There isn’t much that can be done for those fields that were destroyed decades ago and now host parking lots and office buildings.  But we can do something about sites that are currently threatened.  Of course, organizations such as the APCWS (Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites) are doing an exemplary job.  Other groups have formed around the country with the specific aim of protecting a single battle site or historic structure.  There is a tendency for many of us to assume that these good folks are taking care of the problem of battlefield preservation.  Not so.  There is too much to be done for any one group to take it all on.

One desperate situation right now concerns the Wilderness battlefield.  Wal-Mart has plans for a 130,000-square foot supercenter on 53+ acres of ground that constituted a large portion of the area behind Grant’s headquarters during the battle.  It was a staging area that was covered with reserve troops, medical personnel, and baggage and supply trains.  It is a musket shot from the Federal lines at Sander’s Field: a pistol shot from Grant’s headquarters tent.

Supporters of the development claim that the site is not hallowed ground since glorious and sanguinary deeds did not occur on it.  And that is correct.  However, a Wal-Mart Supercenter will attract a heavy influx of commercial properties on adjoining property and will drastically increase traffic at the entrance to the Wilderness battlefield.  That entrance is an intersection of two early roads-- one was Grant’s access road to the battle, the other was Lee’s.  The two armies collided near their intersection.  Shoppers, drawn to this planned hub, will flood these roads and compel extreme measures to accommodate the traffic.  Road-widening and bypasses are a foregone conclusion and both measures will have to be done on hallowed battlefield ground surrounding them—trenches, battlelines, and combat areas.