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I agree too.

I visited Fredricksburg about 10 years ago and was dishearteningly to see houses built over the fields in front of Marye's Heights and the Sunken Road. I am a realist though and I realize a town has to expand in 130-some years, but still, it was sad to think how many Union boys lost their lives on that field and now it's covered with houses.

Gettysburg is one of the few places where we have the room and the will to keep a battlefield looking closely like it did on the day of the battle that made it famous. I would just as soon we did.

It was a boyhood visit to Gettysburg that sparked my interest in history which, in turn, probably set me on the road to being a conservative.

I've been to Fredericksburg several times and have seen the commercial exploitation. It's a shame.

Over the past 50-80 years here at Gettysburg, much has been done to eliminate commercial endeavors on battlefield grounds -- ie, removal of a junkyard, a Stuckey's restaurant at the peach orchard, and the buying up of some private houses. That's as it should be and I'm satisfied with it.

My gripe is the devastation of the natural beauty that goes along with woodlots that have grown in abundance since the end of the battle.

To me, and to many others, the woods are renewal. The sacrifice was made here by the men of the north and the men of the south.

Military tactics could still be studied without having to devastate the woodlands.

Paths could have been constructed through these areas, and those who liked to walk (I do) could walk through the pristine woodlands and still see the ground up close and personal. I've learned much about the battle by walking the ground, and then come home and read about that very same ground.

The battlefield administrators constantly say they don't enough money for basic park maintenance, and they have let personell go.

In reality, they are spending millions cutting the woods, ruining the habitat for wildlife, and in the long run creating an erosion problem in the Monacacy River, which receives all the tributaries that run through the battlefield lands.

In the realm of the spiritual, it's a sin. A mortal sin. That's all I can say.

visited Fredricksburg about 10 years ago and was dishearteningly to see houses built over the fields in front of Marye's Heights and the Sunken Road.

That has happened in a lot of places. Here is a picture of the Pyramids in Egypt showing how close the city is.

Most of the pictures you see are taken from the other side, so that you see only desert. But on the city side, the buildings come right up to the edge of the plateau.

Here's the opposite view from the Great Pyramid looking out over the Sphinx towards Cairo. See how close it is?