Not On This Hallowed Ground

By Jerome Cramer/Washington

In the rolling Virginia countryside some 30 miles from Washington, Confederate troops bloodied Union armies twice in the Civil War battles of Manassas. Now Manassas is up in arms again, this time over a 20th century invader: a 1.2 million-sq.-ft. shopping center that is being bulldozed on a site that served as Robert E. Lee's headquarters in 1862. "Greed is fighting a battle with our heritage," charges Annie Snyder, leader of the Save the Battlefield Coalition, a group struggling to protect the 540 acres adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park. "Developers want to pave over ground where brave men are buried."

The latest battle of Manassas began in earnest last January when Hazel/ Peterson Co., the largest land developers in northern Virginia, joined Edward DeBartolo, the nation's biggest shopping-center developer, to propose the mall, complete with new highway intersections, commuter parking lots and high- rise office buildings. Down came a barrage of hostile fire from outraged Civil War buffs, including Actor Charlton Heston and former White House Spokesman Jody Powell, a descendant of nine Manassas veterans. Ground where 4,200 soldiers gave their lives, say the preservationists, should not be overwhelmed by noise, traffic and pollution from up to 85,000 mall-bound cars a day.

The area in contention, known as Stuart's Hill, is adjacent to the park along the Warrenton Turnpike, which cuts through the heart of the battlefield. At the second battle of Manassas in 1862, the hill served as the staging ground for General James Longstreet's counterattack, which led to a Confederate victory.

Developers and spokesmen for the local government claim that the site is "historically insignificant." The location of the actual fighting, they point out, is well preserved within the national park, and a Hazel/Peterson spokesman insists that the mall architects have gone to great lengths to make sure most of the buildings will not be seen by tourists. Moreover, while historians estimate that 155 men died on or near the hill, a survey of the mall property uncovered only the grave of a dog.

Congress and a growing number of slow-growth rebels have joined the preservationists. "What price are we willing to put on our heritage?" asks Congressman Robert Mrazek, a New York Democrat whose office walls are lined with photographs of Civil War generals. "You can't hallow the sacrifice of those soldiers who died fighting for freedom with a Burger King or a Bloomingdale's." Mrazek and Texas Democrat Michael Andrews have introduced legislation authorizing the Federal Government to seize Stuart's Hill from the developers, at a cost of $35 million or more.

While Mrazek and 200 allies on Capitol Hill hope to bring the bill to a vote next month, Annie Snyder and her supporters are sniping from the grass-roots level. "We have Save the Battlefield battalions forming across the U.S.," she says. "Schoolchildren and veterans are writing and sending money." A former Marine officer, Snyder, 66, is a veteran of Manassas campaigns. In 1973 she fought to stop an amusement park planned for the same spot. For that victory, this Yankee from Pittsburgh was awarded the Jefferson Davis medal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.