Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-03-13
LETTER FROM North CAROLINA.

M Il ~ 4 nv Ii A'CIi n l HcA<b ~ IL
SALIsBuRY-Irs OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES UNION SOL
DIERs' OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES SCHOOLS
GENERAL JACKSoNS LAW OFFICE.
Approaching Salisbury from the north, the trav-
eler passes through level or gently rolling coun
try, covered with huge forests of oak and pine
timber, patches Of which still remain to testify VI
the grandeur of former time, while the most of
them long years ago were hewn away TO increase
the area of the planters ambition. Worn out and
abandoned fields overgrown to BROOM sedge,
dwarf pines and briers, now catch the eye of the
visitor and give him forcble impression of the
blighted aspect Of the country, the mournful con
dtion of the people, and the want of proper
system of agriculture Fine fields Of winter
wheat and other grain are now and then seen, but
these are the exceptions.
1t is sad to see country so favored naturally
with delightful climate gently undulating sur
face and good virg lin soil, adapted to every va
rlety of vegetation, and which if settled by such
sturdy yeomanry as found homes in New Eng
land, might have been the garden spot of our
land, presenting an appearance SO uninyiting and
depressing. AS OUT train moved along, bearing
many gentlemen and ladies from different States
in the north on their southern bound journey, it
was not difficult to perceive by their looks, ges-
lures and conversation that all drank largely of
the same feeling.
Stopping a night at Salisbury, a place which
will ever be memorable for its rebel prison during
the war, we took an early morning walk to the
National Cemetery, the principle place of interest
to all Northern people, as the last resting place of
tna thnpsapJ al md -E,a
Union patriots, who persisted here from har,lships
which beggar any description of my poor pen.
Only four hundred and twenty-five of them are
laid in single graves, and Of these the name, com
pany, or regiment Of less than one hundred are
known, the rest are marked down unknown"
while eleven thousand seven hundred sleep in
long trenches Piled several deep. The grounds
comprising about six acres. are well and neatly
laid out with a main entrance and avenues, set
with nice variety of ornamental trees and shrub
berry, and enclosed with wall of solid masonry.
Recently a beautiful monument of New Hamp-
shire granite, forty-two feet in height, weighing
forty-two and half tons, has been erected at a
cost of about ten thousand dollars, in memory of
those who lie in the trenches. The visitor in all
coming time. as he approaches this proud monu-
ment rising in bold relief at the head of the
trenches, will stand aghast he reads chiseled
in the massive obelisk "ll700."
Between the cemetery and the prison grounds,
about one-third of a mile apart, is seen a large
and neatly whitewashed building overlooking
them both and the city. Here are found two ac-
complished young ladies from the valley of the
old Kennebec, earnestly engaged in chris
tan missionary work among the freedmen. As
they meet you at the door, with cheerful well
come, and conduct you 10 their large school-room
full of joyful. ambitious youths, strange feeling
of ease and pleasure takes possession of the mind.
You listen to prompt and animated rectations, in
all the grades, from the first steps in the elemen-
tary branches to the finished lessons in the Fifth
Reader, Algebra History &c, and feel an irresis,-
BILE sense of thankfulness stealing over you and
possessing your whole being, that slavery and all
its concomtant evils are things of the past, and
that this portion Of oppressed humanity, whose
unrequited toll has been scourged from them to
enrich others is now rising to plane of higher
social, mental and moral elevation.
Salisbury was regarded before the war as a
place of some importance, though by the last GEN.
sus it had population of only three thousand
three hundred and twenty-seven. 1t is now din
gy. dirty looking town, of very little apparent
thrift and is supported mostly by the country trade
around it. 1t is situated at the junction of the
Western N. c. r. II. with the n. c. II. r., and
has its share of "drummers," other business men
and pleasure seekers, who find good and suffi-
cient hotel accommodations at two dollars and a
half per day. The people seem rather depressed
than buoyant, do not often speak to strangers Of