Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-23
FROM CLEVELAND TO WASHING
TON.
The Baltimore and Ohio RaIIrOad--
Historic Rights and S~cenes-The Re-
Elections of a MISUNDERSTANDING
MemenGOes of the War.
Editorial Correspondents Cleveland IrADrn

MeMenlOeS Oh the NtEs
Editorial Correspondence Cleveland LEADER
WASHINGTON, February l6, 1866.
Five years ago, lacking a few days,
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated Presi-
dent. In company with a large number
of Cleyelanders, all going on a like errand
with myself, we started for Washington,
for the purpose of being present at the
inauguration, and also for the purpose of
attending to some pirate business, which
the reader perhaps can guess. Some went
by the way of the Pennsylvania Central,
while the writer of this, and others, went
by the Baltimore and Ohio route.
At that time the political horizon was
dark and gloomy. The very air was filed
with rank treason, the spoutings of South
ern secessionists and their northern Demo-
cratic copperhead sympathizers. While
passing at that time over the apparently
peaceful valleys and slumbering noun
tains of Virginia, we saw at various places
along the line of the road, Haunting in the
breeze, the ominous flag of the Southern
Confederacy, then in process of formation.
As wepassed by the village of Martinsburg,
over the plains of the Shenandoah valley,
and through the gigantic gateway of Har-
per's Ferry, how little, ali how little, did
we imagine that that lovely region would,
within a few short months, become the
scene of a score of bloody battles-that
countless hosts would be there engaged in
fratricidal hostility-that the green fields
would be Redeemed with the blood of the
brave defenders of Freedom on one side.
and Of the brave but traitorous champions
Of Slavery on the other-that their graves
would dot the ground thickly and not far
apart-that the little village of Martins
burg, where We stopped on the trip of
which 1 speak, and partook of an excel
lent meal at the station dining-room.
should change hands during the four years
of war twenty-sie times-that that little
dining room, together with the machine
shops, and scores of locomotives and cars.
should be burned by men who were en-
~deavoring to destroy the best and mildest
government the sun ever shone upon
that the Armory buildings at Harper's
Ferry, filled with ingenious and costly
machines and thousands of FURNISHED
muskets, would in the hour of dark
midnight be consigned to the flames in
order to prevent its capture by rebels,
by Lieut.. Jones and his band of
thirty brave soldiers, whom we saw sta
toned there to guard the premises-that
Harper's Ferry would be the scene of the
surrender of 1900 Union soldiers to a
rebel army, through the imbecility or
cowardioe of Colonies Miles and Ford
and that one Of the great battles in the
worlds history, (Antietam,) would be
fought within a few miles of the road that
we were then travelling overl What a
history has been made in this brief
period
While going over the Baltimore and
Ohio road yesterday we saw indubitable
evidence of the existence of war in the
shape of earth-works, Notifications, block
houses to defend important bridges, burned
and twisted railroad irons, the absence of
rail-fences in the neighborhood of camp
ing grounds of the different armies,
which were burnt for fuel the ruins
Of the burnt buildings at Martinsburg
and the remains of the series of Armory
Buildings at the Ferry. We tried, as these
evidences of the great contest fitted by,
and we caught casual glimpses of them
through the car-window, to draw a pic
ture, from Imagination, of the scenes these
valleys have witnessed-of the horrors of
war that have been enacted within them,
and of the appearance of armies engaged
ia the different battles. In endeaT oring
60 do this, the mind ran irresistibly back
to the ride of the gallant Phil. Sheridan,
which resulted in our saving tho daz in.
the final battle which gave US the undis-
puted possession of the Shenandoah
Valley.
The region of country above Harper's
Ferry and through the valley has indeed
become historic. This, added to the fact
that the scenery along the line of the
Baltimore and Ohio is the grandest
of all sceneries to be found on any rail-
road route in this country, must make a
trip by way of Harper's Ferry to Wash
ington or Baltimore a peculiarly interest
ing one to the tourist.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pany, with an u~nequalled energy, are re-
covering from the great blow inflicted on
them by the loss of traffic during the re-
bellion. The track is being entirely re-
newed, and buildings destroyed are being
rebuilt, and it is safe to say that by sum
mer the road will have been restored to its
original state. As it is now the travel
over the road is large and increasing.
K ~