The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-12-24

soundly thrashed by little army, of
which the 7th, 18th and 18th Indiana
regiments were the most important
part Here, two months later, the
9th Indiana, with the other com
mands of Gordon's brigade, with
stood the assaults of twenty eight
rebel regiments, repnlsing them after
three and a half hours of terrible
fighting. And here, two years later,
the 18th Indiana, In the army of
glorious Phil. Sheridan, taught the
rebels the most expensive lesson of
the war, and chased the surviving
fugitives of Early's army out
of this r-desolated garden, leaving
a bloody trail thickly strewn with the
bodies of their comrades.
On every hill from Falling Wa tiers
to Front Royal and Harrisonburgh,
the camp fires of Indiana regiments
have burned From every wayside
spring the Hoosier boys have filed
their canteens. Every mile of this
old Staunton Pike has been traced
and retraced by their weary feet, till
all the landscape is indellibly photo
graphed upon their memories in pic
lures as distinct as the farms on
which they were born and reared. or
the streets of their native towns.
There are those among the readers
of the JOURNAL whose limbs were
Topped away" by the surgeons
knife and saw in yonder hospital.
The old building has a strange and
varied history. First-a church, from
whose sacred desk white cravated
f" divines" proclaimed the God-or-
dained origin of slavery, and
profanely mingled the precepts
of Christ with the hell-inspired
teachings of Calhoun; next, a Sem
mary where polite learning was
disseminated to the offspring of the
dominant race, but where it would
have been penitentiary ofense to
teach a descendant of Ham to spell
God, even though the chattle's i'm
mediate father might have BEEN the
Mayor of the city; next, Union
hospital, where brave men died to
overthrow the theories which preach
ers and teachers had there labored to
perpetuate; next, a rebel hospital,
where brave men, blinded by bigotry,
prejudice and passion, suffered and
died for a cause on which Christian
civilization had even then stamped
in black letters, INFAMY, and which
each advancing wave of the tide
of human progress will bury deeper
and deeper beneath the. worlds
contempt; again, Union hos
pital when the rebellion was reel
ing to it's grave beneath the staggering
blows of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan
and Thomas; now, barracks for de-
tachment of Union soldiers, the sight
of whose blue coats brings tears of
rage to the fiery eyes of many an un-
tanned rebel. If the old building
could be galvanized into life long
enough to dictate its autobiography,
it would be better book than :" Nor
wood and command more readers
than Holiness latest production.
Although much of the surrounding
country was desolated by the Union
and rebel armies in their many cam
paigns through this valley, this city
suffered comparatively little, and
since the return Of peace has enjoyed
a business prosperity Except in her
former chief export, negroes, unknown
at any previous period of her history.
This is, practically, the valley
terminus of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, for, though the
main line of that road a" files left "
across the Potomac at Harper's Ferry,
branch shoots off to the right from
that place, extending thirty-two miles,
terminating here and making this the !
depot of supplies for all" the upper
country" Before the war this Win
chester & Potomac Railroad was a
sorry burlesque on railways. Origin
ally laid with light scrap iron"
spiked on stringers, )" and, the Com
pany being too poor to replace it with
heavier rails, the wear and tear of
time and use were mended with
patches, until the iron was reduced to
an average length of little more than
four feet. Cars had to be copper
bottomed . to keep the snake
heads " from coming up through !
them, as the old rat-traps F" witch
ed and jolted along behind crazy,
asthmatic engine at the rate of six to
eight miles per hour. Military ne
cessity +" relaid the track with the
best material, aud furnished it with |
rolling stock. Nowyou : boom along 4
over smooth track, in good car, at
the speed OF twenty miles an hour.
II Us Iao tiS " CFetHUolC o6HS4EtSu5
this city. as well as many others in
different parts of the Southg by Civ
ing them improved railroad facilities.
The firm of Taylor, Kiger & Co,
one Of the leading business houses !
here, tell me they are selling more |
goods now than they sold before the |
war. and that, too, for cash.
The streets are filled with farm
wagons, bringing in country products
and taking out supplies. Everything
indicates that business is looking /
nm - The hittaraSt rahalS. d;s0r,.-e3 7