COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

‘Civil War’ Producer Criticizes Disney: Ken Burns, producer of the acclaimed public television series, said building a theme park near a historic battlefield in Virginia could destroy a place “where the ghosts of our collective past still have the power to mesmerize.” Burns said he was joining other historians in urging Walt Disney Co. to build elsewhere even though he too is in the business of popularizing history “and, in fact . . . (am) working with Disney on another unrelated history project.” Burns is under contract as a consultant on a documentary about baseball. He issued his statement through Protect Historic America, a group of writers and historians that last week asked Disney not to build the park on the proposed site near the Civil War battlefield at Manassas, Va., near Washington.