RICHMOND, VA. (AP) - Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson has agreed to testify on behalf of northern Virginia residents attempting to block the construction of a Walmart Supercenter near an endangered Civil War battlefield.
McPherson will testify in January that the Walmart site in Locust Grove was blood-soaked ground in the Battle of the Wilderness, according to a summary of his testimony released Tuesday.
The testimony is intended to counter claims by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and supporters that the site was only a staging area for the 1864 battle.
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Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in combat for the first time at the Battle of the Wilderness. It is viewed as a turning point in the war, which ended 11 months later.
Trial is scheduled in local circuit court.
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