Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-01

up to the top of Lookout Mountain.
/ Up, up, up! We went out on the
locks and saw into five states of the
Union-scenes SO stupendous and
overwhelming that you involunta-
rily take off your hat, in the pres
ence of the grandest prospect on the
continent. Yonder is Missionary
Ridge, the beach against which the
red pillows of federal aud confede-
rate courage surged and broke-40,- :
600 on one side, $1,000 on the other.
YOnder are the blue mountains of
North and South Carolinas. With
utmost stretch of the eye, yonder
see Kentucky and Virginia. Here
at the foot are Chattanooga and
Chickamauga, the pronunciation of
which proper names will thrill the
ages with thoughts of valor, and
desperation, and agony. Turn
round on the tip-tOp rock of Look
out Mountain and see the earth
works to the north and south, and
east and west. There, is the beauti-
full Tennessee river curving and
coiling all through the plain in let
ter s after letter s, as if that letter
written on all the scene might stand
for shame that brothers should go
Into such a massacre of each other,
While God and the nations look on.
/ had stood on Mount Washing
ton, and on the Sierra Neyadas, and
on the Alps, but never saw SO far
as that morning from the top Of
Lookout Mountain. Why, sirs,
saw seventeen years into the past
and up the sides of the mountain on
which ! stood rolled the smoke of
Hooker's storming party, while the
foundations of eternal rock shook
with the .cannonade. Yea, the four
years of internecine strife came
back, the events without chrOno-
logical order, and / looked in one
direction and saw the navy-yard at
Norfolk on fire, aad Sumter on fire,
and Chambersburg on fire, and
Richmond on fire, and saw Els
worth fall, and Baker fall, and Lyon
fall, and Bishop Polk fall. and
Stonewall Jackson fall, and / saw
hundreds of grave trenches finally
cut into two great gashes across the
the north, the other for the dead
men OF the south, and my ear as
well as my eye quickened standing
on Lookout Mouhtain. And heard
the tramp, tramp of enlisted armies
and the explosion of mines and
pOwder-boIts and the crash of forti-
fication walls and the mortar bat
teries, and the swamp angel, and
the groan of dying hosts fallen
across the pulseless heart of other
dying hosts, and looked still fur
ther till | saw on the banks of the
Penobscot, and Hudson, and Ohio,
and Oregon, and ROanoake, and the
YaZoO, and the Alabama, widow
hood and orphanage and childless-
ness, some in exhaustion of grief
and others stark mad; and | said,
Enough of the past have 1 seen
from Lookout Mountain. Oh, God,
give me glimpse of the future"
And that morning it was revealed
to me, and l saw another prospect
from Lookout Mountain-great pop
ulationS moving south and moving
north, and | noticed that their foot
steps obliterated the hoof-marks of
the war-charger, and | saw the
angel of the Lord of hosts stand in
their national cemeteries, trumpet
in hand, as much as to say, 81 will
wake these soldiers from their long
encampment at the right time"
and / looked and / saw such snowy
harvest of cotton and such golden
harvests of corn covering all the
land as we have not dreamed Of;
and saw that all the earthworks
were down, and all the war barracks
down, and ali the gun carriages
down, and the rivers wound through
the valleys, their letter S seeming
no more for shame, but S for saliva
ton, and when / found that all our
weapons of war had been turned
into agricultural implements, ] was
alarmed, and cried: SIS this safe?"
Then, standing on the tip-top rock
of Lookout Mountain, 1 heard two |
voices which somehow slipped the
gate, and they sang, "Nation shall
not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any
more." And / recognized the two
voices. They were the voices of
two Christian soldiers who fell at
Shiloh; the one a federal, the other
a confederate.