Great article, Jim!

Far too many of the Virginia Battlefields have been lost to developement over the years, and it would have indeed been a travesty for an area as important as the Yorktown site to have been turned into a golf course, of all things.

I can point out two very different preservation plans for battlefield sites in Henrico County, Virginia, both actually located along US Rt. 1. There is a privately owned set of earthworks that exists smack in the middle of a fairly large strip mall, near where "Brook Run" creek goes under Rt. 1. These works were part of the outermost fortifications of this city of Richmond, and saw a fair amount of action during both Kilpatricks raid and Sheridans Battle at Yellow Tavern. This site was painstakingly presevered during the entire construction process, and boasts a masonry placard, fencing, and a set of illuminated flagpoles given to the site and dedicated by the Daughters of the Confederacy. It is well a maintained, visually pleasing site, just across from a fitness center and a large grocery store.

Just a handful of miles North of this area is the "Yellow Tavern" battlefield site, where JEB Stuart received his mortal wound. There is a monument on the spot where Stuart was shot, if you can find it amongst the urban sprawl. The battlefield itself, once owned by the Terrell family and renamed "Bleak Hill Farm" after the devestation caused by the battle, is now the site of a huge shopping mall complex. JC Penny, Macy's, etc., won that battle against preservation.