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CWPT Map: Wilderness Battlefield and Vicinity — Proposed Walmart Supercenter Location

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The Wilderness Battlefield and the Proposed Walmart Supercenter Location

The Battle of the Wilderness, fought in early May 1864, was one of the largest and most important battles of the Civil War. It marked the first clash between legendary Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The battle also initiated Grant’s famous “Overland Campaign” that exhausted both armies and took the Union forces to the gates of Richmond.

For two days, bloody fighting raged along the Orange Turnpike (present day Route 20) and the Orange Plank Road. More than 160,000 men were engaged in the struggle at the Wilderness. The see-saw battle culminated in attacks that first had the Confederate Army, then their Union counterparts, teetering on the edge of destruction. When the guns fell silent on the evening of May 6, nearly 29,000 Americans had been killed, wounded or captured.