewhere farther from the Wilderness Battlefield.

"The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved," said the letter from 253 scholars and others.

Wal-Mart and its supporters point out that the 138,000-square-foot store would be right behind a bank and a small strip mall, a full mile from entrance to the site of the 1864 clash that left thousands dead and hastened the war's end.

Local leaders also want the $500,000 in tax revenue they estimate the big box store will generate for rural Orange County, a gradually growing area about 60 miles southwest of Washington.

"In these economic times, the fact that Wal-Mart wants to come into the county is an economic plus," said R. Mark Johnson, a tire shop owner and chairman of the county's board of supervisors. "This is hardly pristine wilderness we're talking about."

Grant's Union troops were headed to Richmond on May 4, 1864, when they confronted Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Battle of the Wilderness involved more than 100,000 Union troops and 61,000 Confederates. The fighting, according to National Park Service estimates, left more than 4,000 dead and 20,000 wounded.

Some 2,700 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield are protected as part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

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Preservationists regularly square off against developers in Virginia, where much of the Civil War was fought.

This dispute, however, has stirred an outcry similar to the one in 1994 over The Walt Disney Co.'s plans to build a $650 million theme park within miles of the Manassas Battlefield. The entertainment giant bowed to public pressure and abandoned the project.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which opened nearly 200 stores in the U.S. in 2007, said it studied a lengthy list of sites in Orange County before settling on the spot near the battlefield and its gentle hills dissected by neat footpaths.

"We recognize the significance of the Wilderness Battlefield, but we are not building on the battlefield," said Keith Morris, a spokesman for the world's largest retailer.

Preservationists argue the store site is still significant because it was used as a staging area by Union troops.

"Is it blood-soaked ground? No, but it is a part of the battlefield," said Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust, which lists the Wilderness Battlefield as endangered.

Supervisors will have the final say, after county planners decide if the retailer should be granted a zoning variance. Hearings likely will be scheduled in February and March.

Supervisor Teri Pace said there are "more appropriate places" in the county for Wal-Mart to build. She envisions an economic development plan that taps the county's history _ including President James Madison's restored home, Montpelier _ and its agricultural heritage, which now includes several popular wineries.

"If we define ourselves and promote ourselves as something different, with tourism and agriculture, we really have huge opportunities here," Pace said.

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On the Net:

Civil War Preservation Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08/

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.: http://www.walmart.com/

Orange County: http://orangecountyva.gov/

Comments

[propitiousmoment]

A pox on walmart. Putting one of their ugly stores selling crappy products made and sold by underpaid people will drastically increase the traffic in the area, undermining whatever ambience now exists in the vicinity of this historic site. Tell walmart to sell their cheap junk in china where it is made, and give america back to americans. Yikes, I'm starting to sound like one of those frothing at the mouth right wing nuts. But really!!

[Ares1]

You just can't say Wal-Mart is just opposed by liberals, Democrats and pro-union folk's, people in the reddest of places oppose the expansion of Wal-Mart because it eats away at small business and costs the state money in health costs, and now WM spits on historical and sacred places to offer cheap stuff and give the bare minimum to it's employ.

While Wal-Mart was the only retail success story on 2008, and everybody from Nordstrom to Target had a dismal year, this gives them no licence nor will they have the ability to expand as even with their long arm in GOP politics, they connot expand much further, not with the way people have voted in recent times, prople have had it.

[spicybean]

Wal-Mart's only consideration is the Money, Money, MONEY. They will wreck, intimidate, bully, and tromp on history to increase their bottom lines. They make me sick.

[JDJase]

Wal-mart should just not build a store at all. The only thing that I think should be blamed for this economy equal to George Bush is Wal-mart

[JimGroom]

Wal-Mart can pick another spot to sell their crap. If something like this is allowed to happen it will add further proof that Americans care nothing of their history if it stops them from buying cheap socks. Very sad.

