In the wake of the decision by Virginia planning officials to allow Wal-Mart to build a Supercenter on hallowed ground next to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park comes word that a nearby 93-acre plot on the historic Wilderness Battlefield is on its way to being purchased by a historic preservation group.

An effort to keep Wal-Mart from building a Supercenter on hallowed ground near Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park has failed, with Orange County, Virginia, officials saying, "(T)his was a private deal between a private landowner and private business."

In somewhat of a surprise, county planners in northern Virginia have voted to oppose the development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter on hallowed land abutting the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. But that's only a temporary victory for those who oppose the project.

If you've some thoughts on whether Wal-Mart should be allowed to develop a super center on hallowed ground next to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, you have two last opportunities: tonight and Monday night.

Touring a Civil War battlefield can be both a somber experience and one that opens doors into incredible history, one that gives you a better appreciation for the growing pains the United States experienced in the past. At Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, four battlefields await your visit.

How many times have you visited a national park and wondered why they do the things they do in terms of managing the property? Well, now's your chance to let the National Park Service know how you'd like to see Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park managed for the next two decades or so.

The latest skirmish over the fate of land viewed as hallowed ground dating to the Civil War comes next week in Virginia, where a public hearing is scheduled to debate a proposal by Wal-Mart to build a Supercenter on a portion of the Wilderness Battlefield.

Nearly 150 years after the battle was waged, the state of Vermont is being asked to return to Virginia -- figuratively, at least -- to assist in the battle over the pending loss of hallowed ground to a Wal-Mart Super Center.

Whether you oppose Wal-Mart's plans to develop a super center near Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park or could care less, you have to smile at the ingenuity of some of the opponents.

Northern Virginia is a much more crowded place than it was during the Civil War. But Civil War historians, preservationists, and buffs, as well as National Park Service officials, are still flummoxed by Wal-Mart's wish to place a super center next to one of the most poignant battlefields of the Civil War.

When General Robert E. Lee's troops were battling the Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862, his cannons atop Lee's Hill and nearby Howison Hill had clear lines of fire. Today they'd be lucky to hit the proverbial broad side of a barn.

One-hundred-and-forty-five years had passed since Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded by "friendly fire" in the woods at Chancellorsville, and yet it might have been yesterday. Thick forest still hangs over the waning vestige of the Old Mountain Road where the general was riding, beyond the front lines, on the night of May 2, 1863, when members of the 18th North Carolina mistook him and his aides for a Union incursion.

May is a month that looms large in the annals of the Civil War. Battles fought in northern Virginia during that month had major implications for the war’s outcome. Today, visitors can walk the hallowed ground of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and reflect on the deeper meaning of the pivotal events, gallant deeds, and unspeakable suffering that took place there nearly a century and a half ago.

Somehow, the eight-room house survived the Civil War battle that swept across the Wilderness battlefield in Virginia. Now, master craftsmen are working to see that it survives the test of time.

There's an effort being launched to create a network of Civil War museums across the state of Virginia, and one might be located in Fredericksburg, home to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.