ABC News reported that Walmart had won its bid to build a new store near the Wilderness Battlefield.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 early Tuesday to grant the special permit after a majority of more than 100 speakers said they favored bringing the Walmart to Locust Grove, near the Wilderness Battlefield.
Residents cited three reasons for supporting the Walmart proposal: jobs, tax revenue and a cheap shopping option for the 32,000 residents of Locust Grove.
Once again mindless development takes precedence over historic preservation.
However disappointing the result, my main reason for this posting is to criticize ABC for their reporting. Quite simply, I wonder how any credible news service can talk about the fight to preserve the Wilderness battlefield without interviewing or mentioning the efforts of Jim Lighthizer and his team at the Civil War Preservation Trust. This group has been at the vanguard of the fight and ABC failed to mention their fine work in this engagement with runaway development or the victories they achieved in other preservation efforts.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Army Names Are the Definite Article
It's hard to keep track of the different Civil War armies especially when battles may take place between the Army of Tennessee and the Army of the Tennessee or the Army of Mississippi and the Army of the Mississippi.
They key of course is in the definite article "the." "The" is a rather special word and is uniquely classified as a definite article. Civil War students will find the "the" important because its use helps to distinguish Union armies from closely named Confederate units. The "the" refers to a river, namely the Tennessee River or Mississippi or Potomac River. Union armies were generally named for rivers in much the same way that the Federals named battles. Confederates named their armies using states or geographic regions. Examples here are the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee.
So when you see the "the" you can bet that it is a Yankee unit.
For more on the subject, please see Armies of the Civil War.
They key of course is in the definite article "the." "The" is a rather special word and is uniquely classified as a definite article. Civil War students will find the "the" important because its use helps to distinguish Union armies from closely named Confederate units. The "the" refers to a river, namely the Tennessee River or Mississippi or Potomac River. Union armies were generally named for rivers in much the same way that the Federals named battles. Confederates named their armies using states or geographic regions. Examples here are the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee.
So when you see the "the" you can bet that it is a Yankee unit.
For more on the subject, please see Armies of the Civil War.
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