Chancellorsville preservation was splendid

Date published: 3/6/2005

Your recent editorial ["Hallowed ground," Feb. 28] speaks about "the Chancellorsville lesson" to be learned from recent events, which saw the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors, preservationists, and developer Tricord Inc. come together in a spirit of comity, cooperation, and compromise to save 140 acres of hallowed ground on the Chancellorsville battlefield.

That coming together between those three groups--groups so often at each other's throats in years past--does indeed signal a sea change in attitude and approach when it comes to the vexing question of how to balance development (which is inevitable) and preservation of battlefield land (which is vital for historical, economic, and quality-of-life reasons).

No more animosity and impugning of motives. No more personal insults and invective. No more speaking at cross purposes. Instead, a willingness to come together in a spirit of mutual respect to find common ground, a willingness to listen and to learn from one another, a willingness to give and to take.

In the future there will be disagreements among the sides, of course. And sometimes differing perspectives will simply be irreconcilable. But this recent success story at Chancellorsville offers both example of and testimony to the fact that it can be done.

We of Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, our local battlefield-preservation organization, applaud and appreciate what the Spotsylvania board, Tricord Inc., and Civil War Preservation Trust have done, and we pledge to continue to fight the good fight for battlefield preservation in that same spirit.

If all who live in and love this community do the same, there is indeed (as the editorial says) "reason for optimism."

Mike Stevens

Fredericksburg

Mike Stevens is president of Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

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Date published: 3/6/2005