Remembering work of Civil War nurses

As people gathered Monday to remember those who died serving their country, Tompkins County (N.Y.) historians hope they will also consider commemorating the contributions of Civil War nurses by helping a local nursing program. Two groups launched a fund in honor of four women who helped change the face of the once male-dominated profession. • Article

Trust gives Perryville land to Kentucky

On Tuesday, the Civil War Preservation Trust will donate 54 acres of the Perryville Battlefield to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The event is open to the public. • Article

His military miniatures stand tall in Chickamauga diorama at Garfield home

Standing only one to two inches tall, Bertram Floyd’s creations capture the tension and drama of combat.

A gap-toothed soldier snarls at the enemy. Another bearded figure rushes headlong into glory, perhaps death.

Floyd painted between 150 and 200 soldiers and created a diorama of the Battle of Chickamauga for the James A. Garfield National Historic Site (JAGNHS) in Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

The 3 feet by 6 feet diorama went on display May 29 in the visitor’s center at the 8-acre home and farm that belonged to the U.S. president, who died of assassination wounds 18 years to the day after the Georgia battle.

Chickamauga was the most-famous moment in Garfield’s Civil War career. He rode from a “disorderly retreat” to carry news to another Union general who would earn the sobriquet “The Rock of Chickamauga” for saving the army that afternoon.

Floyd uses a sharpened No. 3 brush, a magnifying lens and plenty of patience to craft soldiers and scenery through his business, Victory Miniatures, in Sheffield Village, Ohio.

The design engineer at NASA Glenn Research Center has been painting figures since 1985.

Floyd says the 25 millimeter (1 inch) men in the Chickamauga diorama “have plenty of detail.”

He has a system when painting a large number of figures.

“I may do all the pants and jackets one day.”

Napoleonic figures are more challenging to make, with incredible detail. A uniform collar, for example, may have three colors.

Floyd expects a 12 feet by 18 feet diorama of the Battle of Waterloo, with 2,000 figures, to fetch about $10,000.

James Garfield served as chief of staff to Union commander William S. Rosecrans at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga. Then 31, he withdrew from the field with Rosecrans during a hasty retreat when Confederate troops overwhelmed the Federals.

Scott Longert, park guide at the Garfield site, said the general rode back six miles through heavy fire back to the front to bring news of the calamitous situation to George H. Thomas.

“Someone had to get to the battlefield to tell Thomas what happened” to the collapsed Union center and right.

Thomas probably knew no reinforcements were coming and that it was up to him to hold Snodgrass Hill and allow the Union army to safely withdraw to Chattanooga, Tenn.

Thomas managed to prevent a Union route. “It was a key moment that could have turned the tide,” Longert says of Snodgrass Hill. Garfield later told the disgraced Rosecrans that Thomas “was standing like a rock.”

Historians are divided on whether Garfield brought or relayed critical information that actually saved the army. The citizen-soldier was promoted to major general for bravery that day.

Garfield, who saw combat in Kentucky early in the war, left military service in December 1863 and served in Congress. The Ohioan liked to attend military reunions with the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was a friend of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

The dark horse candidate won the presidency over fellow Union general Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880, but was assassinated less than a year later. He was only 49.

JAGNHS will host a number of Civil War-related exhibits and talks in conjunction with the war’s upcoming 150th anniversary. An encampment is planned for July 31-Aug. 1.

Admission to James A. Garfield National Historic Site, where the president lived from 1876 to 1881, is $5. The property includes barns and a telegraph office. The Chickamauga diorama will be on display through September.

• Click here for more information on the Garfield home.
• Click here for more information on Victory Miniatures

'Black Jack' Logan championed Memorial Day

John Logan was one of the few untrained civilians who became superb Civil War commanders. "Many communities claim to be the site of the first Memorial Day," said Mike Jones, director of the Gen. John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, Ill. "But it was Logan who took separate observances and put them on a unified, national basis. Logan was the founder of Memorial Day as a national holiday." • Article

Series looks at science of Crater tunnel

The tunnel that Union soldiers dug to blow a crater under Confederates at Petersburg, Va., is not usually juxtaposed with, say, the Great Wall of China. But the Battle of the Crater makes the cut in the new PBS series "Ground War," thanks to a professor who examines it from the perspective of a physicist. • Article

