Historians battle Wal-Mart over key Civil War site, Wilderness Battlefield

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: AP

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....

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.

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....

Read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090102/D95F79I00.html

[Dennis Donovan]

1. History-schmistory. I want my cheap Chinese shit!

:sarcasm:

[Rhiannon12866]

18. I had to go to Wal-Mart last week

and wandered while I was waiting for my prescriptions. I decided to look for some bubble bath for my mother, and they had lots of pretty packages, but every damn one of them came from China! I decided that it wasn't worth the risk, contaminating my mother with melamine or lead. She has enough problems... :crazy:

[Wednesdays]

19. This may sound like it came from the Onion, but...

right after Christmas there was a shelf full of plastic Jesus action figures (they were the size of standard Barbie dolls), on sale at $9.99 apiece at my local Wal-Mart.

Both amused and horrified, I examined the package. I'll give you one guess as to where they were made.

Edit--this is the doll I was talking about. You'd think it was a parody, but it's not! :scared:


(Article):
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/popup?id=3381691

[Rhiannon12866]

20. Dear God, that looks like something on Letterman!

I must have missed those, LOL. What I'd want to know is what he says... And does he have an accent?! :silly:

[Condem]

2. You ever been to The Wilderness, DeepModem Mom?

[DeepModem Mom]

4. No, but I've been to several Civil War battlefields --

majored in American History in college and took a college course on the Civil War. I want these sites preserved.

Do you live near there, or have some experience with the site?

[Condem]

7. Been all over it, Deep.

The only open space is Sanders Field. It adjoins the Chancellorsville Battlefield. It's been 20 years. Nothing there. Winslow Homer painted a great shot of it- "bushwacking on a grand scale". The musketry noise reached the sublime. A quote. The only surprise was after getting his ass kicked, Grant turned south. And kept going. It must be preserved at all costs.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. I thought you had! Thanks so much for your insight, and for your impassioned words. nt

[Condem]

9. Thank you for your post, Deep.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I notice Wal Mart isn't putting in a Super Center

on or near the Pea Ridge National Battlefield. Of course it is closer to Bentonville AR......

You don't want to mess with building on a battlefield, especially one that is so recent. Things happened there that...how can I say it...leave an impression....I don't think the ghosts of soldiers who died in the fires that broke out would feel at home in Housewares.

[panader0]

5. The real Wilderness Battleground

is trying to shop at WalMart on a weekend.

[Fearless]

6. Ok now, be honest... does walmart have a list of historical places it wants to fuck up?

[dflprincess]

10. Apparently.

It wasn't too long ago they wanted to build across from FDR's Hyde Park.

[Fearless]

11. And the one by the Mexican pyramids.

[dflprincess]

13. Are you kidding me?

That seems low - even for Walmart.

[Fearless]

15. Yup... a link...

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1015-28.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E2DD123CF935A35752C1A9629C8B63

[dflprincess]

17. Oh dear God

From nothingtoofear's Common Dreams link:

"The showdown is rife with symbolism. Wal-Mart's expansion plans in Mexico have brought about a modern-day clash of passions and principles on the site of one the earth's first great civilizations.

Several months ago Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail chain, quietly began construction on a new store north of Mexico City. To many, it's just another step in the phenomenal takeover of Mexico's retail sector. But to others, it's stepping on the cultural foundations of the country. Excavation for the new store started just several thousand meters from the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, the crowning structures of the ancient city of Teotihuacan. "

There just aren't words for this kind of arrogance.

[originalpckelly]

12. Note to Wal-Mart: The rednecks still fly the confederate flag...

you might want to avoid that whole thing. Thanks!

[Politicalboi]

14. Are you kidding

Wal-Mart is having a sale of confederate flags just for that Wal-Mart.

[OswegoAtheist]

16. Reaction from the soldiers of the Civil War

Oswego "That's the second time this week I've been able to use that photo." Atheist

[bitchkitty]

21. Is it just me,

or does the guy on the left have a rather large ding dong?

[Muttocracy]

23. the site I linked below has an ad from Grant and Lee (reenacters) about it. nt

[Muttocracy]

22. site with lots of information about it

My mom asked me about this (she heard it on the radio yesterday) and I found this site. There are letters by historians, photos and maps, and local TV news (where one woman says there's a Walmart 10 miles in either direction - why do they need another one?)

http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08/

[DeepModem Mom]

24. Thanks for the link, Joe! nt

[Muttocracy]

25. here's a good summary that's on their site (fall 08 newsletter on proposal)

http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08/documents/OrangeClarionFINAL%20Fall%202008.pdf

PDF file, has good maps and shows other commercial zone areas down the road

[Muttocracy]

26. you know, I wish that area hadn't been zoned commercial

that seems to be the catch - if that's the zoning, how can Wal-Mart be stopped? :(

[Condem]

27. Kick.

Keep up the fight, DeepModem Mom.

[AndyTiedye]

28. They Can Have the Battle of the "Door-Buster Specials" Instead

:grr: