The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-23
The Battlefield in the Wilderness.

In the Wilderness are the best preserved
heelprints and clawmarks of the war. The
lace OF the earth retains scars as well as the
lace OF man, and nature when let alone will
show scratches made by those who long since
have been gathered beneath her green. As
soon as line of breastworks were thrown up
| in these untrodden forests there sprang from
the subsoil all sorts of shrabs and wood plants.
which, with the coating of skaters blown from
the pines around, resist the wear and tear of
time. The Wilderness is a wide stretch of
timber on rocky, rolling land, covering the
northeastern corner of Spottsylvania county.
AT the southern edge, few miles from the
heart OF 1T, is the Charlottesville battle-ground,
hfteen miles below is the scene of slaughter of
Fredericksburg. and to the south is Spottsyl-
vania Court House, where occurred the terri
BILE twin battle to the one delivered here.
Every square mile Of land in Spottsylvania Is
hlstor1c-a place of battle upon which to fight
meant to slay. But, unlike the other fields in
The country, this upland corner, hemmed in
by the Rapidan, is heavily timbered with
scrub oak, pine, chestnut and hazel, with bri-
ars and chincapin bushes springing as the
roots of the trees. There is an occasional OPEN
ihS, anu az thio pOlut, Oh INC w lIQ6rn6SS run,
branch of the .Rapidan, are several farms,
some comfortable dwellings and store The
land Immediately bordering the run is more
fertile than that at the distance OF mile or so,
and narrow strip Of it is now in corn and
grass. When the battle was fought tavern
stood near the Orange turnpike on hillock at
the side of the stream, but it was torn down by
soldiers, and since then there has been no at
tempt at restoration. Within sight of the
store, whittier countrymen for miles around
came to trade, are four farm buildings, while
somewhat to the north is a mine from which
gold recently has been taken in paying quanti-
ties. Looked at while in the midst of its deep
est shadows the Wilderness is a bowling one,
indeed, but, seen from the store it isn't half SO
bad case of the forest primeval as 1 expected
to see.
Riding out the pike with the obliging young
storekeeper we came to a point where at the
edge of an oak belt is new growth Of pines
which lift their small green cones 20 or SO feet
above the ground. AT the time of the battle
this pine woods was an open field, and through
it ran ditch. The ditch remains, but its bed
is dry and overrun with weeds. Flies buzzed
around our heads and bit our hands as we made
our way along the ditch, for here three thous-
and men fell, and we were searching for evil
dences OF the struggle between Warren and
Ewell. OF bones there were none in sight, but
rusty canteens were as plentiful as persimmons,
and had the good luck to find a stump, from
the heart OF which we picked number Of
Mimic balls. The storekeeper tells me that
after the desperate assaults this ditch was 80
filled with bodies that in one place MINER
shod with bloody CRIME, walked for two hum
dred yards or more with human heads for step
ping stones. But Warren and Sedgwick, un-
der Grants stern eye, gave back in kind. SO
it comes that along the clearly marked line of
rebel entrenchments on the other side of the
thicket are several mounds and just as many
triting relics of the canteen kind as are to be
seen in the ditch The canteens that no.
ticed among the weeds, where the men of the
North stood, are inclined to the oval in shape,
but those picked up along the Confederate
breastworks were round and fiat, like slice
cut crossways from watermelon. Campaign
ers and those familiar with the equipment Of
the two armies will recall that the rebel can
teen was as different from the canteen
OF Yankee make as is Kentucky corn
juice from Connecticut cider or Jersey light
ming.
I rode along the Brock road for about
three miles to the ruins of the Brock house in
small, fallow, unfenced field, half way to
Todd's tavern. The growth Of timber on eth
er side of the road is unbroken. There is not
sign OF human habitation. The woods are
so dense that at some points it is impossible to
see twenty yards within, and at no place is an
object hundred yards off from the roads dis
coverable. Trees and bushes, bushes and
trees. But along one side of the road from the
Orange plank south to the Brock ruins is a
TT..oii.uouo iiiio "a VOL Piosol'ou oaIehWoiAs.
Here it is up to the top button of the coat;
again it Is knee-high, and occasionally almost
level with the ground, but it is always tracea-
BILE. At times it runs off into the woods for a
few feet but curves again and lies by the side
OF the road like an endless grave-mound. In
most places it is brown, with covering of
dead leaves and pine skaters, while at others
it is green, with small shrubs and matted bri-
ars. Logs stick out at intervals, and their ends
are charred in the place where roaring wood
fire helped Longstreet to make temporary
breach in the line. Three-quarters of a mile
in the woods to the west, and parallel to
Hancock's intreDchments are the confeder-
ate breastworks They stretch to the right and
left OF the plank road and run for a seemingly
interminable distance. The earthworks that
saw at Bull Run, in the peninsula, at Fred
ericksburg and at Chancellorsville were slight
compared with these, but when the armies
started on the Rapidan campaign they knew
the value of the shield of sand