RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news begins with Wal-Mart's battlefield victory.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: When Wal-Mart decided to build a supercenter near one of the country's most important Civil War battlefields, a modern-day conflict loomed.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: The Wilderness Battlefield in rural Virginia is where Robert E. Lee fought Ulysses Grant in a two-day battle that left nearly 30,000 soldiers dead.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Opposition to the Wal-Mart store was fierce. It came from state officials, historians and Civil War buffs who feared commercial sprawl would engulf the venerated site.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Now, after a long struggle, Wal-Mart has won approval to build. In the end, opponents of the store were defeated by those who favored the jobs, the tax revenue and the shopping that the store will bring to this rural area.
Officials in central Virginia have approved plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter near one of the nation's most important Civil War battlefields. The Wilderness Battlefield is where generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first met in battle 145 years ago. Construction could begin in a year.