Saving History Saturday: Wilderness Battlefield Named to Most Endangered Place List

On May 1, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition announced that the Wilderness Battlefield was named one of the nation’s 11 most endangered historic places due to the threat of a massive 2,600-acre development that is proposed for neighboring land in Orange County Virginia.

The Wilderness Battlefield Coalition (whose partners include the American Battlefield Trust, Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, Cedar Mountain Battlefield Foundation, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, Historic Germanna, Journey Through Hallowed Ground, National Parks Conservation Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Piedmont Environmental Council and Preservation Virginia) formed to build legal and public pressure on officials to reconsider allowing the project to move forward and to educate the public about the proposed development and its impact on the battlefield.

American Battlefield Trust President David Duncan said, “We simply cannot allow this potentially catastrophic impact to occur when better planning and thoughtful consideration could preserve such a vital and irreplaceable historic site.” The American Battlefield Trust, the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, and neighboring landowners have filed a lawsuit challenging the rezoning.

The Battle of the Wilderness took place May 5-7, 1864 and marked the opening of what became known as the Overland Campaign and the first battle of under new General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant. Approximately 29,000 casualties were suffered by both sides during the battle, at the end of which Grant ordered the Federal army to move around right flank of the Army of Northern Virginia and march towards Spotsylvania Court House.

For more information about the effort to protect the Wilderness Battlefield, click here.