Walmart would be insult

To the editor,
Speaking from experience as a Civil War reenactor, it is fun bringing aspects of an ordinary soldier's experience to life yet again. Recreating camp routine, drill, etc. all help me to pierce the misty veil of time and grasp some of the truths about the Civil War.
Some other things about it, however, remain so vivid one need not recreate them to appreciate. One hundred forty-five years ago, Union General Ulysses S. Grant led the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan River to confront Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. At the Wilderness, Lee struck Grant first. Seizing the Army of the Potomac by the belt in thickly wooded terrain, Lee knew Grant could not fully utilize his artillery advantage in. Though this was also just what Grant wanted. For his goal was the destruction of the Army of Northern Virginia.
As the armies fought each other to a draw in a two-day slugfest, a horrific event occurred. Gunfire caused conflagrations in the thick underbrush, where many wounded Yankees and Rebels lay.
Unhurt comrades got a few wounded men to safety, but most lay trapped in the path of the fires. Some who were wounded but still able to use their hands loaded their rifles so they could kill themselves before they were burned to death. Many, though, could only scream as they were eaten alive by flames.
The armies soon left the Wilderness behind as they followed each other southward towards Richmond, but the screams of those wounded were never forgotten by those that survived.
Today the screams of those dying men echoing forever across the mists of time have fallen on Walmart's deaf ears.
In their opinion, it is all right to build a supercenter right next to the Wilderness Battlefield on an unpreserved portion of the battlefield.
Building a big-box store on hallowed ground, however, would be nothing short of vulgar. How can we appreciate what happened at the Wilderness, especially to the wounded burned alive there, if there is a Walmart right in the midst of the battlefield? We cannot, for it would be as grossly out of place as the infamous National Tower that used to loom over Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg.
I urge the Orange County commissioners to say no to Walmart's proposal. It would be a disgusting insult to the memory of those who fought and died at the Wilderness if this project goes through, for our heritage is nothing trivial-especially when it is sanctified by brave men's blood.
Richard Krebe
Long Lake, MN