The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1862-11-13

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and continue on foot Here, as on all the
neighboring nights the commander has a
severe attack of lignomania. The trees, o1
chestnut and pine, have all been felled
their trunks and branches are blazing and
cracking, and your eyes are blinded with
smoke. The entire mountain top is burn
ing off, that no possible enemy may find
cover for another attack.
Here is a stockade and lookout, built
by the Rebels before our first ocupation
A few hundred yards beyond is the long
breastwork of Miles's men, where two
companies repulsed Rebel regiment.
How high the tide of war must run when
its ebbing and flowing waves wash this
nountain-top.
You are on the extreme summit Here
is an open tent of the signal corps labelled: !:
| 'DoN'T Touch THE INSTRUMENTS. ASK
NO QUESTIONS" Inside, two operators
are gazing at distant nights, through
fixed telescopes, and calling out "45," ="
"l69," 49," &C., which clerk records.
Each number represents some letter, sylla-
BILE Or abbreviated worG.
Look through the glass, at one of the
seven signal stations, from four to twenty
miles distant, which communicate with
/ this. You see flag of white ground,
with some large black figure upon the
centre 1t dips and rises so many waves
to the right, SO many to the left; then
different flag takes its place and dips and
rises in turn. These combinations form
perfect system Of telegraphing, by which
from one to three words per minute are
transmitted. This operator signals to the
one at headquarters "2OO Rebel cavalry
riding out of Charlestown this way field
piece on road, just this side;' and it oc-
cup;es five minutes.
Five miles is an easy distance to signal;
but messages can be sent between stations
twenty miles apart. The signal corps
keeps on the front, and their services are
often Of great value. Our troops in ta-
king possession here month ago, came
up in line of battle, with skirmishers out,
to pounce upon any remaining enemy
Arriving here, they were somewhat cha
grined to find the flags flying, and learn
that these telegraphic pioneers, close upon
the heels of the Rebels, had been signal
ing from the summit for twenty four
hours.
You are on the highest point of the
Blue Ridge 400 feet above the sea,
1000 above the Potomac, 400 above
Loudon Heights. Up the rocky path by
which you came climbs pony; on the
pony's back negro on TIE negroes head
a bucket of water. Behind comes mule,
with a coffee sack thrown over his back,
and in each end of it a keg of water.-
Thus all burdens are brought up.
Here is pyramidal lookout of logs, %
feet high, built as children build cob
houses. Climbing to the top, you have an
unobsiructed view. In the early morning
here you could only look out upon cold,
white, shoreless sea Of fog. Now, what a
grand panorama You look down into
all the country within radius Of twenty
miles, as you look down into the great
South Park, 75 miles in length, from that
peerless standpoint, the summit of Pixies
Peak, or as you gaze into your garden
from your own housetop.
The circle in your sweep of vision, forty
parts like the face of the compass-the
Blue Ridge crossing it from month to
south, the Potomac from west to east.
Face toward the east. To your right
stretches the summit Of the Blue Ridge.
Loudon Heights, only a continuation of
these, seem distant hardly stones throw.
You see no hint of any break in the
summit But they are mile away, and
the Potomac in its deep, hidden gorge,
rolls between. In the tents scattered
over them are the troops of the second
division of the twelfth corps under Geary,
who as Governor of Kansas, in the days
of Franklin Pierce, made the acquaintance
of the same slave power he is fighting
now.
- Before you winGs the Potomac, its
CLASSY surface broken by shrubs, rocks
and islands; the canal iringing It's left
bsuk like a faint liue Of silver; the villa
ges of Weaverton and Knoxville, and the |
lonely stone piers of the destroyed Berlin |
bridge. There the river plunges into the |
green, wooded hills and is lost to view
Ten miles away near Point of Rocks, it
straight, smooth, flashing
bar of light To the left of it Sugar
Loaf Mountain and still further, sweep
ing around toward the north, dim, hazy |
hills bound the view.
At your feet lies Pleasant Valley-a |
smooth, symmetric trough, scooped out of
the mountain-a great furrow, five miles
in length acruss from edge to edge. 1t IL |
full of camps--white villages Of tents,
with their streets and squares, and black |
groups of batteries but the scene is pas
toral rather than martial. You look