The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-08-17
A BATTLE SCARED TOWN.
What u Woman saw of the Fighting In
and Around WiMchester.
philadelphia Weekly Times


No nou-con,batants saw more of the
shifting panorama of the civil war in
the United States than did the citizens
of Winchester, in tho Valley of Vir-
ginia. Held AS an outpost by the Con-
federates the first year, it afterWard
served AS a shuttlecock between the
gray and blue battledores. 1t thus
changed hands eigbty-four times, and
when the game was over the shuttle
cock was denuded of feathers, velvet
and tinsel-a poor, useless, ruined
thing. The best houses in the town
had served as hospitals, barracks and
even stables. A lady after the war, up
on taking possession of house newly
painted and repaired, was informed by
her neighbors that they had many
time seen the heads of cavalry horses
at the windows from which the chill
dren of the family now gaZed. It is
needless to say that her relish for her
new home was slightly disturbed, as
one does not like the idea of living in
:, stable, if it is newly painted.
OF course, in common with the rest
of Virginia, the town was almost
unit in its enthusiastic loyalty to the
Southern cause, and such being the case
suffered accordingly. Jackson and
Ashby We're peculiarly the Valley
for wild joy, their retreat for bitter
tears. 1t seems wonderful, in looking
back, that ordinary physiques could so
long have stood the severe strain upon
their powers; the excitement Ofbattle
followed by an occupation by the
enemy; of weeks and months during
which time communication was utter
ly cut of with friends the terrible de-
preston thus caused to be Obliterated
by another season of excitement and
emulation this constituted the war
life at an outpost. Nor was it without
its effect. There never was u time in
the history Of the town when so many
young girls and old people died. 1t
took very little disease to result fatal
ly the system sank almost imme-
diately; and yet with all the terrors Of
that time, there was a charm in the
life which was SO much more and so
much less than life ever was before or
ever will be again. We would none of
us part with our war experience, bitter
us it was; when hope and despair fol-
lowed each other as the minutes in the
hour; when the issues OF each day
werc so imminent, containing in them
often more than the measure of joy and
sorrow which is the ordinary allotment
of :, lifetime. A bare narration Offacts
would hardly be credited. have seen
the town change masters four times in
one day. First Il battle, followed by
| triunPhal occupation by ono party for
IL few hours, the first greeting of long
absent friends interrupted by another
battle, followed by the gloom of defeat,
and while our. tears yet flowed,
another battle, another scene of JOY.
and SO on through the day. One,
never knew what an hour would bring:
forth. Too often we would rise in the
morning to find a different flag float
ing over the town from that which
blessed our vision when we retired to
rest. Sometimes this change was
quietly made, one army retreating be-
fo1e the other, without disturbing the
slumbering citizens; but far more
often was our rest rudely disturbed by
the booming of the cannon or the more.
terrible crashing of musketry at our
very doors, and our startled vision has
opened upon the glare of burning
buildings; or we would be stunned by
the explosion OF a monster magazine,
while the crashing window-glass and
falling mortar attested too surely the
reality of the danger; and we thanked
God for one more miraculous escape
from sudden death. This was invaria-
bly, the precursor of an evacuation of
the town before the Confederates en-
tered -. DID,.
n -four superior to g Crown -
" Sholars & Keys Best" by new pro-
cess, from New Wheat.