Recalling sorrowful incident at Ebenezer Creek

Dec. 9, 1864 - a mere 12 days before Gen. William T. Sherman's Union troops captured Savannah - was commemorated Tuesday by the Georgia Historical Society as officials dedicated a new historical marker about a mile south of the site where they believe hundreds of fugitive slaves drowned after the bridge Union troops used to cross the creek was destroyed. • Article

Coming up in Picket: Miniature soldiers

I will post by this weekend an item on a Battle of Chickamauga diorama that will be at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Ohio this summer. Garfield, who rode to Snodgrass Hill during the Union's moment of crisis at the battle, went on to become U.S. president after his military service. I've spoken with an official at the home and the diorama maker, who paints the figures -- including their beards, teeth and eyes -- in fine detail.

Baseball game in 1862 drew 10,000

The score of what might have been one of the largest sporting events of the 19th century — and played on Hilton Head Island — is still a mystery. The Hilton Head Baseball Championship took place Christmas Day 1862, with about 10,000 Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners watching, according to regimental records at the New York State Military Museum. • Article

Forget modern conveniences: These women enjoy life on the 19th century trail

On an already hot day, Beverly Simpson (below, left) and Terre Lawson went about the business of building up enough coals to cook two chickens. One of the birds dangled from a string.

The mules, John and Sassy, were coming back to camp, ready to take a long drink, be freed of their harnesses and rest a spell. Sassy wasted no time, rolling in the dust after Beverly’s husband, Mark, and son, Travis, had removed the gear from the wagon-toting pair.

The ladies were dressed from head to toe in 19th-century clothing. No room anywhere to let in a cool breeze. And there were more chores ahead at the Civil War Battle of Resaca (Ga.) re-enactment weekend earlier this month.

So, I asked with a hint of skepticism, why do you do this?

“It’s fun,” Simpson said simply.

They are living historians, participating in events that mark the period from 1730 to about 1869.

About half of her events are Civil War-related says Lawson, 55, a tax accountant living in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Simpson, a hairdresser from Lawrenceburg, Ky., and Lawson particularly enjoy events that last up to a week. Some of those are immersion events, where they truly go back in time. Those are geared toward the hobbyists themselves, and the public is rarely invited.

Both women claimed the period costume is more comfortable than modern clothing. They moved with ease through their small camp that sat alongside a pond. Puppies served as companions for both humans and the mules.

“It takes about the third day to hit the groove” at a weeklong event, said Lawson.

By then participants feel removed from cell phones and computers. Nowadays, they say, people don’t know their neighbors. At these kind of events, you depend on those around you.

“When you are there a week you have to work with them. The self-centeredness goes away” said Lawson, who dyes cloth and works with wool at many events.

Lawson’s extended family is from northeast Georgia. One relative has done blacksmithing. She has been involved in these kinds of events for decades.

“It’s a fun place to raise children.” Children know their manners and are expected to keep up with chores. “It takes a whole community to make life work,” said Lawson, who cited the experience of a 12-year-old girl who butchered a hog.

Simpson and Lawson often take live chickens when they are on the trail. Few of them make the return trip.

Lawson (right) is one of the organizers of an upcoming immersion event along the Tennessee and Kentucky border.

“In the Van: Trailing Kirby Smith” will remember the movement of the Confederate general’s troops toward the Battle of Perryville (Ky.) in 1862.

Lawson expects 40-50 participants for the Aug. 1-7 trail. Most will walk behind wagons pulled by mules, horses and ox. Some road will need to be cut and the hobbyists will have to get wagons up some steep grades.

“We anticipate extreme pioneering,” she said.

Depending on the event, the living historians may portray contractors driving wagons for the armies or civilians fleeing from battle or neighbors.

Smith’s trek to Kentucky had its challenges.

“It was a very onerous trek for the troops,” said Lawson, whose grown daughter is a historian. “They got by with corn and green apples.”

