The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-22
Fredericksburg, Va.-Now ana
H'I1qu U

Va.-NOW and
writer in the Springfield Repubgcon oor,-
municates the following:-
1 nave been in battle stricken towns before
but fredericksburg is the most remarkable
one nave yet seen. The peopla have AN
!tahan rapaoity for monopolizing strangers.
nutthey 90 not carry out the parallel by ask,
ing them for small contributions. Euter any
public place, and broach the snbiect of the
great battles, and you have touched the vital
topic. The majority OF the townspeople still
move and think amid the frightful scenes of
seven years ago. Their normal faculties are
desdened to the present. The boys employ
their time digging up bullets, and continue to
hnd an unfailipg store, although the ground
has been pretty thoroughly dug over. There
ls skull, or thigh bone, in almest every
shop window The church steeples show GU
rious patchwork, which testifes that they
were not spared by the shot. Every merchant
who was there in 1862 has some dismal tale
to tell. Those same Irishmen. who could
fight so gallantly, those Americans who
could face death without blenching, behaved
rather rudely to the townspeople. One old
man told me, with evident delight, how two
men robbed his shop OF its stock OF tobacco
and threatened to shoot him when he remon-
strated. "ln less'n an hour they was both
back here on this very floor, shot through and
through. One of 'em begged my pardon, be-
lOI6 ne uieu, IOr WuhJ uo SLOl0-n6 did," An
old lady, who tells so complete and graphic a
story OF the battle that susp pect she has posted
up on it since the terrible day, to accommodate
travellers, said that the morning after Burnside
attacked the Rebel lines one c9uld 60 over the
battle field and pick up anything he might
wish for. "Why," said she, Zone man fell dead
inside my door here, with a four.ouart ing of
molasses in his hand.' What did the soldier
mean to do with so much sweetening Money
had been dropped helter-skelter in the streets,
by the inhabitants, in their flight; the kitchen
utensils and parlor furniture strswed the
fields for miles. One old man, who has been
in the town twenty years, and now keeps
little restaurant on the very street
corner round which our troops, as they
came up to the charge, were compelled
to appear, gave me very graphic story
of his troubles. Just as fast as he could bar
up his saloon door, it would be knocked down
by new-come soldiers, who insisted on "some-
thing to drink" before they went up to the
battle. He watched them start out, and said
that in many cases they were not gone ten
minutes before they were brought back,
manned and crushed, to be laid on CHASTITY
doors, in the extemporized hospitals. The
sight at the principal church, after the battle
had been in progress an hour, was horrible
beyond description, and the whole village
echoed to the wailing of the wounded. The
old ferrymap, who took us across to the hills
opposite fredericksburg, gave glowing pic
ture Of the laying of the pontoon bridges, and
alluded especially to the fact that the guns of
our own batteries, too far of, killed many Of
our soldiers as they advanced up the slopes.
Stonewall Jackson was his pet hero, and he
regaled us with anecdotes of that queer but
valiant General. He was in the Wilderness
when jackson fell, and confirmed the accepted
story that he was shot by his own men. How
he knew could not make him tell he only
responded by leaning on the boat rail, and
saying, with mysterious intonation, 81 was
thar"
1t was very hard to find any one at Frede-
ricksburg who would acknowledge that he was
not in the battle, either of December or May.
The repulse of Burnside's attack was men
toned by almost every man with whom had
any conversation. Old people delighted to go
over the ground, and point out where such
and such heap of Federal dead had lain. One
man told, with much glee, how he spent all
the night after the battle in looking over a
pile of soldiers, and taking out Of their
pockets the whisky bottles they had stolen
from him on the morning previous. 81 got
back all bat three pints," said he, "and them
helped swell the general courage"
Picket firing across the river at Fredericls-
burg, say some historians, was INDUCED in to
barbarous extent. Barksdale's Mississippi
sharpshooters are accused of having taken the
lives of our soldiers on every occasion possi-
BILE when it was directly in opposition to the
D. laws of war. But the townspeople tell diff
ferent story. They say that no pickets ever
fired upon each other save at the beginning OF
the December battle. One old negro informed
me that the aforementioned Mississippi
marksmen were wont to send invitations to
our officers 10 cross the river in the night, ,and
disguised in Confederate clothes, attend the
extemporized balls which frequently occurred
in the town, and that the invitations were ac-
cepted. When the breeze was right the
pickets would trade tobacco for newspapers
by sending across little wooden boats with
paper sails, and the officers used to send
JHletS dOur to the ladies whom they had met
at the balls. The sharpshooters didn't 81
grossly misuse their chances as they m igh
have done, for both Hooker and Franklin
often appeared on the river bank, near thu
Federal pickets, excellent targets for even tn,
poorest mar ksman.