Daily Kennebec journal., 1870-08-05
Mistellanu.
A VISIT TO BULL RUN.
The Battlefield as it is To-Day.

Ine Battl6-1eld as III Is IO-oay.
A correspondent visiting Bull Run
writes as follows, under date OF Sunday,
July 10:
This is nearly the ninth anniversary of
the battle of the first Bull Run, and |
write these opening lines at the Robinson
House, where the hottest battle was con-
centrated. This day, Sunday, two weeks
will be the exact anniversary of the battle.
How time flies! 1t is beautiful day, not
quite 50 warm as the day OF the battle and
we all looking at maps and soft boiled
eggs under Robinson's shed, with old
Mrs. Robinson looking down at us benev-
olently.
Mrs. Robinson" said one of the ladies,
''were you frightened when you saw they
were going to fight Il battle round your
house ?n
Dear, dear, honey" says Mrs. Robin
son, Il was 50 frightened that | can't tell
you nothing about it. peared like | had
done 50 many sins, they sent all their ar
mics alter me IA purpose that blessed Sab
bath day. | iist got in the cellar and
prayed and the ole man he got under n
bridge, and | 'spect he prayed too.
Than' Lord for these bright. still
Sund,.., nowadays"
TIE OLD ROAD TO BULL Run.
We paid twenty-five dollars for fine.
snowy. solid team and two horses, and
left Washington with four persons. one OF
Us acting rs driver, on Saturday afternoon
at four o'clock. Country roads of "a fair
sort led lis by Balls Cross Roads, Upton
Hill. Fails Church, and across the shallow
branches of the Accotink TO Fairfax Court
House-fully eighteen miles-where we
put up for the night at the clean and not
expensive tavern of Major Tyler, Il cousin
of the deceased President, John Tyler.
and formerly commandant of Marines at
Washington Barracks.
CENrREvu.LE.
Ceutreyille is the most ruined of all
hamlets. There We're originally about
thirty houses in it. majority OF whicl
are now mere chimneys standing erec
among weeds, and several of the house:
which remain have been patched up witt
logs and planks, so that what stands is, i
possible, more forbiddng than what i,
DESTROYED. At present the only signs OF
lie about Centreville seem to be one
store, one shop, one new church, and one
Methodist Suuday-school. There is no
lftN u IL III tilIS JlttNN, 'thb tiNiN ''Nii| ~
be no wells of water in the vicinity, and
all the water is pulled from the branch, Il
huli-dry arm OF Bull Run. The site OF
Centreyille is one of the noblest in Vir-
ginia, standing upon the tall spire of a
long crescent shaped ridge, which bristles
with dry forts along its whole profile, and
makes against the sky a battlementet
horizon, which might almost give sug
| .,v,l,i,a.t SnN-aY diffarnni
roads meet at Centreville, aud in revived
times it ought to be busy place.
AT SToNEBRIpGE.
One naturally expects as he approache:
celebrated field soon after the event
which commentaries it that he Will OBJ
serve many yestgrs of the action. There
are but two battle-fields have seen which
bear out this character-AN aterloo, where
the loop-holed brick walls of the orchard
remain as they were on the day of the
fight, is we'll as the blackened ruins OF the
Chateau OF Houghonmont. the other
battlefield is Bull Run, which is full of
ruin, and the signs of ruin begin from the
time You quit Fairfax Court House follow
ing the path OF the northern army. In the
first place there is Fairfax itself partly
pulled down; the Court House, which wa;
loop-holed during three-fourths of the
war, still showing the fresh bricks III it
the Jail, also loop-hOled, and just on the
outskirts of Fairfax, Il few bricks are ly'
ing upon each other to tell where existed
the hamlet of Germantown.
About mile past Fairfax, the goot
turnpike runs of to Chantilly, the scene o
| Popes final defeat, where Stevens ano
Kearney gave up their lives. Leaving
this turnpike, our carriage descended lntC
W hat is, above all other highways known
to man, a road of ruin-the road to Cen
trevile. A torbidding and lonesome look
marks this wide road from far distance,
Like all the old turnpikes of Virginia, il
had been built in staunch manner, with
a hard. high, limestone pavement III the
middle OF it; some OF the stones white ant
some red, but all large, hard, and set VI
cndways; and, formerly, this rampant o
rock was covered with clay, sand ant
gravel, so that it made the broad area o
the road level and like a parade. Nov
| the material part of the road in the centr
| has been washed free of all the grave
and the clay, so that it looks like the nake'
| skeleton OF a blasted highway, the bone
OF d road once merry with life and tlnk
! ling with teams. The only way to traVe
it at all was to take the side-paths, ol
what are called here the summer roads
which sometimes run pleasantly Tor niue
skips, and then suddenly come to little
promontories of trap rock and putcroppin9
| limestone, at which we could see the III,
dies dies looking alarmed from a distance, a and
neryouslv holding tight their seats. This
lonely, this desolate, this battle accursed
road runs from Fairfax almost due west
for thirteen miles, passing through Cen
treyille, and short distance from Stone
bridge it is barred across its whole length
bv rails, for Stonebridge is still ruin after
live years of peace and all wagons have
to take to the fields, making long detour
and iording Bull Run at Il point where the
long, aged, gnarled roots of the oak, elm'