On Oct. 21-24, Lawson will be at Civil War Days at Westville, Ga. The village “will be transformed into a Civil War town as hundreds of re-enactors portray life in a Georgia town,” according to its Web site. Lawson likes to show the public how to dye cloth. She will attend a Nov. 3-7 living history event at Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson State Historic Site near Wetumpka, Ala.

She has to be careful with the fumes and other byproducts that result from the mordants (metallic compounds) used to bind fiber and dye.

“Period dye was an exercise in chemistry,” she says.

African-American troops remembered

Two ceremonies took place in Rochester, N.Y., honoring African-American soldiers who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. The event took place at Riverside Cemetery and Mount Hope Cemetery and saluted not only Rochester soldiers but 200,000 black men who served. • Article

19-panel painting depicts Forrest's battles

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Ken Scott's house in Cordova, Tenn., contains an entire history book spread across the walls of his third-floor den. Scott's late father, artist Fred V. Scott, left Ken and his three siblings the legacy of a 19-panel painting that commemorates the Civil War battles of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee, which when lined up end-to-end create a U-shaped, panoramic view of the state's bloodiest era. • Article

Confederate flag to be removed from mural

A new movie theater in Fredericksburg, Va., is removing a Confederate flag from a mural after it received complaints. The Muvico theater includes a Civil-War themed bar and the mural is painted on a wall of an outside seating area. The mural depicts a U.S. flag on one side, a Confederate flag on the other, and has stars, an eagle and other adornments. • Article

Facebook helps soldier get Medal of Honor

Seven score and seven years ago, a Wisconsin soldier stood his ground on the Gettysburg battlefield and made a valiant stand before he was felled by a Confederate bullet. Now, thanks to the dogged efforts of modern-day supporters, 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing shall not have died in vain, nor shall his memory have perished from the earth. • Article

Picket poll: On the road

Online Surveys & Market Research

Will Gettysburg reality match the hype?

View from a Gettysburg Times reporter: Based on ... flawed visitation and revenue estimates, I just think it’s a little too early to get excited and wound-up for an overflow crowd during our big “Olympic Moment” in 2013. A big party is being planned — I just hope the people show up. • Article

His hand-sewn flags are labor of love, tribute

Robert Banks does things the old-fashioned way.

Thousands of stitches are made by nimble fingers. Stars are hand-painted. Silk and wool bunting are used rather than nylon.

As for Internet sales? Sorry, no.

Making Civil War-era flags is truly a labor of love and tribute for the 60-year-old Clermont, Ga., resident who is an elevator mechanic by day.

Banks posted several of his flags Saturday morning before a memorial service at the Confederate Cemetery in Resaca, Ga. Participants in an annual re-enactment just up the road took part in the service and admired his impressive handiwork. Some of his flags take 80 hours to make.

“I am doing this to honor them,” the former re-enactor said as he worked among the graves of fallen soldiers.

An ancestor fought for the 32nd Georgia Infantry from Upson County.

Banks got interested six years ago after seeing the impressive Civil War flag collection at the Georgia Capitol. “It inspired me,” he says of the collection, which includes bloodied banners.

Since then, he has hand-sewn and painted silk, cotton and wool bunting flags. He makes both Union and Confederate flags.

“Silk was plentiful during the war,” Banks says. He holds up a Confederate flag that was pink rather than red because the color was available from England.

He eschews sewing machines, saying the results are crude. He either paints or embroiders stars.

It all depends on what was done nearly 150 years ago.

“I don’t ever try to age a flag,” Banks says.

Sunlight and humidity take their toll. “Wool really holds us. Silk is tough to work with. It wants to unravel.”

There are research resources. Banks looks at photos on the Internet and books and sees other flags at museums.

“The challenge is taking a photo and reducing it to millimeter scale.”

Among the reproduction flags he displayed at Resaca were the Confederate Army of Kentucky, Gen. William Hardees’, a Missouri battle flag and an 1840 Georgia banner. He showed me large Federal flags, including the 37th Regiment Irish Rifles of New York Volunteers and the 9th Connecticut, which were not displayed Saturday.

Two of his gorgeous works are at a Ringgold, Ga., museum. This week he is traveling to Fort McAllister Historic Park near Savannah to donate a 6 ½-foot by 10-foot garrison flag.

