Wal-mart Site Had Role In 2 Battles
ORANGE, Va. — Civil War historian James M. McPherson is one of the plaintiffs’ four expert witnesses for the trial slated to begin Jan. 25 in the lawsuit to prevent construction of a Wal-mart Supercenter at the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield, A nine-page summary of McPherson’s testimony was filed with the Orange County Circuit Court and released publicly on Oct. 12, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Robert D. Rosenbaum. In it McPherson describes battle-related activity on the site he called “the nerve center of the Union Army during the Battle of the Wilderness.” McPherson received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1989 for his Civil War opus, Battle Cry of Freedom. He is George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, Emeritus, at Princeton University. His documented testimony addresses the extent of Wilderness battle activity on the proposed store site, a subject of dispute in the suit (see CWN August 2009 and January 2010 issues). A Wal-mart consulting firm’s cultural resource investigation found “there is no evidence that any battles or skirmishes or long-term encampments occurred on the current project parcel.” “The Battle of the Wilderness took place mostly within a half-moon radius of less than three miles from the site of the proposed Wal-mart Supercenter,” McPherson wrote. “That fighting included areas very close to the Wal-mart site. And the historical record makes clear that the land on or adjacent to that site was the immediate rear of the fighting, where significant events occurred that were an integral part of the battle.” McPherson noted “thousands of wounded and dying soldiers occupied the then open fields that included the Wal-mart site, which is where many of the Union Army hospital tents were located during that battle.” He said Union 5th and 6th Corps hospitals were located on or near the Wal-mart site. “There were in total about 8,300 wounded Union soldiers treated there and at the 2nd Corps hospitals about one mile away. A number of Confederate wounded were also brought back by the ambulances.” “The [hospital] tents must therefore have extended over a considerable area,” he wrote. “Wounded soldiers waiting for treatment sprawled over an even larger area.” McPherson noted that one year earlier, Confederate Army hospital tents were located in this area during the Battle of Chancellorsville. “Lieut. Gen. ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, wounded during that battle, was treated in the nearby Wilderness Tavern, and his amputated arm remains buried on the nearby grounds of what is now ‘Ellwood.’” Opponents of Wal-mart building on this site point out the tract is clearly on the Wilderness Battlefield, as indicated on the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission (CWSAC) map of the area. McPherson noted he was one of two Civil War history experts to serve on the Congressionally-established CWSAC in 1991-1993. “The mission of the CWSAC was to identify the nation’s historically important significant Civil War sites, determine their relative importance, determine their condition, assess threats to their integrity and recommend alternatives to preserve and interpret them,” McPherson said. He explained that the commission defined “core” battlefield areas as where “decisive maneuver, most intensive fighting and heavy casualties” occurred; and “study” areas as those encompassing “all of the features associated with the command, deployment, and movement of troops” that “provides the strategic setting for the battle.” The Wal-mart site in within the CWSAC study area. “I understand some people have argued in this dispute that the ‘study’ area consists of any area which was recommended for further study to determine whether it is part of the battlefield,” McPherson wrote. “This is a misunderstanding of the concept,” he said. “Over an extended period of time, the members and staff of the CWSAC, with extensive input from numerous others, conducted that very type of study and concluded that areas within the ‘study area’ were indeed part of the battlefield.” McPherson said he vigorously agrees with the proposed Wal-mart site being found “within the study area for both the Wilderness and Chancellorsville Battlefields, as defined by the Commission.” An Oct. 13 Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star story suggested it is not certain that that McPherson will testify at the trial. Orange County Attorney Sharon Pandak was quoted as saying it is “premature” to say he will testify. “He’s been identified as an expert by the plaintiff, and that’s it.” She said both sides must submit lists of their expert witnesses, and then it’s up to the court whether to allow each one. “I can’t imagine what the basis for any opposition would be” to McPherson being called as an expert witness, plaintiffs’ Rosenbaum told Civil War News. He said his other three expert witnesses are a traffic expert, a fiscal analyst and someone who can provide “a 3-D visual impact of the project on the Routes 3 and 20 intersection.” The next day in court is Oct. 21, which is after Civil War News goes to press. The hearing will focus on disputes about discovery (see CWN September issue). McPherson’s document can be read at the Civil War Preservation Trust Web site, www.civilwar.org, from a link in the McPherson story, and the Free lance-Star’s site at www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/102010/10132010/JamesMcPhersonTestimony.pdf
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