The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-02-08

the subject Of remark. Some traveller Of th'
last century, searching for the real dsld upor
which the battle Of Cannm was fought, which
II seems WAS mcwhat In doubt could Get NJ
Information from the peasants, who replied 4
his "a uest tons that the place where they stood
| II might be the very spot on which the Consu
| EMlLIus fell-was called the field OF blood
| Ia consequence Of q great battle having beer
fought there before they were born. Tine Arab
living all around the ruins OF Nineveh. were
astounded at the discoveries OF LAYAED, ant
supposed he must have ascersained what lay
| underground BY means OF witchcraft. Mr.
| JxrrgRsoN says there were persons, in hi.
dav. living within a few miles OF HARPER
| Ferry. where the Potomac and Shenandoah
uniting rend passage through solid noun.
| tains Of lime stone, who had never had ,hs
curiosity to visit it, and we ourselves know q
man who dweit until he was twenty one years
| old within sound of Niagara, and vet had
| never seen it, So 1t has been with us. until
within the last week. We had been living
Heaven knows how long, within twelve miles
OF Camp Carter, without visiting its classic
precincts. Butwe are thankful that the charge
Of deficiency in curiosity, in that respect can
no longer be preferred against us with truth
We have been 70 Camp Garter. Let the sur.
vlving veterans of that memorable field, who
read the Dispatch. bear this in mind. and 10,
us ascend far above freezing point in their
esteem. when We record the interesting fact
Our first recollections are of the war of ,s1o-
not OF the incidents of that struggle, for we
were too young at first to comprehend them
but OF its existence Remembering no time
anterior to it's commencement, we very ration.
ally concluded that it had always been. We
decided in our own mind, or rather we lump.
ed at the conclusion without reasoning-as
the fairer portion OF creation always do. hit or
miss-that war was the normal state of man
We think this was not a very irrational conclu-
sion for a child, especially when we consider
that Sir WILLIAM NAPIER who wrote the
Peninsular campaigns, arrives at the very
same, after about twenty years of fighting,
and half as many Of writing, to say nothing
Of innumerabIe private squabbles, all grow
ing out Of the melancholy truth that nobody
ever was, or ever will he right, except the
gallant knight himself. The British We sup
posed TO be our national enemies, who We're
always fighting us for some cause or other, not
explained. and who always would be fighting
us. We did the well known disposition of
JOHN BULL to get into a scrape, ample justice
aud probably even more. We thought he de.
lighted in fighting-which was probably true
out we thought he did nothing else but fight.
1t was to HMM our imaginaton-meat,
drink, and daily wages. OF course we looked
upon our own people as always in the right.
They were poor, innocent unoffending class
Of beings, whose Threats these terrible British
were always coming here to cut, all for the
love of the thing Living about twenty-five
miles above Richmond, we were hearing every
day that the British were in Richmond and
were on their way to use us as we were as
sured they had already used the people down
there. Terribly was our imagination exercised
to understand what sort OF a thing a sword
was. We had been told-when we We're
what is technically called, in the nursery,
"bad''-that the British were coming, and that
it was their custom to cut off the heads of all
had boys" with their swords. Losing our
selves in ofconjecture, we at last settled it
ia our own minds. A sword must be some thing
like cutting box-the machine used for cut
Ting oats-since nothing we could think of
would take off boys head SO cleanly or with
so little trouble. That question settled to our
satisfaction another arose more perplexing
still. We heard a great deal about cannon
What manner Of thing was a cannon! We
had heard about the thunder of the cannon.
Now we knew that thunder made a terrible
loise, and here was thing that made thun-
Ter. With the wisdom not altogether pecu-
lar to the grave and considerate age OF fire.
We came to the conclusion that the two were
inseparably intermixed, in some way which
We could not exactly comprehend, and that
cannon was thunder, and thunder cannon.
Every body around us talked about war
drums, flies, swords, cannon, colors and bands
If music. Our ears were open to nothing
out
Gun, drum. trumpet. bunderbuss, and thunder
Persons returning from muster, told won
ders Of what they had seen. We We're diving
to the soldiers. What were they like -
Would they hurt little boy {. Would thew
let MS look at them! We had been told thai
some Of our neighbors had gone to fight the
British. OF course we concluded that The
British would kill ali of them. What fools
they were for going to be killed! But vet we |
wished to see the soldiers, and it was not long |
before We were gratified. 1t was announced |
that Capt. FORTUNES company" had halted |
for the night, upon the main road, few miles !
above the place of our residence. In the |
norni e they would pass by the spot on the |
'oad nearest us, and not more than a miie Off
We slept but little that night, in anticipation
# the pleasure to come. We were up long
before day. and our friends carried US to the
pot. The sun was shining brightly as they
advanced We never shall forget the impress
ion. The drum and fife were playing an air
which we remember to the Last bar even
low. We called it Captain FORTUNES
march, What its true name was, we never
Knew. The officers had cooked hats and
words. We then learned what a sword was
t did not come up to our preconceived ideas
xactly, but We thought there was something
ublime in the uniform coats of the officers
3ut above all, the plumes in their hats took our
ancy. They were of black feathers tipped with
ed. King SOLOMON in all his glory would
ave failed to make upon our Imagination the
produced by these plumes. 1t was
hen, for the first time. we heard of Camp
,arter. In very little time, we heard that
III the young men in our neighborhood were
Ding down to Camp Garter! Where was
amp Carter 1t was, to us, a strange, unde-
med, out of the way sort of a place, q few
undred miles the other side Of China which
pe had been told was the most distant spot in
be world Every body seemed to be going to
amp Garter. Everybody was a soldier at
amp Carter. In the course Of time, people
egan to come back from that mystical Camp
arter, where everything doomed grand and
hadowy to our childish imagination-as the I
ssyrians or Chaldees in history, or Cathay
} the romaucers of the middle ages, or Oregon
,geration did not harden us into unbelief, as
did that NEST estimable gentleman. ,
As We grew older, we grew familiar with