Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-23

nana,s I.ettern nnd Leeturss.

) | salf In historic scenes as familiar as house
! hold words. Here is Cedar creek, where
r Jackson struck Pope between wind anG
J water, and made that gaseous hero pay at
tention to lines of retreat he whilom ig.
: pored. Here is beautiful Warrenton, where
, | that same, unsuspecting, fallible Pope was
, eating his dinner with comfortable belief that
! 0the mems dat fight NIT Siegel" were tearing
Jackson to pieces eight miles in front. MOI
was he aroused from this "hope that told a
| flattering tale," until a messenger, who
came with haste like uuto the driving of
Jehu, the son of Nimshi, interrupted his
dinner with the tidings that jackson was
reducing his supplies and army In the rear
to small dust. At Warrenton, call on
Gen. Pemberton, who lives near and who
is exceedingly beloved by the people. Per-
haps no one man in the South suffered more
and made greater sacrifices for her than this
gentleman of northern birth. All along
this country note beautiful national GEM
eteries, which, by the way, have a remark
able knack of establishing themselves about
places famed for brilliant moves of that
same jackson. Everywhere l go see the
ruins of the fearful drought. The misery
is causing is terrible. In some localities
the water is hauled for miles. The mead
ows, a most important element in Virginia
farming, are nearly ruined. 1t is Distress
ing TO see the poor people in large field
raking up little hsy-the whole crop less
than would be wasted IN ordinary years
We are out of the tobacco country, and
grazing is the main reliance. What a Q he
horses and cattle TO do 10 the long and cold
winter, and what is to become of the peo-
pie, who are deeper in debt now than when
the war en6s The oats are ruined.
The wheat % poor. Tue corn small.
| The pastures so b own and dry. 1t looks
indeed like starving. In this part Of the
State there are no fences, and the absence
of them adds to the appearance of desola-
ton. In view Of all this, / am not surprised
! to hear Virginia described as q State for
sale. Agents offer millions of acres, and
one who gets a purchaser for his land, is
regarded by his neighbors as lot
ery-ticket buyers regard prize.
English emigrants and others are
coming in, but the supply is TO the demand
as few drops Of water is to one raging
with thirst. The size of the estates and
the difficulty of so dividing them as to make
homes where a family of laborers can live,
constitutes great drawback. / am struck
with the absence Of such small tenements
put up since the war, as ill Middle Tennes-
see. If have seen dezen east of the
mountains l do not know it, nor is the
result encouraging when farms are smaller.
Near my old home, few miles this side of
Manassas, the land is generally divided in
to small tracts, thus take this opportunity
of advertising that nave nearly thousand
acres, well taken in scrub pine and persim-
mons, which l will sell at grest sacrifce-to
the purchaser. The people Il II me they work
as hard as people ever did and that owing
in part to the drought and in part to other
causes, they can get just the coarsest food |
and live in the hardest way. After brief
tarrying, am on the road again. Here is |
the field of Manassas. | scud over it now |
at the rate of twenty miles an hour. When |
/ Yves on it last it was just after the second |
battle. / was on foot and alone. The |
ground was strewed with naked corpses,
black and fetid in the corrupting heat. At |
the end of railroad embankment, perhaps |
thirty feet high, the bodies were /
laid head to foot, one above the other,
twenty deep, In loathsome mass of poison.
Near this was a road along which all the
artillery and wagons seemed to have passed.
Here l noticed f1attened object, covered
with dust, over which every horse had
trampled and every wheel had rolled.
supposed it was a rock, bat, OH horror,
there is crack in the dust,
and q streak of red, where the
head was not quite severed from the body,
bent, as perhaps be slept in his childhood,
with body within and head and legs without
the track of the cruel wheels, battered out
of every likeness to humanity, sickenirg,
revolving horror, was one on whose child
ish head q mother had, perhaps, invoked
blessings, and for whom, in a distant home,
prayer had, perhaps, that morning been ut
tered. The region is now grown up with
shrubs, and l see a few sheep nibbling
about. presently reach the junction where
Beauregard had his camp. fnd-think
of It soldiers of Manassas town of over
a thousand inhabitants, looking as if it had
been there a hundred years and with a
newspaper. This last stroke uses up the
little remnant of capacity for being aston
ished that is left in me. So that hear with
that all the denominations have
flourishing churches here, and that it is ex-
pecting soon to bea county seat. 1t is
hard to stand among these
large houses and regular streets, and fancy
the same as it UsS when my eyes looked on
it last. They were astODished then with
the sight of perhaps four acres Of trunks,
opened and closed. Stores, tents, barrels,
broken wagons, thrown pell nell in widest
confusion, all prepared for the torch ready
to be applied. Our army w&s falling back
in the spring of 1862. The crack Of Yam
kee guns were heard not far off, and every
element Of wild confusion was multiplied.
Joined group in front of house overlooking
the Place. A man was standing by the door
with hat so low that could not recognize
l. I'D of |
auirers. One in GREATNESS suspense want
ed to know what fork of the Sudley road
Smiths division must take. Another about
two barrels of sugar. Another about reg
iment OF Longstreet. Another about some
trunks. Yet another as to the hour the
cars must run. With calm courtesy to the
humblest, clear utterance and words few
but so exact and lucid that mistake was
impossible, each ten seconds he seemed to
be able to fully concentrate his mind upon
each subject as If it had been his only
care. Being son of Eve Con the fathers
side), l had curiosity to know who was
this very cool ''bead CENTRE" and started to
walk into the room at the door of which
be was standing, but was arrested by a
pleasant "How are you, Mr.. ?" when /
saw it was Joe Johnston. was a little
more annoyed at my failure to recognize
him at first, as only few months before
had called on him. l introduced myself,
but he said he remembered me, having met
me in New Mexico on the 18th of
August, 1859. l mention this instance
of his extraordinary memory, because
it is thus about everything. 1t is probable
there is not soldier in his armies to whom
he ever spoke ten words, or on whose face
his eye rested for a moment whom he can
not recollect-not an interview or a CONVEX
sation Of which the details are not clearer
to him than the other party. l never could
think of anything but the exactness Of type
when heard him converse. After ten
long years l stand again on the spot. How
strangely events repeat themselves. l get
on the cars and find he is looking out of
the window, recalling the landscape SO IA
miliar to him and his army. He
looks thin, and his hair is whittier than
of yore. But his face is as instinct with