The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1862-05-03
nar nlattcrs.
A Morning at Manassas.
By REV. THEODORE l.. CUYLER.

At early sunrise we stood on the deserte
Notifications Of Centcrville, and looked down
on the picture of desolaton spread out before
u.s., All the way from Washington We had been
riding amid the s. abominaliou of dcsolation -
like that " spoken of by Daniel the prophet"
Onehalf of all the dwellings are in ashes
Orchards are destroyed. The land licth waste
No! pillow did we SEQ in tho furrow; not a
laborer did we see in the silent fields. Tho
spring, with its sweet voices, was calling for
the husbandnian but no man came at her
bidding.
We inquired for the people. Tho answer
was " some OF the men are gone with the
secession army others are Unionists in
Richmond jails, or exiles beyond tho Poto-
mac" AS for the slaves, a large portion were
carried OIL by the rebels a few still linger !;
but the larger portion have pushed for the
land of liberty. AT the first farm house
where we stopped, one-halfof the " chattels :"
had transformed themselves into free
men that very morning. One poor sad
faced creature by the road side, in reply
to the question, 'sWhen did the rebel
leave here ~ answered, :. They went two
weeks ago glad dcy are gone, if dey had only
left my poor boy. Dey stole him away and
took him along"
One village through which we passed.
Only two ruined houses remain! The rest
ale but heaps of charred and backcned rub
bish. The s,reets-through which happy vii
lage children played twelvemonh since
are now perfectly silent, save as they echo to
the ringing hoofs of passing squadrons of
cavalary. On the whole distance we saw but
few white people and they were a cowed
sulen, brokcn-spirit-d class, impoverished,
and evidently full of hate towards their con-
qucrors. The most intellectual class have fled
for the South. The women and lads are
loyal only 6. from the throat outwards. p
Their hearts are with the rebellion and
slavery.
All this widespread dcsolation we left
behind us on our way to Ccntervilc. But
from the deserted earth-works on the
heighths new picture of wars dread ravages
untolded to our eye. Close by us, to the left,
was long row of unsodded graves, marked
only by a bit of wood, on which was penclled
the name OF the sleeper beneath. 1t was a
row of buried Gcorgians. Beside them lie
two OF three loyalists-one Of them Lieut.
Richardson of the End Maine Regiment
Below the burial ground stand Gen. John
ston's headquarters, and nearly opposite is
the house ofgood, kind DR.. Robert Alcxan-
der, who for year, has been nursing the
sick and wounded of both armies. His house
Miles of Gen. Gustavus Smith of Rebeldom
and Of the gallant Spraguc ofRhode Island.
His sweet daughter has been a Florence
Nightingale to friend and foe. The pocket
Bible which she handed me for family wor-
ship had been given her by a South Carolina
officer on his dying bed. Do not wonder
that my nerves are shaken,'' said she, "
have nurscd seven men who were down with
typhoid fever in this house at the same time
| was in my sisters cottage on the battle
field through the great fight on the 2lst of
July. We fled to the cellar, and all day long
| could hear the shricks of the Confederate
soldiers crying for water as they were carried
off wounded from the feld.''
Near DR.. Aexander's house is an empty
stone church, on whose bare floor forty
wounded loyalists lay in their blood at one
time. Across the field stands Beauregard' s
winter quarters surrounded by acres of
deserted rebel cabins stretched away towards
Cub Run. Costly sheltered were those
traitors through the cold months-far better
housed than our own troops on the Potomac.
They were mol strongly defended, and except
by the soft spongy ground to the right and
left of the Warrenton road, in which
McClellun's cavalry and aItillcry-wheels
would have mircd on every day but half
dozen since the first OF January. That he
could have taken Manassas is very clear /;
but only could he have done it at vast cost of
life.
Do yon sec, in yonder distance forest
beyond Bull RUM Beside that" in one
red burial blent "-sleep the dead of Brook
lyn's gallant Fourteenth. Away to the LETT,
full three miles, stands the famous {" Lewis
House." In its yard stood Beauregard
when he directed the opening of the fight
1t was once an aristocratic Virginia mansion.
To-day it is scuttled run,-with empty
rooms broken windows, and even the stair
rails going off for relics to the tour quarters
of the earth. A gray-haired negro has the
charge of the premises. lie is lord of the
manor now I; a realization of John Randolph's
famous prediction g that the masters would
yet run away and the slaves advertise them"
Lett of the Lewis House-in the dim distance
stretches vast arear of putrid mud, min
gled with burnt fragments of tents and army
wagons, and delaying horses; and that foul,
misunderstanding Aceldama is tho we'll
known Junction OF Manassas.
What scene! What mighty lesson over
hangs it on the loaded air! What voices of
warning speak from Wonder cory prayesi-