Wal-Mart vs. the Civil War
Walmart supercenters are now ubiquitous blue additions to virtually every community in the United States. In most cases those communities welcome the low prices and smiling greeters, but in some cases the welcome is not so warm. Walmart's latest attempted conquest of a community is located in Locust Grove, Virginia, where Wal-mart is planning to build a new 38,000-square-foot store.
The problem is, the store is planned to be built about 50 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. near the Wilderness Battlefield, which is a National Park and a Civil War site. The park is built at the location of the Battle of the Wilderness, an 1864 Civil War battle that many historians consider to be a key turning point in the war. Several groups have filed suit against Walmart, including Friends of Wilderness Battlefield. Zann Nelson, head of the group, said "A nationally significant and highly vulnerable historic site is at great risk." She went on to add, "The Walmart project would irrevocably harm the battlefield and seriously undermine the visitor's experience to the National Park."
The groups say that the Orange County Board of Supervisors, when they approved Walmart's plans, callously brushed aside community concerns about the proposed building site. Several high-profile supporters have stepped forward to support the move to block Walmart, including actor Robert Duvall, filmmaker Ken Burns, Virginia's governor, Tim Kaine, and several congressmen from Vermont and Texas, whose states lost a large number of men during the fighting. According to historians and preservationists, the Wilderness Battlefield is considered to be one of the country's most endangered Civil War historical sites. More than 30,000 Confederate and Union soldiers were injured or killed during the battle. The location of the store Walmart plans to build is less than a half mile from the trenches Union soldiers dug during the battle. Virginia has more Civil War historic sites than any other state in the nation.
Walmart has responded to the suit by saying that the complaints about their planned construction have no basis in fact. Representatives say that the store will not be visible from the site of the battlefield, and the spot is zoned commercial use anyway, so there is no cause for complaint. "Throughout this entire process we have not only met but exceeded the guidelines that were put before us," said a Walmart spokesman, who said that site work has not yet begun on the store.
Other contributors to the lawsuit include the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as six people who reside in Spotsylvania and Orange counties who live near the location where Walmart plans to build the store. The lawsuit begins by quoting James McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who wrote that the Battle of the Wilderness was the first clash between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, and the "beginning of the end for the beleaguered Confederacy."
Supervisors and residents who support the construction of the store say that it will not take anything away from the area, because there are already two strip malls there. They are excited by the prospect of Walmart bringing hundreds of jobs to the rural community of 32,000 people, along with an estimated annual tax revenue of about $800,000. However, Robert Duvall has a personal reason for being opposed to the building. Duvall is a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee. Although a statement from the Associated Press said that Duvall has no problem with Walmart in general, he does oppose their plan to build their mammoth store so close to a valuable part of American history, because he "believes in capitalism coupled with sensitivity."