[Seaglass]

This does matter. Just because horrendous, short-sighted development's already occurred nearby, it doesn't make it okay to slap down more. Many Civil War battlefields are, ironically, some of our most beautiful open spaces...and they shouldn't be lost to bulldozers simply because narrow-minded town councils and developers want to turn a buck.

[jsgaetano]

Don't these Red Staters know that the free market can't be impeded?

Rich people have more rights than everyone else, because God tells us they are better people. If you don't like it, talk to God.

[TXfemmom]

For God's sake, have some sense of history and respect for the brave men who fought and died at the sight.

There have to be other sites in the area where WalMart could build one of their pieces of crap.

I have written WalMart and asked them to start a campaign to devote a section of their store to made in the USA products which they now source mainly in China. I told them that I'll pay $20 more for that small appliance which is manufactured and assembled in the USA, as well as some other things. We need to realize that as a nation, we need to be willing to pay $100 to $150 more for that washing machine which we will use for ten years AND DEMAND IT BE MADE HERE. That would mean that we are paying all of $10 a year more to give an American a decent wage with benefits The same goes for other things.

We need to start pounding WalMart and other retailers with the we will pay more for the products but they must be manufactured and assembled here. If it means we buy a little less junk per year, so be it, but we will once again have manufacturing and blue-collar jobs. They can keep their cheap junk made abroad for those who want or need those low prices, but give the rest of us the CHOICE.

[georgiabluecoast]

Remember way back when wally world used to air commercials about "made in the usa" with an 18 wheeler and pure country folk in trucker hats and a waving american flag?

i wonder how the folks in "real america" would feel if they made a spin off of that commercial but substitute old glory with the red flag complete with the 5 stars, the biggest standing for communism. where's the threat of the "red scare" these days?

[adamsmith3]

This is private property they're buying up without government restrictions on construction. They can build a Wal-Mart on there all they want. Maybe Ken Burns and McCullough should buy the property from Wal-Mart if they are that concerned about an evil department store being a mile away from an historic battle site.

[2celestial]

I am no big fan of WalMart! However I do live in the county just south of Orange County where a Walmart Supercenter will be opening in the fall of 2009. We'd be happy to have the residents of Orange County drive down here to spend their money and to take the sales tax revenue which would come here! They are welcome to live in well-to-do rural splendor on their estates and tut-tut about the "war of Northern agression"--I kid you not! I moved here from Michigan 9 years ago and am continually stunned that the Virginian bred and born is still,, nearly 150 years later fighting the Civil War.

[mbondr1]

WalMart does not generate tax revenue. Sure, $500K from WalMart. -$500K from local businesses. -$1M from any charm and atractability the town may have ever been able to muster. Here in my town, we used to have a bunch of very charming stores that sold neat stuff and were staffed by cool local people. Then Target/Staples/etc. moved in. Hobbyworld finished it off. Now it's just like every other town. The bribes the city council are taking better factor in moving expenses so they can move to a town that isn't screwed up yet.

[sarimn00]

From what I've heard, I better get myself to Gettysburg before that disappears completely, too. People don't care about history much anymore. In a lot of schools it is hardly taught. I'll be sure to take some pictures so I can show my future kids what an open field looks like because by the time they are born, people won't know what one is.

[mbondr1]

Ugh. Just checked out their web site. They already have an outlet mall. Hopeless. I guess they're the types who never stray far from their TV's.

[mbondr1]

WalMart does not generate tax revenue. Sure, $500K from WalMart. -$500K from local businesses. -$1M from any charm and atractability the town may have ever been able to muster. Here in Camarillo, we used to have a bunch of very charming stores that sold neat stuff and were staffed by cool local people. Then Target/Staples/etc. moved in. Hobbyworld finished it off. Now it's just like every other town. It sucks. The bribes the city council are taking better factor in moving expenses so they can move to a town that isn't screwed up yet.

[NoSillyName]

Walmart is a CANCER.