Return to story

Ignorant shoppers should not win this war

May 21, 2009 3:45 am

LATELY, I AM becoming more and more irritat- ed--and frankly, alarmed--at how utterly ignorant many of the residents of Orange County are. I'm speaking specifically of those outspoken residents who are rallying in the local press against preservationist groups trying to curb the construction of a Wal-Mart near the Wilderness battlefield.

They write letters to the paper and accuse the Civil War Preservation Trust and historians of spreading false information. They smugly turn up their noses at those from the "outside" who are attempting to save an important part of their county, referring to them as "carpetbaggers." Unfortunately, their witty humor is overshadowed by their lack of understanding and respect for their own backyard. The bottom line is, they don't deserve to live near such hallowed ground.

If I had my way I would grab every one of these "activists" and lead them all back to May of 1864 when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac went head-to-head against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in some of the most horrific and savage fighting of the entire Civil War. More than 10,000 men died at The Wilderness, and more than 12,000 were wounded.

Most were scarred by the terror they experienced firsthand. Many wounded men burned to death as the trees caught fire around them. We can't begin to imagine the nightmarish scenes that they witnessed. Perhaps if these pro-Wal-Mart people understood the tragic cost of human life claimed by this battle and had a better sense of the gallons of blood spilled on their soil, they would get a clue.

The truth, "Orange County Wal-Mart supporters," is that we "carpetbaggers" don't care about your shopping convenience. We care about a priceless piece of the American landscape that is far more important than you, or me, or any of our children, or their children. This land was hallowed long before we were here and it will be here long after we are all dead and gone. Frankly, your--and our--quality of life is secondary to the conservation of our nation's legacy.

We who live in the adjacent counties know the price of urban sprawl firsthand as we allowed our own battlefields to fall victim to progress. Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg are examples of what not to do.

Message to Orange County: Don't make the same mistakes we did. We've set the bar for ignorance when it comes to preservation and are still dealing with the error of our ways. The bottom line is that the individual's wants and needs do not matter here. The battlefield is what matters, and everything else that threatens the sanctity of it is moot. Stop thinking about yourself and begin thinking about the thousands of men who fell on the land close to where you want to pave.

Their memory matters more than any of us.

Michael Aubrecht is a historian and member of CWPT. He lives in Spotsylvania County.