Walmart drops plan to build store near Civil War site

Orange, Va. -- Wal-Mart Stores has abandoned its plans to build a Walmart Superstore near a Civil War battlefield in Virginia. The retailer’s lawyers made the announcement Wednesday in a northern Virginia court, where a judge has been hearing a case to block the plan.



Wal-Mart won local approval to build the store near the Wilderness Battlefield. But preservationists, historians and some residents went to court to overturn that 2009 decision. Opponents say the store would infringe on the site of a key May 1864 battle where historians say the Civil War began to turn in favor of the North.