Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1864-1869, 1865-01-28
view of RIliChmOnd from Il Sig
nel Tower.


Correspondence Of tho Providence Journal
UMrRp STATES STEAMER ONoSDAGo,
JAMES RIVER, Va, Nov. u, 1851,
'Tis only ono hour after midday, and
all the morning the war arguments for Sc
ccs'ion were bursting not two hundred
yards from us, and through the air was
boruo to our ears the occasional booming
Of the guns ut Petersburg. Yet now tho
riyeris unruIIlod with bursting shell, and
from the distance We hear no sound, One
feels an impulse springing out from q day
like this, that he may gtt-up-somowhOro,
and see all its beauty and mhale all It's
sweetness. twill take but q moment to
reach the top of this oak-crownol bluff
near by, and from the tall signal station
thore Is an unbroken Wow Of this bcauu-
rul valley OF ton james, If you'll look
with borrowed eyes, VIC viii see the pauo-
ramp and take apeep at Richmond,
We sand facing the north, and looking
up the valley Of the curvng, bending
river, which flows by, away beneath US,
md after its scrpentino twistings is lost
in the forests beyond. We look downupo
the river and SEQ the vessels like winged
piokcts, guarding its visible oxtcnt below.
| We look down the river, and ut Deep Bot.
tom and Mt Joncs's Landing see the un.
lading Of vessels, the moving Of army
wagons, and all that hustle which seems to
BIZ component par. of settlements such
as these points become. Leaving thoriycr
we follow with our eyes along that train
Of white-coyered army Wagons, which LOOK
/ luke mere spocks on The land, but whicAmC
Gllcl with supplies aad form necessary
link with our new front won by BirncN
and his compaTiots on tho 10Th and JOt
of September The trains slowly move tC
| the north, and having crossed the broaC
undnlating plains, enter tho woods from
our sight. But the fclled timber mark
the way, and we look across the tree tops
and Just beyond the border Of tho wood
on tho rising ground, we discover yell
Ilowish brown ombankmcn', which we in
stantlv sccis m carthwOrk, and stron,
one. 1t is Fort Harrison, and when tn
rebels held it, Richmond paper stated ]
was ono of the strongest dclcuccs Of th
city. Close to it, apparently, and secmin
to formN part Of it, Il q long yellow line
broken here and there by the mtowcnin
trees Itii the rebel line, and six or soyc
hundred yards from the fort. Away O
farther 10 the right and at an opening !
tho woods, we can just discover the posi-
ton at Newmarket Heights. The whit
tents, so distant, seem more points Q
. light. Immediately in front Of us is th
t neck of the balloon-shaped peninsula
around which tho river runs its tortuou
D course, and only separated from itself
D the uauowcst part Of the mock, by dis
, anco of l3S yards, and Mt this point Il
Q work ia in progress of cutting tho hastiI
a projected, soon to be finished, notoriou
r James RivOr Butler, Dutch Gap Canal
G We can look down into the excayatC
? which has boen made, and see the pickiI
/ and digging and wheeling, men, hors
n and carts, all apparently a mass Of conf
+ sion. Thenoise Of the inccssant clankil
= Of the dredging machine comes up to o.
d ears rs it scoops, scoops Its measure
r mud, and cats It's way into the earth.
d the opposite end Of the canal the river
: quite narrow. and across it the land
Ii low and marshy, and we can barely s.
J. tho two or three saoeah pickets who q
d stcalthily moving along, they SO much r
D. semble in color the earth from which th'
70 seem to have sprung, The marshy ira
Of extends some distance AWAY, and joins Z
NJ land which rises gradually to . natuT
i. terrace. Near tho centre of the mar
st there is a cluster Of trees FROM which t