The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-05-19
6 IN E w TER MS

Obituary notices exceeding ten lines will be
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Present Aspect Of the Manassas Battlefield.
A correspondent of the Charleston Nescs
writes as follows concerning the battlefield of
Mannassas. Il will be read with interest by
all, and especially those who participated in
the opening fight of the late war:
Your correspondents arrived at Fairfax this
morning, and, rambling through that ancient
and dilapidated burg, he beheld the Southern
Memorial Cemetery, and the long eastern
slopes where the Palmetto boys camped so
MANY weeks, drilling and picketing and skir-
mishing in the very teeth of the Grand Army.
The silence of these hills weighed oppressively
when contrasted with the multitudinous life
there apparent but eight short years ago. On
the road to Centrevil1e utter desolation and
decay was evident, and a few solitary chimnies
marked the places where hut and mansion
alike had disappearedin masses of fweed-covered
ruins. The great ripping line of batteries and
rihe-pits, which were reared on Centreville
heights in 1862, were yet standing almost intact
looking grimly down the widening miles of road,
valleys toward Alexandria But the flags had
long been lowered, and the black "dogs of war"
carried to other fields. But amid these sad
souvenirs of the past it was pleasant to see the
fresh upspringing of the early grain and the
promising fertility of the new-sown fields. The
plaiu. on the right of the Bull Run road, So
long occupied by the First South Carolina Bri-
gade, was freshly broken up for a wheat field.
But here and there on the route were remains
of picket huts and the stockade of the tents,
scarcely perceptble save as green ridges In the
rank grass This road was battled for until a
ft ransom for an empire was poured out on It's
f;nty surface but now it is mere farm lane,
leading to fence drawn squarely across it, no
more highway, but cul-de-sac.
RCrossing the Run on the debris of the Stone
Bridge, we assembled little way to where the
little detachment of the 4th Regiment deployed
in the face Of twelve advancing Federal regi-
naeniS, massed on the opposite hills, and null
until Tyler thought that the main army con-
fronied him there The rest of the 4th, with
the lIississippians and Wheat's guns, swung in
to liIle near Carter's, and met and repelled the
first onslaught of the powerful hanking columns.
The contest in these woods was deadly. The
Federals charged again and again on this little
band, which meanwhile swept the ground with
rapid yolleys, until overborne by numbers, and
melting under the convergent fire of cannon,
they gave backTbut their work was done, the
Southern left was safe, and the impetus and
ezasa of the attack was deadened. It has been
well said that the 4th South Carolina fought
the first hour of the battle. The Pittsylyania
house is mass of ruins now, and the under
growth has sprung. up luxuriantly under the
trees and in the fields about. Bat the tide of
battle soon rolled to the base of the plateau
above Young's Branch-the columns Of attack
became lines of assault, the Confederate lines
bent as the blues clutche6 footholds on the
crest, and expanding, swept them off again.
The Hampton Legion grappled with brigade
near the road, swaying back and forth like two
strong men wrestling-Kershaw and Cash
-and amid all this hot and disastrous collision,
the steady fire of Kemper's and other batteries
crashed across the valley to Sherman and Griffin,
greeting In the little yard of Robinspn's
house lay ia dead and wounded, blue and gray.
And the superb double battery of the Federal
army, had gained position on the plateau. Bee
had fallen, and Barlow also; gaps were opening
in Jackson's "stone-wal" brigade, and the day
was going badly for the army. Suddenly, un-
expectedly, came help to the hard pressed, and
panic to the Federals, and ''the war was carried
into Rome.n The starry flag disappeared from
the hills, the wrecked regiments streamed down
and away on the Sduley road-a sharp attack
of FIVE regiments with the I'd and 9Th South
Carolina, whirled chem back from new de-
fensiye line, and the army of the Potomac was
routed.
There has been but little change in the phys
ical formation of the field since that eventful
Sabbath. The soil was not worth fighting for.
The frutless sterility of the red clay allows but
scant tufts of grass to cover it, and cannot as
pire to richer products. Perhaps this is well,
and ehis sacred hill may not be made common,
as other hills, by o garniture of rustling corn.
A little cairn marks the spot where General
Bee fell, and another pile Of stones tells where
Barlow went down. His marble monument
was long ago carried away, piecemeal, by relic
seekers. A rude monument of red sandstone
has been reared near the focal point of the bat
tie, at the Henry house, but the storms of five
years have caused it to settle and can't over to
toppling position, soon, perhaps, to fall. Just
on the slope near by we found some hattened
bullets and rusty fragment of SHE'LL and here
and there over the field a little depression and
a richer green grass marked the trenches where
the dead were buried-the dead of two battles
Many Northern soldiers have been removed to
Arlington, and some Southerners to their homes /;
but there seems something fitting in the idea
:thst these heroes should rest on the spot which
they have consecrated by their valor sleeping,
NOT On Confederate soil, not on the territory of
Z vassal State, but in the heart of the American
land, on that field which was at once the Mara
theI. and the Ch@ronea of the~gnlon.
Controversy in journalism,
like it is in all other professions is perfectly s-
gitiInate, provided it is conducted in the right
spirit and ON just principles. Differences OF
terests arise, will inevitably. occur, and it is
both right and proper that these questions
should be discussed calmly, sensibly and elab-
.orafelv and when onnnsition of views is de-