Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1863-12-11
From the Third Regiment.
LINCOLN HOSPITAL, WASH !
INGToN, December LIST, 1868. (

DEAR EDITOR A strong tendency
of our being is to localize; to desire on,
spot for ourselves TO be more loved, more
sacred than all others, where shall be con
gregated our hopes, our joys, our sympa.
thies, and where may be collected our
, means for worldly happiness and advance.
ment. Especially is this the case with
respect to our religious feelings and de-
sires. No marvel, therefore, should igno.
rance, superstition or even more intelli-
gent religious emotions cause their pos
, SCISSOR to walk softly when approaching
the place which, in his imagination, has
been made holy by some formal consecra-
ton. Ere the idea of an Omnipresent
became familiar TO the human mind, both
Patriarch and believing Hebrew were
wont to look upon each place where God
has vouchsafed some special manfesta~
ton of his goodness, as possessing Pc
cuiar, even useful sacredness, calling it
Bethel House of God, Gate of Heaven.
Nor were such feelings in the creature
discouraged by him to whom all places
are alike sacred stake thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place wbereon thou
standest is holy ground" Similar feel>
ings at once take possession of the
thoughtful mind, when approaching to,
and traversing the place where some
great battle has been fought. For such
visits and mental exercises our frequent
condition during the past season has been
strongly propitious. Nearly three years
have we been on our attempted journey
from Washington to Richmond, a dis.
lance, which by railroad, we might travel
in almost as many hours. Had Bunyan's
sojourner made no more rapid progress
ion towards his desired City, he might,
perchance, have been on his pilgrimage
till now. Had that marvellous dreamer,
in Bedford Jail, accompanied US in our
ever varying efforts to reach the Confed-
ate Capital, allegory and similitude might
have been laid aside, and the world fur
nished with huge volume of fact, stran-
ger than fiction. During our varied for
wards and backwards, advances and re-
treats, rights and lehs, ups and downs,
stops and starts, hithers and thithers, an
opportunity has been afforded leisurely |
to visit nearly every important battle /
field of the Potomac army. Already in
this war of magnificent dimensions, a |
dozen fields Of slaughter have been left to
history, greater as to the number OF com
batants than Waterloo, and with even
more killed or mu.ilated on each Of them,
than upon that far famed field of blood.
So common have become these vast To-
caliies of slaughter, that for the present
much of that wanted reverence and even
fright is wanting while passing over them.
Fifty years hence, our grandchildren
will come on pilgrimage and tread with
sacred awe and holy reverence, these
places, where every sod is a soldiers sep
nlchre. Such feelings are almost unknown
to him whose feet, as he traverses, are
yet defiled with gore, whose nostriIs are
filed with stencil, whose eyes are averted
from CHASTITY corpses, and in whose ears
he tumult of battle yet rings. we are
now traversing and camping upon, by
ar, the largest battle area ever measured
n the worlds history of carnage. The
eastern part of Virginia, with portions of
Maryland and Pennsylvania, comprising
10000 miles, widening to hundred {
miles on every side, from the northwest /
of the Shenandoah valley to the
James River, from the Chesapeake to !
he Rapidan, has been converted during
he past three years into grand amphi- 5
heatre for tournament of arms-a I
magnificent duel, aud, as result, has be- (
ome a great charnel house, vast Col a
,otha, wide spread Aceldama, a literal @
ield of blood. Fields, forests, bills, val t
eys, meadows, orchards, gardens, over Q
II this wide extended region, with scarce
n exempted spot, have already been oc- 4
upied as camping ground by either
riend or foe. During our late strategic t
movements, our hide and 90 seek, our re- 7
reating and pursuing, the general course n
ed US twice over the battle scenes of il
Bull Run. Not as many evidences of h
ne fierce and bloody struggles which
'ok place remain as might be supposed. .
luxuriant growth Of grass and weeds, n
'ithout flock or herd to Craze thereon, n
Overed all that great battle region when tf
'aversed by US. The debris from the II
arious clashings together of farcely :"
hosts, scattered over wide b
sgion in the vicinity of Bull Run, could
OF generally be discovered until struck Sc
gainst by your own or the foot of your =,
orse. Even the little mounds, called Ct
raves, scattered without order over hill Ii,