Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-10-14
The Valley Of the Shenandoah /.

sections where many Of the most import
ant battles Of the rebellion were fought.
During short excursion recently made.
we passed up the Shenandoah from Har.
per's Ferry to Harrisonburg. The rail
road, now completed, runs parallel to
"thc pike" over which our Northern
troops so often passed 10 advance or re-
treat, and for the whole distance The val
ley may be said to be one great battle
field. Winchester was one of the most
important points during the whole
struggle, and we were told il changed
hands more than seventy times. In one
day it was alternately occupied by the
different combatants six times
II was in this neighborhood that Sheri.
dan performed his great feat of retriev-
ing a lost battle, apd we had very
vivid and minute account of the matter,
from one who was constant attendant
of the General. AT this place, too. it
was that Muroy surrendered the for,iti-
cations and immense military stores OF
the government, and made off with him
self in such haste as not even 10 notify
his guards. The Federal Operations
were more disastrous and dsgraceful in
this valley than any other part of the
country. The surrender OF Miles of the
strong position at Harper's Ferry with
it's army and war material, was one of
the most astonishing instances of what
the people in that region, and We sup
pose the country generally, believe to
have been treachery. There was, never
tLeless, a grea: deal of brave fighting by
the Federal troops, and generalship was
the only thing required TO have given
very different result 10 the various bat
ties. This is shown by the fact, that
after Sheridan took command, all went
on successfully.
The Shenandoah Valley is the fines,
part of Virginia for agricultural produc-
tion. The lands are rich and highly cul-
tivated. A great part oft was original
ly settled by Germans from Pennsylvania,
and they still retain their religion, habits,
and language, as will as their surprising
thrift, aud their opposition to all pro-
gress. In religion they are Tunkers.
They reject an educated ministry all
the members of their societymay preach,
and if elected, must at least try. What
kind of preaching they have, may be
easily imaginned. In certain respects
they are most excellent population.
Economically, so far as the creation OF
fine farms, the raising of large crops,
and the breeding of excellent stock,
they are uncqualed ; and may be called
good citizens. Socially, they are a most
orderly people, honest and just. They
settle all disputes among themselves.
Their own church is the tribunal to
which all matters in dispute are referred
and by which they are determined.
They have nothing to do with courts.
They are n"n-combatants, and will not
| fight. The Confederate authorities en-
dravored in vain TO make them take up
arms-thry were dratled-arms put into
their hands marched to the battlefield,
and in few cases killed, but they would
not kill Others. So after a fruitless at
tempt at coercion, the effort was given
up, anil IN "rl nance passed allowing ex-
emption by requiring the payment of
money. These people therefore, escaped
the destruction of lite visited upon all
others, and at the close of the war were
prepared to carry on their industry with
renewed vigor. They are a very relig-
ious people, in their way, and an + pisco-
al clergyman of high. responsibility as
sured the writer that their lives, as
Christians, were in many cases really
quite remarkable.
The great objection to them as citi-
zens seems to consist in their opposition
to educatiOn !; but this arises from their
conviction that with education will come
a knowledge Of the follies, fashions, and
vices Of the world, which they wish to
shun, and hence they desire ignorance
and scclusion within their own demon =
national fold. Wehaye reason to think,
however, that with the introduction of
free schools into Virginia, now going OH
rapidly, even the Germans will give way,
and permit their children TO attend -
They will not be able to prevent il, and
education and culture, good taste and re.
finement will make them as valuable a
population as any State can boast.
In regard to the general condition of
the country it may be remarked, that
the desolation which war has occasioned
is inconceivable by those who have not
visited the valley. 1t was the grand
store-h use of the confederate army,
where they got their annual supplies ;
and hence the great Importance to the
federal government of its being held by
its troops, as with good management it
might have been. Stonewall Jackson's
great successes in this quarter were ow-
ing, as the people say, more to the inn
becility OF the leaders that opposed him,
than to superior generaship on his part.
He was, however, a man of great inf1u-
ence and power, and when he fell the
inspiring genius of the Rebellion was
gone. His loss was never repaired. The
people of the valley were robbed of eve
rything that could be carried off, which
either friend or foe deslred-their barns
in many parts were burned, and all their
fences for hundred miles up the river
totally destroyed. This last was an i'm.
mense loss, and the first thing the peo.
pie had to do, after The war, was to re
store at least part of their Enclosures.
This they have done largely in some
counties, very little in others.
The tate of this beautiful part of the
Old Diminion was peculiarly hard, from
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