Well, that is definitely the good news, as portions of these hallowed grounds are usually being taken away, rather than restored. Here is the bad news. The reclamation comes because of the economic downturn of the past several years as the prior industrial occupant, GM's Powertrain Plant, has closed and filed Chapter 11. When auto making declined, the employees were pink slipped and the plant closed. The ground is significant because during the Battle of Fredericksburg {Virginia}, where the site of the plant ultimately was built, Union forces under General Meade broke through a gap in Confederate lines, and almost were able to post a victory, rather than eventual defeat. The plant will be razed allowing for a return to a 'green zone.'We did not visit the Spotsylvania area's multiple sites during our most recent sabbatical, but it is wonderful ground to visit. Condensed in one small region are the sites of the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville {where dynamic Confederate General, and Robert E. Lee's right arm, Stonewall Jackson, was shot by friendly fire while scouting his lines at night-his troops thought his riding party was Union cavalry. This event occurred just before the Gettysburg campaign, and was a devastating tactical/morale loss}, The Wilderness, Salem Church and Spotsylvania Court House. Quite a victory for nature, history and the Park Service. We only wish that the employer lost was just another McDonalds or Dollar type store instead of a blue-collared, well paying manufacturing job site that America needs so badly to turn our economy around. We have some good pictures of these battle sites, including Stonewall's burial site, but on old fashioned paper-not digital. Maybe during our next sabbatical we will go south and get some updated digital pix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson {Final words: "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."}