Banks also sells his flags, taking occasional orders from around the South. He recently produced a 34th Alabama flag. His “Fields of Honor” business flag advertises Confederate, Union, national, battle and regimental colors.

Works that take about 40 hours to make may go for between $450 and $700. The large Union flags with eagles, ribbons and tassels can take 80 hours to hand-make. They typically sell for between $1,500 and $2,000.

Banks sews all the time.

“I don’t this to make money,” he says. “I make them for me.”

Robert Banks can be contacted at 678-617-1850 or lizasouth@yahoo.com

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Resaca 2010: Of mules, men and chicken

The Battle of Resaca in northwest Georgia is perhaps the prettiest re-enactment site I’ve encountered in the past year. Camps rest atop the rolling, verdant hills at the venue off Chitwood Road. A cool natural spring is close by, offering a respite from the humid afternoons. Some scenes from May 15:

Ken Wammack of Tallahassee remembers the day his wife talked him into attending an event at Florida’s Natural Bridge.

“When I parked the car I could hear the guns,” he recalls.

The mustachioed Navy retiree and current insurance man was hooked. Wammack is now in his third year with the North Florida Artillery, serving as a gun sergeant. He attends about eight events a year.

Saturday, he and four other members of the artillery crew performed a drill before the afternoon’s battle.

A recent incident in Plymouth, N.C., resulting in the injury of two re-enactors, was on the crew’s mind as it went through the paces. Participants talked about safety steps, including quickly covering the ventilation hole after a round is fired so that air can’t stoke embers into life.

Black powder provides the power for the pieces. Part of the $8 per shot is covered by the event sponsor. “We follow the powder ration,” Wammack quips.

***

You can lead a mule to a battle, but you can’t make him stay.

Stronger than horses, Civil War mules provided a valuable service for armies, carrying supplies, camp equipment and more.

But because they are a little more headstrong, they knew better than to work near bullets.

“There was self-preservation going on,” says mule driver Mark Simpson of Lawrenceburg, Ky., who participated at Resaca with his family. “A mule would think, ‘I’m not going to do that.’’’

Saturday, Simpson and his two-mule team, John and Sassy, made their way around the camp.

Later in the afternoon, the team brought much-needed water to the hundreds of re-enactors during the afternoon battle.

Simpson and wife, Beverly, their two children and friend Terre Lawson of Tuscaloosa camped near a small pond at Resaca. They cooked their own meals, including chicken hanging from a string over an open fire.

Civil War wagon and mule drivers were “on the low end of the social totem pole,” says Simpson.

This group was anything but coarse. They enjoy the company of fellow wagoners and visitors who stop by.

***

Resaca was the first of nine major battles in the Atlanta Campaign. Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston used his 55,000 troops to hold off some 112,000 Federals on May 14-15, 1864.

Although he was forced to evacuate after the battle, Johnston had begun what historian Shelby Foote referred to as the “Red Clay Minuet” with Union Gen. William Sherman, giving up ground grudgingly.

Among the Union’s famous generals at Resaca was Gen. Joseph Hooker of the XX Corps. He held the extreme left of the Union line, a short walk from the main re-enactment camp.

I spent a few minutes with members of the Spalding Grays (Co. D, 2nd Battalion, Ga. Volunteer Infantry) who had trudged to Nance’s Spring for a water stop before the afternoon battle.

Thousands of Yankee troops filed past the springs and filled their canteens during a warm summer day in 1864. Hooker’s men held positions on a hill above the springs. I huffed and puffed my way to the top.

I took a snapshot of Reese Simmons, Nic Manley and Braxton Pryor, members of the Spalding Grays, at a rifle pit entrenchment that’s still around. The re-enactors’ young faces and uniforms made me wonder what it was like 146 years ago.

Calvin Livesay of Virginia was a young Rebel soldier at Resaca. He wrote, “Early in the spring of '64 we began to move toward Atlanta fighting more or less all the way. We had quite a battle at Resaca. Breast works were thrown up and we had a lively time. Here Johnston was driven back. Barnie Parks was killed and General Reynolds wounded. We were now put in Brown's Brigade of Tennesseans. We never saw General Reynolds any more.”

