Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-05-04


STATION AND Fort HARRIsoN.-We
take the following extract from a re-
cent letter of a correspondent of the
Boston Traveller who is visiting in
succession the battlefelds of Virginia
TERRIBLE SToRY.-We stopped at
a house about half way between the
cemetery and Savage's Station, to in
quire the way of an old lady, and a
frightfuI tale she told us,-a tale we
have hesitated to write until we should
be well reinforced with proof, lest
your readers regard it as hoax. She
showed US a place in her garden,
where there was formerly well, and
in it, she said, was buried fifty or more
of our soldiers. She said during a
calm in the fight on the first Of June
the wounded men lett uncared for on
the field, crawIed up to the spot to get
a drink of water. No one was able
to draw mp the bucket. and there the
poor fellows lay and died in sight of a
well of pure water unable to get any
When our army retreated down the
Williamsburg road, the Confederate
troops to whom was assigned the task
Of burying the dead came up and filled
the we'll with bodies, and many, ac
cording to the rebels own story, were
thrown in alive Since the war their
bones have been taken up and placed
in the cemetery by the U. S. burial
corps, of whom we inquired as to the
truthfulneSs OF the old lady'S story
The negroes for miles around repeat
the story Of the Pennsylvanians buried
alive in Mrs. Whiteside's well and
tell of ghosts that rise and dance, and
of hobgobHns that call through the
night for water.
FORT HARRISON = TWENTY ACRES OF
HUMAN BONES.
The cemetery keeper offered to act
as our guide, and after showing
US the fort and its adjacent lines
Of rife-pits, he escorted US to g
large field on the northwest side of the
fort, and there a most terrible scene
presented itself. The thousands of
Confederate soldiers who had faller
in their desperate and persistent at
tempts to retake Fort Harrison, were
buried by the Confederates where they
fell. Twenty acres or more have jus
been ploughed up by the owner of thu
field, and the ploughshare turned tt
the surface all these skeletons. Owe
the whole tract the bones are strewet
in profusion, and grinning skulls stare
the visitor in the face on every hand
When the farmer was questioned, h,
said the land was now the riches
piece he had, and in justification Of hi
sacriligeous act stated that "he Gidn
put 'em there no how" We Learned
afterwards that the bones had beer
taken away by the load and sold t.
fertilizing mills in Richmond. TIVE
humane men, too poor to do anything
else, came the day we were there ant
attempted to burn some of the bone
to prevent the wretches from carting
them of. But long job they will
have if they attempt to burn them all
Yet these are not the only fields OF
Confederate bones we have seen, no
the first instance Of disrespect for thei
dead we have witnessed. Perhap
they are too poor, as they plead, tt
bury them. Then, in the name of hu
manity, why do they rear stone mon
ument, forty-fve feet square at th'
base, and ninety feet high, at Rich
mond, to the memory of the "Confed
crate dead, in the cemetery, and leav,
their bones to bleach and crumble OF
the fields q?