Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-10-08
MORNING LEADER
me 9T01her Of SSThe T7o17- y


The following Interesting extract from a
published letter Of Judge ]. T. Mills, of
Wisconsin, is taken from the Journal of
that State
We left the pike and galloped by the
side Of g corn-feld and found ourselves in
a beautiful grove shaded by tai sycamores
- sylvan scene. We heard the merry
fall Of water, and there was Silver Spring,
on the premises of Montgomery Blair. The
water bubbles out of marble fountain,
and marble walls enclose it. A thousand
better springs in old Grant have no such
eostlVsdornings. There is q dipper for the
traveller. Here were Breekinridge's head
quarters. The dwelling-house is burned
to the ground. The fine ediiee of his ia
ther near by is untouched.
We called on Mrs Blair, the mother of
all the Blairs. She occupies stately man
sion with maiden daughter and niece.
Major Calls had extended his pickets TO
embrace her premises at her particular re-
quest She told the Major she was under
his protection and that she felt perfectly
safe.
uWhy, the Union soldiers" said she,
Eare the best men ever saw. They have
all the self-respect and moral department
of CromweIrs Ironsides. Tell your men,
sail she to the Major, ITO watch the peaches
when they fall; these belong TO them.-
Whatever 1 have will divide with my
protectors"
Learning who 1 was, she told me she
knew that all my relations were Union
mrn. She knew them when she lived in
Frankfort, Kentucky. She insisted we
should come and take dinner with her to-
morrow. u know you and Montgomery
will agree exactly"
II cannot dine with you tomorrow, as
much as desire to, Mrs. B., but have
one Of Moutgomery's speeches in my poek-
ct, 1 will read that tomorrow.
She gave me some peaches to take home
as 3 ne nento, and 1 promised her visit
in the good time coming, when the war is
ever. So under the guns Of Fort Stevens
I found one of the most intelligent women
of the nation, one who shone bright in the
world Of beauty and fashion in the hal
cyon days of Calhoun and Jackson. She
is well acquainted with the personal his
tory of all the leading men Of her time
She informed Colonel Calls of one fact he
did not know. "You have under the
range of your guns the only daughter of
Mr.. Calhoun; her husband, Colonel Calls,
is fighting you in the rebel army, and she
claims the protection of the stars and
stripes; take care, sir, of the grapevine
telegraph" Colonel Calls said he did not
know who the lady was that occupied that
house, but it had been recently destroyed.
She denounces the Rebel General Breck-
oil dago ~,
of the wizard of Lochiel "He was Vice
President Of the United States once, a
candidate for the Presidency, now an out
cast cattle droYer, except he steals the
cattle, an incendiary burning up the
very house that 50 often sheltsred
him and his infrm and smiable wife whom
he had deserted. he looked wistfully at
the spires of Washington; so Satan gazed
into Heaven when Ie passed by it once
He could not enter there, and ia his view
petty larceny, burglary, ana arson is war"
"Ihese border States, she SAID, If they
want peace must abolish slavery"
Why Is it, Mrs B., sine5 your husband
was live long Democrat that you and
your family are such Abolitionists; how can
anything good, (eXcuse the expression, }
come out VI Nazareth
Why, sir, my sister was the first agita-
tor OF the question L ever knew Ny nus
band always favored the abolition of slave
~, and agreed with the early opinions OF
Henry Clay"
Well, whore were you when General
Breckinridgs encamped al your springC
II went 70 Cape May. L could not Lear
the sight of the traitor. See there, what
some Of his staff, 1 suppose, wrote on the
pillar of the portico."
/ copied the billet-doux as follows;
an. B.-Attention is respectfully called
to the condition of this house end that of
Montgomery Blair, in connection with the
Governor Letcher's house, in Lexington
Va, Of the house of Colonel Anderson, a
Buchanan, Va, of the houses of numerOu:
others, by Hunter and Grant.
July II, 1864 A CoEFEDERATE.
But Confederate" thought better of it
and next day he burned Montgomery
Blsir's residence to the ground So w
returned to Fort Stevens, well satisfied
with our interview with lady who wa
worthy to be the mother of two of tn
most intellect ual men in the nation.
--SD@--