Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-27
BULL RUNS FIELD.
The Fascination Of the Scane..-
Where Stonewan Jackson
Sat His Horse
TJoanuin Miller1


ing team and driver we set out for the bat
tle-field of Bull Run, four miles distant, over
| the same road which Beauregard Travelled to
| meet Mcdowell on July 81, 1861.
The trouble now is not what to say but
what not to say in a single letter Briefly,
then, the south was massing for battle on this
point. You can TO this day see miles of
earthworks here. Fort Beauregard l. still an
imposing piece Of fertilization, earghwork,
with beech trees, pear trees, willows, and in
fact all kinds of wild as well as tame woods
climbing over. 1t is too heavy to level down
| and restore again to the dominion of the
plow. But nearly all the other lines and
earth forts have quietly surrendered to the
husbandman, and, mounting there to-day,
| the tall corn stands in regiments flashing its
| green, bent sabres in the sun.
This first battle of Bull Run stands first in
| the alphabet of great American battles
| Greater battles have been fought bereabouts;
| a greater battle, indeed, on this same ground
| But the first has fastened itself on u.s. There
| is q savage fascination about it which we
who lived on that day can not escape And
ye. it was not yesterday. 1 saw lounging
against lamp-post here at Manassas not en-
bour ago. handsome young seutherner pull
lttS u5 no IuuSLGCuS- dlFGOaSxlSu GAlA
asked hin of the battle. He had been bosn
| since it was Fought So you see it WIS not
foughs yesterday, this battle OF Bull Run,
when tho cannon shook the earth even TO thu
shores Of Oregon And do you know the
north Played the cir of 'fDixdss in this
first bat5ass It is So The so.ltL lod not
yet learned 1t, but played: ''Ihs Girl L
Left Behind Me- Lot US lock in ukza this
ho&< fsalR H. H. e.
whom We knew well reorIy 8. quarter Of a
century ago. By wide, vell-kept country
road, through corn fields and clumps Of oak,
chestnut walnut, hickory and half dozen
other kinds Of scrub trses, some e< tissm
badly shot to pieces, we were drivsa toward
the muddy, sluggish, crooked and pZly little
stream Of Bull Run. In shis drive Of four
miles we met one man on horseback; we
passed one man on bosse aud {. barefoot
negro boy on foot, driving little dock of
sheep. Overhead l saw single raven; not
bird, not squirrel, Oh eithsr hand; bat the
crIckets ana grasshoppers in tho corn flalis
and ciunps of wood On either SIDE OF US
chirped and sang necessarily.
At tia end of four mikes we turned through
a gate to the right into field; COWS were
scattered here and there around the crescent
OF the hill; on the crest of the hill stOo3 long
frame farmhouse; back of this holsa a little
brown stone monument to the deasi soldiers;
in front Of it, in the d0or-yacd, a graveyard.
The house which formerly stood here had
been torn to splinters during the battle. The
Lady buried in the grave III the doOr-yard
was killed here She was the mother Of the
kind old gentleman who now inherits this
place. This battlefield was his mothers
farm. 1t is now his, and he shows you over
it. He was teaching school down at Alexan-
driG at the time his mother YVES killed here;
& school teacher for forty years. He
and his sister live in this old gray house
together; no one but these two Old
deaf people for many a mile about. The
peach trees are breaking down under loads
Of fruit in the heart Of the battlefield,
q little way down the slope of the hill below
tie grave in the door yard. Long strings of
fat turkeys tread on tangled grass through
the orchard, chasing the graSshoppers. Below
this orchard, half a mile away and curved
around in muddy crescent, but hiddea by a
young growth Of trees, creeps Ball Run. On
the morning of the battle in the broad corn
fields on the other side and away out yonier
miles away over the foot hills the Federal
bayonets cleaned by tens of thousands.
They were marching for Reapregeryfs rear,
or rather for the Midland line, by which he
had come up from the south. He had come
out from Manassas, four miles away, to stop
this movement, as all the world knows. The
north was not to be stopped. Hence the bat
tie. But this is trenching On history, and we
must draw the line. You can see where the
south retreated to where stood Jackson, ''ille
g stone WALL
Back of this house, where the old
schoolmaster lives with his oldest
sister, about q hundred yards, and al
most at the top Of the gently sloping hill, on
the outer edge CT the tai, rank corn, and
against young growth Of pines, is the place
where Jackson got down to pray. And here
it was he sat his horse, was wounded, held
his men in stubborn line that day, while the
storm of battle beat against them, and so
won his singular name. On the front of this
sloping hill that lies here between this house
and the place where Jackson sat his horse
during the battle, the dead lay thickest when
the fight was done. The corn is rank and
tall. But l do not see as some pretend 10
when looking over the field Of Waterloo,
that the blood of brave men has put any par
ticular mark of vitality upon it. The truth
is, if some one did not point out to YOU all
this, you would know nothing whatever of
the battle of Bull Run. Nature covers up all
such scars; time heals the wounds on the
breast of our common mother, as well as on
our own. Wander about here for a week. as
l have done, and, save for the one little
brownstone monument here, the old earth
works at Manassas and some SCARED old trees,
you would not know there had ever been any
battle here have picked up one bullet and
one button from soldiers coat; that is all.
But on the earthworks near Manassas, under
q peach tree, while picking up peaches, 1
found an Indian arrowhead. Think Of it,
and follow these two facts: What other bat
ties, what other races had fought for the
fields Of Virginia ages and ages heforea
Not many people come to visit this battle
field. have seen a thousand at Waterloo
for single visitor here.
The great trench where the dead were
buried on this sloping hill Immediately under
where Stonewall Jackson sat ON his horse
during the battle, is still a'trench. Tbs is a
sore that refuses to heal. 1t has become
little drain or rivulet TIE bones of the dead
were mostly taken away at the clos OF the
war, and this opened the trench anew. This
portion OF the battlefield is D pasture now
A little line of trees has grown along the
banks Of this trench. Under these rank
young frees good many sleek spotted cattle
stood yesterday, chewing their cuds and
iazily switching flies. You never hear