Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-05-30
FREDERICKSBURG,
A Baftie-searred T0wn-The Story ef
Picket Firing Across the River.

| ~ sho 0PIAhSnelu ne
publican communicates the follow,
ing:
| L have been in battle stricken
towns before, but Fredericksburg i.
| the most remarkable one / have We
seen. The people have an Italian
rapacity for monOpolizing strangers
but they do not carry out the par
allel by asking them for small con.
tributions. Enterany public place,
and breach the subject of the great
battles, and you have touched the
vital topic. The majority of the
towns people still move and think
amid the frightful scenes of seven
years ago. Their normal faculties
are deadened to the present. The
boys employ their time digging up
bullets, and continue to find an un-
failing store, although the ground
has been pretty thoroughly dug
over. There is a skull or thigh
bone in almost every shop window.
The church steeples show curious
patchwork, which testi6es that
they were not spared by the shot.
Every merchant who was there in
1862 had some dismal tale to tell.
Those same Irishmen who could
fight so calamity, those Americans
who could face death without
blanching, behaved rather rudely
to the towns people.
One old man, who has been in the
town twenty years, and now keeps
little restaurant on the very street
corner round which our people, 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 something 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 floors,
in the extemporized hospitals.
The sight at the principal church,
after the battle had been in pro-
gress an hour, was horrible beyond
description, and the whole village
echoed to the wailing of the wound
ed. The old ierryman, who took
us across to tie hills opposite Fred /
ericksburg, gave glowing picture
Of the laying of the pontoon bridges,
and alluded especially to the fact that
the guns of our own batteries, too
far off, killed many of our soldiers
as they advanced upon the slopes.
Stonewall Jackson was his pet hero, /
and he RECALLED US with anecdotes of
that queer but valiant General. He
was in the Wilderness, when Jack
son 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 boatrail, and
saying, with mysterious intonation, |
al was thar
1t was very hard to find any one
at fredericksburg who would &C
knowledge that he was not in the
battle, either of December or May. |
The repulse Of Burnside's attack
was mentioned by almost every |
man with whom L had any CONVEX
sation. Old people delighted to go
over the ground, and point out
where such and such heap of Fed
eral dead had lain. One man told, |
with much glee, how he spent all
night after the battle in looking
over a pile of soldiers and taking
but of their pockets the whisky |
bottles they had stolen from him on
he morning previous. 81 got
back all but three pints," said he,
and them helped to swell the gen
eral courage"
Picket firing across the river at
fredericksburg, say some histo-
'ians, was INDUCED in to barba-
-ous extent. Barksdale's sharp
shooters are accused of having !
aiken the lives Of our soldiers on
every occasion possible, when it
vas directly in opposition to the
avs of war. But the towns PEG
pie tell different story They say /
hat no piekets ever fred upon
each other save at the beginning OF
he December battle. One old
negro informed me that the above
mentioned Mississippi marksmen
we're wont TO send invitations to
our officers to cross the river in the
night, and disguised in Confederate
clothes, attend the extemporized
pals which frequently occurred in
he town, and that the invitations
we're accepted When the breeze
was right, the pickets would trade
tobacco for newspapers, by send
ing across little wooden boats with
paper sails, and the officers used to
send billet dour to the ladies whom
they met at the balls. The sharp
shooters didn't so grossly misuse
their chances as they might have
done, for both Hooker and Frank
lin appeared on the river bank,
near the Federal pickets, excellent
targets for even the poorest marks