***

Jim Devine of Sweetwater, Tenn., rested on a wooden chair and made the most of the rare shade at Resaca.

Like others from eastern Tennessee he talked about split allegiances during the Civil War. His great-great-grandfather fought for the Union.

Devine had prepared about 50 musket rounds for the afternoon battle.

I asked the easygoing re-enactor about why he comes to events like Bentonville, Fort Sanders and Appomattox. His answer was succinct.

“I like camping out, friends and the camraderie.”

Photos: Battle of Resaca 2010

Between 500 and 600 re-enactors, including the North Florida Artillery, took part May 15, 2010, in the first of two re-enactments at the Chitwood property during the 26th annual Battle of Resaca. The day was warm and humid.
• Click here to see more Facebook photos

Just back from Battle of Resaca

Spent a few hours today in northwest Georgia at the 26th running of the Battle of Resaca. Got a few interesting interviews. Had to leave right before this afternoon's battle, unfortunately. Look for articles and photos beginning later today.

Alabama conjuring plays for 150th

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival isn't just staging plays. The state's most prestigious theater is staging a war -- The Civil War. ASF is working with the Alabama Tourism Department to create two plays in 2011 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the famous struggle. • Article

Soldier's grave may have been found

Gary Abrams is “pretty confident” he’s found the gravesite of Capt. Henry Clay Bartlett, a Union soldier who was killed in the Battle of Dug Gap some 146 years ago. Bartlett is believed to be buried at present day Ryman Farm. The tony subdivision, with its half million dollar homes, sits in the shadows of Dug Gap Mountain, Ga., and is the site of the former 160-acre Freylach farm, where many of the casualties were buried. • Article

Fort Stevens, Wilderness on endangered list

The Civil War Preservation Trust will announce Thursday morning that Washington's beleaguered Fort Stevens, where Abraham Lincoln came under enemy gunfire in 1864, has again been placed on the trust's annual list of most endangered Civil War battlefields. • Article

McClellan: A legend in his own mind

George B. McClellan, once one of the most celebrated Union generals of the Civil War era, is a mere footnote in the American consciousness today. But McClellan's story of an unraveling career and reputation, as told by North Texas historian and author John C. "Jack" Waugh, is one that's impossible to forget, according to a review. • Article

Missouri battle subject of PBS documentary

A Civil War battefield in Newtonia, Mo., will be the subject of a PBS documentary, with most of the filming taking place this week. About 100 reenactors will be in the town starting Thursday to film a documentary about a battle in 1862. • Article

Resaca re-enactment in N. Georgia May 14-16

Georgia’s longest-running Civil War re-enactment is expecting up to 1,000 participants and 5,000 spectators this weekend.

The Battle of Resaca, sponsored by Georgia Division Reenactors Association, is in its 26th year.

“We are very strict on authenticity and in field maneuvers,” says Ken Padgett, one of the organizers. “We will be as period-oriented as possible.”

The re-enactment features battles at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The venue is off Chitwood Road in Gordon County, about an hour and a half north of Atlanta.

Padgett says battle scenarios will be different each day.

On May 13-15, 1864, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army of Tennessee bloodied each other at Resaca. There was no clear winner. Sherman continued his march toward Atlanta, which he took several months later.

The Battle of Resaca event is popular with re-enactors, vendors and the public.

Spectators get great views of the battles, says Padgett. Members of about 100 units will participate, and organizers expect 30 sutlers. Camps open to the public at 9 a.m. A ladies tea, memorial service, dance and Sunday church service are planned.

Proceeds from the event, which costs about $18,000 to put on, will go toward Gordon County’s effort to make improvements at Fort Wayne, a part of the Resaca battlefield. Padgett is president of the Friends of Resaca, which has worked with the county to preserve Fort Wayne.

The Friends of Resaca and Gordon have long wanted a visitors center and facilities at a nearby large tract of the battle along I-75. The state originally planned to do it, but budget problems led to it giving the project to Gordon, which balked at shouldering $1.7 million as its share of the project.

Georgia since has taken the $3.3 million project back with plans to build a road, trails, signs and outdoor markers. The county would have to pay for the visitors center. Padgett said he hopes there will be at least $1 million left over from state funds to go toward the cost.

