Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-10-05
Correspondence Of the st. Louis Republican.
The Track of the War in virginia.
WASHINGTON, September 8.


Nv trp was necessarily short and hurried, but
it brougbtto view enough to convince me no sec
ton of country was ever so scourged by civil
warfare as that part of Virginia lying between the
Potomac and Rappahannock. They told me
that see the worst / would have to go beyond
Bull Run Mountains, but cannot conceive a
more appalling picture of universal ruin than
that on this side Perhaps the magnitude of an
extended survey may increase the heart-rending
appreciation, but it is impossible to realize a
scene of more utter ruin than marked the path of
my brief Journey. The devasted section extends
from Fredericksburg to the Shenandoah Valley,
and from Washington westward to the Blue
Ridge, including the counties of Fairfax, Prince
William, Stafford. Fauquier, Loudon, Jefferson,
Berkeley, Frederick, Clark, Warren. and Culpep.
per- Six different times has all this vast terri
tory been overrun by the contending armies of
the Union and the rebellion, and the blight and
destruction marking il to day will require the la
Dor and Improvement of a half century of peace
to remove. ast-s
In twenty FIVE miles travel outside of the
Washington fortihcations not a stalk of growing
corn is to be seen, and wild pasturage for a horse
cannot be obtained without travelling miles from
the main road and ii is the same feature all the
way to the Rappahannock. Cultivated farms
are nowhere to be found, excepting in interior
valleys of the Bull Run mountains, and even the
small family gardens are often wanting. Fences
have long since been burnt, aud the farming
lands, which once teemed with luxuriant crops of
corn, wheat, and tobacco, are now overgrown
with weeds and brush. untouched by the plow
and unviolatcd by the stock which once grazed
in countless numbers upon the surrounding bills.
1t is along this road that the scenes of desola-
ton are seen in their most painful aspect. The
common highways are worn and marked almost
beyond travelling with vehicle. and the bridges
are washed away; while the railroads running
north towards the Shenandoah Valley present
every feature Of ruin and decay Dridges and cul
yerts are destroy ed here and there the debris OF
a disabled locomotive or a smashed train piles
the track, With the long. lank grass growing amid
the ruins; rails missing, and Others have been
displaced: embankments have been washed away,
leaving long gaps In the structure; ties and
sleepers are rotting. and grass grows luxuriantly
between them. r11aI
All the mansions Of the once wealthy people
are deserted by the original occupants, and are
now occupied by soldiers, or by poorer classes OF
whites, who have been deprived of their own
shetering roof by the cruel exigencies Of war.
Along the roads, occupied houses the excep
tons. The majority are deserted. plundered and
dilapldated. while frequently nothing remains To
mark where they once stood. except solitary
chimneys, surrounded by heaps Of ashes and
charred timben. s,i~ syd ss seoss.lf !.
The ruins of an old mill presented one of the
most interesting sights among the many to be