The National tribune., 1882-09-23
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.
The Old Battle Field as 1t Looks
To-Day.
ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA.
The House Where ROsecrans
Made His Headquarters.
George Morgan in Philadelphia TTmes.]

| George Morgan in Philadelphia TimeS]
With Lookout Mountain, dark and cloud
capped, on his right, and the long, low line OF
Missionary Ridge on his left, the visitor finds
the road of seven miles from Chattanooga hither
bordered with most pleasing objects. I was
surprised when Tom whipped his horse from
the Rossville pike into by-way, remarking as
he snapped his lash among the bushes: "Heah
we am, an we come a-kitin'; put nigh ez fas'
ez kited away from heah bout twenty yeah
back"
IN THE BLACKJACK WOODS.
We were riding through fiat woods, the larger
trees of which had been much cut up on the 10th
of September, the first day of the battle. Here
! had occurred a series Of brilliant charges and
counter-charges, mono Of any account except
that in them hundreds were slain. Most of the
trees are blackjacks, which, though so hard
! that lightning itself scarcely can crack the
wood, bear countless scars and axe-marks. The
sears Were made by bullets-Yankee lead on
one side and rebel lead on the opposite bark.
! The aXe-marks were caused by Chattanooga
| darkies, who from the blackjacks and among
! the leaves picked thousands of pounds of val
| uable metal. Tom hitched his horse to n sap
| ling in silence. Then he led the way between
| trees until he came to an oak as big around as
the body of Senator David Davis. In the bark,
about five feet from the roots, was a wound
such as might have been made by the see
saving Of limb swayed in the storms ftful
mood.
DEsoLATIoN AT TIE FIELDS CENTRE.
! A trot of ten minutes took us out of the fiat
| woods and along level road with trees border
ing to the Widow Glenn's place. which is the
| centre of the battlefield Here Rosecrans had
his headquarters, and here, on the Goth of Sep
tember, the great day of the great battle, some
heavy fighting was done. The house stood on
the crest of hill, as high as any round about,
and with his glass Rosecrans could see along
both OF his wings AS he looked to the east he
could catch glimpse of the yellow Chiclla-
mauga winding between low banks. More
than two miles in front of him was Bragg's
line of 10000 men, there being among them
Longstreet and his fresh legion from Virginia.
As at Murfreesboro McCook was on the right,
and as at Murfreesboro McCook was driven in
utter rout. The whole right wing was swept
from the field.
THE ROCK OF CH1CKAMhUGA.
When half the grand army was in route, the
other half drew itself around the Rock Of
Chicamauga" and withstood as wild a storm
as ever split to shreds the sails of ship of
state. With Rosecrans gone Thomas took
foothold on the eminence known in books
as Horseshoe Ridge" just beyond the Dyer
house and little out of eye-shot Of the
Glenn place.
1 would like to picture this hill in all its
outlines if 1 were able-would like to make at
this point sort of red-letter-marll-for long
after readers and writer are dead and gone
the hill will be place Of pilgrimage, Mecca
for lovers of the brave. Now it carries its
wild covering of ages, but the generations vet
to spring will clear it and crown it while
cannons thunder. From its crest will be lifted
a pillar of stone, and thereon will stand the
image Of the hero.
On his front pressed the enemy on his left
thousands stormed, and, like the incoming of
mighty waves, line after line rolled against
his right But there Thomas stood, almost
surrounded, yet with no thought of surrender,
calm in the midst of the thrust, the parry,
the hoarse call Of man to man, the rattle of
many muskets, the roar from huge logs of
iron too hot to touch, smoke that screened
and Redeemed tho September sun-firm in the
whirlpool of battle.
SIGHTS on THE FAMOUS HILL.
Rhetoric is rhetoric and fact is fact, and so
! hasten to tell the reader that this hill with
history is known locally as Snodgrass hill. As
the worshipful knight in armOr Of gold walks
in the same footpath as the clown with cap
and bells, so the words "Snodgrass" " and "the
Rock of Chickamauga" walk the same chalk
line of fame. Guided by Mr. Dyer climbed
the slope on the east to the spot where General
Thomas stood in the thick of the battle. The
whole surface of the hill is well salted and
peppered with bits of flint. Growing out of
the gravel are trees of several kinds-black-
jack, black oak, hickory, pine and sassafras-
and the devils shoe-string, with the roots of
which one could securely bind Samson, is
found here and there among the vines. Most
of the old trees are SCARED and Clipped The
Union defenders of the hill fired down the
slope, and while their bullets remain on one
side of q tree the bullets of the enemy may
be dug from the other. Hundreds of scooped-
out places, like such as are made by wallowing
swine, are found on the slopes by the score.
All such sinks once contained dead men, but
the bones have been shoveled out to fill the
cemeteries. In some places we came across
burial trenches that looked as though they
must have contained whole companies, so
long, deep and wide do they yawn even in
these days of peace when the partridge flutes
among them and the whip-poor-will whistles
above. Three or four little grave mounds,
whereof the reddish soil seemed newly turned,
were objects of surprise to me until Mr.. Dyer
coming up explained that here on the top of
the hill was the unfcnced burying ground of
the Snodgrass family. These arc not the only
undisturbed graves, for on one of the spurs of
the Horseshoe is pit containing the bodies of
a dozen Union soldiers, and in the timber Just
at the foot of the western slope thirteen con-
federate soldiers of the Fifth Kentucky lie in
q row.
1t Sometimes Works the Other Way.
From the Detroit Free PreSsJ
The occupant of an Office on Congress street
west fixed matters one day this week in such
shape that any caller had to run the gauntlet