National Republican., 1883-03-15

second corps had disappeared in the woods
on the way to Shady Grove church, we turned
our attention TO our immediate surround
ings--the Charlottesville battle field The
debris of that fight still Uttered the ground.
Bayonets, bent and rusty; twisted muskcts,
monts, ragged edged fragments Of shells, and
battered bullets lay about on every hand ;
while here aud there u human bone pro-
truded from the shallow grave into which the
dead soldier had been flung. Lines Of breast
works ran In every direction, twisting in and
out Of the underground like endless serpents
On the corner of the two roads stood the
shattered blackencd walls Of the old Chan
celor mansion, looking down like a grim SEN
tincl on the devastation of war, which kindly
nature was striving to conceal beneath her
mantle of vegetation.
While We were going over in memory the
events of that mismanaged battle our thoughts
were suddenly summoned TO the present by
the crack of a rned gun somewhere east of us,
ana the explosion Of shell which had been
sent crashing through the timber in the
direction Of Fredericksburg The effect of
an attack by confederate force from that
shot Scared town was freely discussed, and
we soon came to the conclusion that If any
troops were there our advance must have set
them to thinking that the most direct route
south was the safest one for them. Several
shots were fired, and we knew by tho in
terval between the discharge of the gun
and the explosion of the she'll that the
missiles were not coming in our direction,
Had 1t been confederate ammunition ex-
pended for our edification, the sound of the
gun and of the bursting she'll, both coming the
same way, would have been to us almost coin
cident.
After this episode we resumed our investi-
cations among the relics of Chancellorsville
until about z o'clock, when jingling of sa-
bres and Gathering of hoofs called our at
tention to n column of cavalry passing by to
the south. At the head of one of the divi-
sions rode Custer, with his long hair flying in
the wind. Glad In an embroidered velvet
jacket and corduroy breeohes let into top
boots, and his head surmounted by q smok-
ing cap from which depended q short tassel,
he looked much more like carpet knight
out for an airing on the avenue than the dar-
ing, dashing cavalier SO we'll known to both
armies
The cavalry passed out Of sight and there
came an ominous silence. No sound reached
us from the fierce fight going on between the
right wing of tho army aud Ewells troops,
few miles up the yellow turnpike. which lay
so tranquil under our feet. Aft& lapse of
several hours a mounted officer rode in from
the west with an order and few moments
afterward the brigade was in column moving
up the dusty road. On the farther side of a
narrow stream which marked the point where
Stonewall Jackson came down on Hookers
right flank q year before we first heard the
low growl of distant musketry directly in
front, whilo an occasional artillery shot
seemed to record the pulsations of the battle.
AS we passed rapidly on the firing grew in
volume, indicating the ruthless work going
OH under the curtain of the woods in front,
and tinging many o cheek with n sober shade.
This was Warren and Sedgwick's fight on
the turnpike, in which some four or five
thousand soldiers were left mangled or dead
under the trees or in the hands of the enemy.
The army was already dealing with those he
roic figures of loss which formed distinctive
feature of the desperate campaign of 1864.
Beyond the junction of the turnpike and
the plank road We turned into an open field
and moved in q southwesterly direction,
leaving tho firing to the right. At last came
an order to halt. In front the woods stretched
away to the west until the eye vas lost in
their dim passages. Not q sound came out of
those depths but the murmur of the May
wind gently stirring the luxuriant foliage.
This oppressive silence seemed to herald tho
approach of the grim genius of battle, clad in
smoke and flame and welding the scepter of
death.
Seconds grew into minutes which seemed
hours, when suddenly the silence was broken
by the crack Of musket some distance in
front, and at once the drawn out rattle of q
long skirmish line rang through the woods.
The echoes had scarcely ceased their antics in
the cavernous recesses of the forest when the
rattling crash of line Of battle smote the air,
and we knew that for some body of troops in
our immediate front the battle was on.