The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-04-20

park, the Improvement of which is rapidly
progressing, and which is destined to rival
the Central Park of New York. Governor
Bowie and other distinguished Mary FLANDERS
are mitch interested in the proposed race
course, and it will be completed as soon as
possible.
Fredericksburg, Va.-NOw and Then.
a writer in the Springfield Republican
communicates the following:
hare been in battle-stricken towns be-
fore, but Fredericksburg is the most re-
markable one have yet seen. The people
have on Italian rapacity for monopolizing
strangers, but they do not carry out the
parallel by asking them for small contribu-
tons. Enter any public place, and broach
the subject Of the great battles, aud you
have touched the vital topic. The majo.
rity Of the townspeople 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 unfailing store, although the
ground has been pretty thoroughly dug
over. There is q skull, or thigh bone, in
almost every shop window. The church
steeples show curious patchwork, which
testifes that they were not spared by the
shot. Every merchant who was there
in 1852 has some dismal tale to
tell. Those same Irishmen who could
fight so calamity, those Americans who
could face death without blenching, be-
haved rather rudely towards the towns
people. 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 demonstrated. "1n less'n an
hour they was both back here on this very
floor, shot through and through. One Of
'em begged my pardon before he died for
what he stole-he did," An old lady who
tells so complete and graphic story Of the
battle that Suspect she was posted up on it
ye!lers, said that the morning after Burn
over the battlefield and pick up anything
he might wish for. "Wby,'' said she, one
man fell dead inside my door here with
four. quart jug of molasses in his hand"
What did the soldier mean to do with 60
much sweeteningS Money had been
dropped hilter-skilter in the streets by the
inhabitants in their flight; the kitchen
utensils and parlor furniture streWed
the fields for miles. One old man,
who has been in the town twenty
years, and now keeps little restau-
rant on the very street corner round which
our troops, as they came up to the charge,
we're compelled to appear, gave me very
graphic story of his troubles. Just as fast
az he could bar up his saloon door, it would
be knocked down by new-come soldiers,
who insisted on something to drink" be-
&re they went up to the battle. BE watch
ed them start out, and said that in many
cases they were not gone ten minutes before
they were brought back, manned and crush
ed, to be laid on CHASTITY floors in the extern
porized hospitals. The sight at the princi-
pal church, after the battle had been IN
progress an hour, was horrible beyond de-
scription, and the whole village echoed to
the wailing of the wounded. The old ferry
man who took us across to the hills op-
| posite to Fredericksburg 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 up
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 Jackson fell, and
confirmed the accepted story that he was
| shot by his own men. How he knew L
could not make him tell. He only re-
| sponded by leaning on the boat-rail, and
saying, with mysterious information, was
thar"
1t was very hard to find any one at Ere
dericksburg who would acknowledge that
he was not in the battle either of December
or May. The repulse Of Burnside's attack
YVES mentioned by almost every man with
whom had any conversation. Old people
delighted to 60 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 pile of soldiers and
taking out of their pockets the whiskey bot
ties they had stolen from him on the morn
ing previous. 81 got back all but three
pints,'' said he, "and them helped swell
the general courage"
Hiol.et firing across the river at Frede-
ric'sbrrg, say some historians, was in
dulged in to a barbarous extent. Barks-
delc's Mississippi sharpshooters are &C
cuscd of having taken the lives of our sol
dicrs on every occasion possible, when it
vas directly in opposition to the laws of
war. But the townspeople tell different
story. They say that no pickets ever fired
upon each other save at the beginning of
the December battle. One old negro in
formed me that the aforementioned Mis-
sissippi marksmen were wont to send invi-
| tations to our officers to ososs the river in
the night, and, disguised in Confederate
clothes, attend the extemporized ball which
frequently occurred in the town, and that
the invitations were accepted.
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
billets doux to the ladies whom they had
| met at the balls. The sharpshosters didn't
SO grossly misuse their chances IS they
might have done, for both Hooker and
Franklin often appeared on the river bank
near the Federal pockets, excellent targets
for even the poorest marksman. i
CATTLE.-six car loads Of cattle were