Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-04-30
The BattlefieIds of Savage Station
and Fort Harrison.

/ We take the following extract from a
recent letter of correspondent of the
Boston Traveller who in visiting in sue
cession the battlefelds of Virginia
TERRIBLE STORY.
We stopped at house about half way
between the cemetery and Savage's Sta
ton, to inquire the way of an old lady,
and most frightful tale she told u.s.
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 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 calm in
the fight on the first of June, the wound
ed men left uncared for ON the field,
crawled up to the spot to get drink Of
water. No one was able to draw up the
bucket, and there the poor fellows lay
and died in sight of well of pure wa
ter, unable to get any. When our army
retreated down the Williamsburg road,
the Confederate troops to whom was as
signed the task of burying the dead came
up and filled the we'll with bodies, and
many, according to the rebels own story,
were thrown in alive. Since the war
their bones have been takenup and plac-
ed 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. Whitesides well and tell of ghosts
that rise and dance, and of hobgoblins
that call though the night for water.
SEARCHING FOR BURIEE TREASURES.
A tale is told here of soldier in the
Eleventh Maine who was wounded in
the leg while making charge under di-
reetion of General Naglee. Finding that
he could not get off the field and feeling
well assured that he should be captured,
he took his money, his watch, which was
a present, and an ambrotype of his sis
ter, and buried them where he lay. He
afterwards marked a stump beside him
with his bayonet in such manner that
he would know it again. He was taken
lacking proper care, he was sick in pris-
on and for six years after his exchange.
At last, however, about four months ago.
he came in company with his sister, to
look for the treasure. The spot had
grown over with young pines, and every.
thing had changed. As he was about tc
give up the search he accidentally STUN
bled over an old musket, and then tax
ing it up recognized it as his own. He
then began digging around every old
stump in the vicinity, and at last found
his watch but the money and ambro
type were decayed and almost wasted
away. The wonderful part of the stor,
is that the watch at once started on it,
record of time when wound up. We
should have doubted this story had W,
not few days ago seen man of un
doubted yeracity, who stated that tn,
watch belonging to Rev. G. w. Bartlett
the Fighting chaplain" of Maine, wa
recently taken up with his body at Cole
Harbor, and from the moment it wa
wound up it kept time without varying
a minute in day.
FORT HARRIsoN-TwENTY ACRES OF HI
MAN BONES.
The cemetery keeper offered to act a
our guide, and after showing us the for
and its adjacent lines of rihe-pits, he es
corted us to large field on the north
west side of the fort, and there mos
terrible scene presented ITSELF The thou
sands of Confederate soldiers who hac
fallen in their desperate and persisten
attempts to retake Fort Harrison, were
buried by the Confederates where the,
fell. Twenty acres or more have jus
been ploughed up by the owner of tn,
field, and the ploughshare turned to tn,
surface all these skeletons. Over tn,
whole tract the bones are strewed in pro
fusion, and grinning skulls stare the Wis
itor in the face on every hand. Whel
the farmer was questioned, he said the
land was now the richest piece he had
and in justification of his sacrilegiou
act stated that " he didn't put 'em Their,
no how" We learned afterwards thai
the bones had been taken away by tn,
cart load and sold to fertilizing mills il
Richmond. Two, humane men, too pool
to do anything else, came the day We
were there and attempted to burn some
OF the bones to prevent the wretches from
carting them off. But a 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, nor the
first instance. of disrespect for their dead
we have witnessed. Perhaps they are