The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-12-11
LETTER FROM VIRGINIA.

possibly grow INTO a series, CIU>Gu,
somewhat abruptly, with few of the
iuumberless recollections suggested
by ride over the Bull Run battle
field. in company with a gallant sol
der of the ..lost cause" who resides
on his paternal acres near Manas-
sas Plains.
The battle-felds of the Great Re
Ibellion must ever be objects Of deep
interest to the tourist, an interest
(which the lapse of time will but in
tensify. The friends of Liberty from
every nation, in all time to come, will
love to make pilgrimages to those
shrines where her martyrs bled, that
a nation might be redeemed from
the fell curse Of slavery. But
the citizen soldier who saw, and was
himself a part of the dread pageant,
which in all the pomp and circum-
stance of glorious war swept over
those fields, will revisit them with an
interest that none other can under
stand or appreciate: and the rushlng
waves of memory will swell his heart
with emotions that even poetic lnspl
ration, in its grandest flights, cannot
express. When his feet shall press
the evil which his comrades blood
has sanctifed, he viii feel Il abject
poverty Of words, and learn that there
is eloquence in silence.
1t IS possible that somebody's 10y
atty may be shocked at the thought
of a Union soldier fraternizing with
rebel. It may be regarded as not
IN keeping with " the eternal fitness
&c . l. -, - 81, /
his hospitality, or taken pleasure
in the society of one who
proudly followed the Stars and
Appomatox. [ have only to say in
this connection, that the last name l
wish to "enter on my list of friends, +"
is the name of any able-bodied, I'm
married American who took no part
on either side in the war. The
Northerner who was too deaf to hear,
or too cowardly to heed the call " to
arms, in such a contest, must ever
stand second in the estimation of all
brave men to the Southerner, who at
tested alike his courage and sincerity,
by stalking his life on the issues of the
war. trust this statement is sufi-
GENTLY plain for ready comprehen-
y
whom love of ease or lack of courage
or patriotism kept from active service
Of his country, during those heroic
years, should even presume to thrust
himself into the society Of
the soldiers who performed the du-y
from which his nature shrank. We
soldiers can forgive and despise him.
His society we can dispense with AS
m oft
be the elite. 1t will be bad enopgh
for our grand children to associate
with his. For two generations at
least we propose to keep up this hon
Orable distinction.
But let us leave our grandchildren
and other responsibilities more or less
remote, to take care Of themselves.
while we return to the subject imme-
diately under consideration.
Riding along a barrow. bride road.
about half a mile from the Stone
Bridge, familiar to all who read the
papers In 1861, we came TO clump of
laurel bushes standing beside a mar
row, excavation, half filed with a
rank growth of weeds and
grass. recognized the spot
at once as the grave of Major T. Here
he was buried by rebel hands, two
days after the First Bull Run Battle
and here his friends came in the
Spring of 1862, to- reclaim his body
and take it home for burial. But in
the meantime, the grave had been
rified by worse than hyenas, the body
had been torn from its shallow grave
by members of the Washington Ar,
tillery from New Orleans. who had
ho = I
the latter as material from which to
carve rings, seals, charms and other
souvenirs for their lady friends at
home,
! Let no one read this statement with
incredibly. for it is simply a histori-
cal fact. | saw in April, 1862, the
rifed grave. saw the clothing
which the deceased had worn, and
parts CT the body, Gall the principal
bones missing, )laying beside the grave.
People residing in the neighbor-
hood, scores of whom | questioned,
gave me all the details of the search
for bones in this and other graves.
A young man belonging to one of the
best families in this State, a graduate
of Northern college, told me he had
passed two months with some friends
belonging to the Washington Aftil-
lery. and that many Of the men. when
Oft duty, occupied their time carving
Yankee bones; and mere than this, /
picked. up several pieces of human
bones about that camp soon after the
evacuation by its first occupants. Be
ing practical anatomist, l could not
be mistaken, and no oue who has ever
investigated the subject, viii express
a doubt that the WASHINGTON AR