The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-06-12

Passing down the hill and over the In
tervening ravine, I climbed up the
hill into the old rebel fort proper.
Here the wear of time and the ele-
ments on the extensive line of earth
works, is very evident. In some places
the ditch is filed up and the ramparts
nearly leveled. But on the West and
South side, where the works were the
heaviest and the moat the deepest,
they still present quite formidable
aspect, nearly as strong and perfect as
on that Sabbath morning, when our
boys marched in under the stars and
stripes, from the adjoining hills, to re-
ceive the rebel surrender. The long
lines of log huts within the fortifca-
ton, which made such welcome quar-
tiers. after the three days expos
ure to the snow and mire and mud
in the open air, are all gone now, and
not vestige of them is left. An en-
terbrising freedman, feeling that the
soil was now by the double right of
conquest the property of the Govern
ment, and that he was. one of Uncle
Sans children, last year exercised of
his own will the right of possession,
and ploughed the old fort into a corn
field. But it was sorry soil at best,
and under his primitive mode of Gull
tivation, yielded him poor return
for his toll. This season the freed
men appear to understand the politi-
cal situation. Fearing that after the
crops was planted and the work done,
the old owner of the soil, some par
doned rebel, would step in and possess
himself of the fruits of others labor,
the Fort this year stands an unculti-
waited corn-feld. Climbing over the
earthworks on the river front, / made
my way down the bank through an
almost impenetrable thieket of under
growth to the celebrated Water Bat
terry, where the rebel gunners so sue
cessfully withstood the terrible two
days pounding of Admiral Foote's
iron-clads. Here they first learned
in the war, that well-built earth
work, manned by determined and
skillful artillerists, may successfully
resist the attack of vessels. That
battery took away from the gunboats
much of their terror. All traces of
the magazine is gone, and the en-
trenchments are fast being worn down
to the level of the bank. The EN-
brasures for the guns can be distin-
guished yet, but another season Of
As | stood upon the embankment
and looked down the long reach Of
the river, pictured to myself the
grim gunboats below, the uproar, the
smoke and the terrors of that terrible
cannonading; and then thought of
the contest which was raging on the
adjoining hills-how the gallant
boys of the 25th Indiana, who had
charged with so much spirit up to the
very front of the rebel line of works.
and received their first taste of battle
in that murderous FIRE which left so
many of them on the feld-how they
clung to the hillside with such tenaci-.
ty those long hours, unwilling to give
up an inch of the ground gained
how they longed to hear that the gun
boats had re-enacted the work of Fort
Henry. We leaned upon the gun
boats then as the right arm of our ri
strength. But their firing grew
slower and slower, until at last word
came that the rebel fort was still un- 2
taken, and that ground, SO long held,
was, for the day at least, to be aban-
doned. Soldiers, in the enthusiasm m
of their first battle, are 10th to give
up the ground they have won, espe-
eially when it has been consecrated
with SO much of their best blood.
Leaving the water battery, and pass
ing again through the old rebel fort
| followed blind road leading out to |
the tier Of rugged hills, upon which
the rebels had established their long |
line Of battle and protected it by rife |
pits, which proved so hard for our |
gallant army to break over in that
three days battle. I made my way to.
the crest of the hill, which was most
full Of interest to me, and would be to
most of your readers, who were par