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Orange allowed anti-memorial to war heroes

November 12, 2009 12:36 am

"Generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by great things suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream."

Fast forward to the 21st century. The "deathless field" at the Wilderness will be covered with acres of vehicles, some flying flags, U.S. and Confederate, whose drivers are inside a big-box store buying inferior merchandise, or working for less than living compensation.

I had a great-great-grandfather in the 60th Ohio Volunteer Infantry who was in the vanguard at the Battle of the Wilderness. I also had a great-grandfather who was an officer in the Army of the Confederacy.

They sacrificed years of their lives and good health during that war. There are no memorials to these veterans on the National Mall. Their memorials are the battlefields themselves, hallowed by their blood and bones.

It is a shame that the people of Orange County, represented by their elected officials, didn't have the courage to face down a corporate bully like Walmart and continue to honor these men and others like them.

There is no reason that the new store couldn't be sited farther from the battlefield. If Walmart decided it needed to add another unit in central Virginia besides the two at Fredericksburg and the one each at Culpeper and Charlottesville, it would have been willing to take the alternate site. That was just bluster, and we have fallen for it.

Belatedly, Congress has taken up the matter of funding for the Civil War battlefields.

Carol A. Preece

Orange