Gordon County will have two years to come up with funding for the building, which may be redesigned because current plans have it looking like “a spaceship,” says Padgett.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” says Padgett. “The visitors center would be imperative to give an overall view of what the battle was.”

Battle of Resaca. Admission: $5 adults, $2 children under 12, free for infants. Parking is free. The Gordon County Antique Tractor Club will provide free transportation from the spectator parking area to the battle site each day. Visitors are encouraged to bring portable chairs.

• Click here for official event Web site.

Displaced by road, vet properly buried

A Civil War veteran whose remains were discovered in a cemetery next to the Spaulding Turnpike last year was given a proper military burial Saturday in Rochester, N.H. • Article

Confederate Memorial Day steeped in tradition

June Murray Wells still remembers the Confederate Memorial Days of her childhood: the ladies in their black dresses, the wreaths, the little flags on the graves — and the last two living Confederate veterans in Charleston. • Article

Civil War treasures at National Archives

I wrote last week about the new major exhibition, "Discovering the Civil War," at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Here are some photos from the exhibition, which is heavy on interactivity.
This interactive looks at military and civilian leaders in the North and South.
You can click on any of these photos to see a larger version. • Click here for article on the show
The two-part exhibit is organized thematically. Part A topics are Breaking Apart, Raising Armies, Finding Leaders, We Were There, A Local Fight, and A Global War. Part B will cover six additional topics: Prisoners and Casualties, Innovation and Enterprise, Spies and Conspiracies, Emancipations, Endings and Beginnings, and Remembering.

Little glory for black Civil War vets

The students discovered the soldiers' gravestones by chance. They were cleaning up a filthy East Camden, N.J., park three weeks ago when one of their rakes scratched something hard in the grass. According to Camden County Historical Society records, the remains of about 250 black residents lie in the trash-strewn ground, formerly a cemetery, at 38th and Federal Streets. Among them are 123 members of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) who served in the Civil War. • Article

Hancock Society plans Memorial Day event

The W.S. Hancock Society is planning its annual Decoration (Memorial) Day observance at the mausoleum of the famed Union general.

The event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 31, at Montgomery Cemetery in Norristown, Pa.

Plans call for "a grand patriotic afternoon complete with music, floral tributes and a ceremony featuring Hancock Society historian, Bruce Stocking, along with a military time-line program to remind us of how things used to be."

The society will present a living history May 29-30 at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pa. Members will portray Hancock and his staff planning for an attempt on Richmond, Va.

For more information, please call 610-630-0912 or visit the society at www.wshancocksociety.org.

• Click here for my previous profile of the Hancock Society.

City to restore sword on monument

The City of Pottsville's Garfield Square Committee will spend $3,200 to replace a sword on the square's Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

Vandals had damaged the monument, removing the sword from the hilt of one of the statues.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Garfield Square was sculpted by an artist named August Zeller in 1889. • Article

Massive flag being repaired after storm

The Confederate flag at the junction of interstates 75 and 4 in Florida has been replaced – temporarily. The 30-by-60-foot flag is being repaired after wind and rain damage from an April storm, said Mike Herring, camp commander for the Gen. Jubal A. Early Camp 556 Sons of the Confederate Veterans of Tampa. • Article

Resaca battlefield park plans back on

It seems plans for the Resaca Battlefield Park are back on. The state has agreed to use $3.3 million to fund construction of roads, trails, parking lots and interpretive signage in what Gordon County Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Ken Padgett calls “phase one” of the project. • Article

'Sawbones' adds to re-enacting realism

The term “sawbones” in reference to surgeons is often connected to the Civil War, although it was used in literature by Charles Dickens in the 1830s. When upwards of 250 reenactors converge on New Bern this week for a large-scale battle, the grisly side of the would-be carnage will also be portrayed. Gary Riggs is the chief medical reenactor, a veteran of 10 years of Civil War recreations of field hospital operations. • Article

Fight against Wilderness Wal-Mart goes on

A judge has kept alive the battle to block a Wal-Mart store near an endangered Civil War battlefield in Virginia. • Article