Fight the power
Tonight’s meeting at the Civil War Life Soldier’s Museum on the Wilderness Wal-Mart fiasco was a great success. We had a good turnout and there were some excellent discussions generated. Russ Smith of the NPS gave a nice overview of the history of the Battle of the Wilderness and the establishment of the national park there. Representatives from the Friends of the Wilderness and the Civil War Preservation Trust also gave excellent talks on the impending threat to the area and the additional side-affects of development.

I enjoyed talking to some of my friends (and local historians) such as John Cummings and Terry Thomann on the matter. The audience was very knowledgeable on the subject, and many had prior experience dealing with planning commissions and greedy developers. Everyone seemed very passionate about the cause.

It looks like we have a heck of a fight on our hands, but I will add that we were successful (by ‘we’ I mean Fredericksburg) in getting Wal-Mart to relocate a store further away from Ferry Farm (George Washington’s home), so maybe we have a chance. Residents here are all custodians of our hallowed ground, and they are not entirely against economic growth and development. They just want it to be done in a respectful and responsible manner. This is not just any place. It is the site of over 29,000 casualties which BTW, is 5,000 more than Gen. Washington ever had at one time in the entire Continental army.

I am hoping that this will generate some new interest in the Wilderness Battlefield area and maybe in the future there can be more there than a NPS pavilion to welcome visitors. Maybe if it had a small visitor’s center like Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg the everyday citizen would recognize its value more. For more info on this evolving threat, visit the CWPT’s “Stop the Wilderness” website.