IT'S NEVER TOO LATE to do the right thing. Those words are given in salute to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, which this month decided to preserve the best of the county's remaining unprotected Civil War sites.
Looking over the suburban sprawl that today defines Stafford County, it's hard to imagine a time when just around 8,000 people lived there. It's even more difficult to visualize the impact of the 120,000 or so federal troops who camped in the area after the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg. The invaders tore down houses for their lumber, chopped trees for firewood, slaughtered farm animals, raided pantries. It took the county a century to recover from war's devastation.
How fortunate that a few remnants of the Civil War have not been overrun by suburbia and are, in fact, located on property owned by the regional landfill. The board voted to set aside an initial $25,000 to engineer a road to the site, with an eye toward establishing a park in time for the Civil War Sesquicentennial, which begins in 2011.
The entire board favored the park; contention came over how much of an available $115,000 to use for it now in these tough economic times. In the end, frugality prevailed. And while $25,000 is better than nothing, it's important to remember that interest in the Civil War is expected to increase sharply as the 150th anniversary of the great crisis approaches. Funding sites of interest should be seen as a prudent investment, not water down the drain.
Few places in the country can offer as many views of the Civil War as can Greater Fredericksburg. The board offered seed money for an important county site; before long, supervisors should fertilize their effort with more.