The New Battle of the Wilderness

A new battle is coming to its culmination in Orange County Virginia on the same ground that Union and Confederate forces fought in 1864 in what is known as the Battle of the Wilderness. It is over the construction of a new Wal-Mart store adjacent to the lands protected as part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. the proposed site for the development is overlooked by the park and will forever alter the views of the topography and ground as it appeared during the Civil War.

Despite protests from not only citizens groups but also the Governor of Virginia, both Virginia U.S. Senators, numerous Civil War groups, celebrities, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and the National Parks and Conservation Association, and the disapproval of the Orange County Planning Commission the County Board of Supervisors gave Wal-Mart the go ahead.

The only course left to prevent this devastating scar on the landscape is to appeal to the management of of Wal-Mart to move their plans to another location. To learn more and even help by contacting Wal-Mart executives you can go to the National Parks and Conservation Association's web site at www.npca.org. In the center of the page you will see a tab titled Take Action. Click on this and you will find a headline for the Wilderness Battlefield. From here you can learn more and help win this battle.