The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-11-29
Bull Run Battle Field.

Bull Run Battle Field.
We got good dinner ct Manassas and
hiring team and driver we set out for
the battle field of Bull RCn, four miles
distance, over the same road that Beau
regard travelled to meet Mcdowell, July
81, 1861.
The trouble now is not what to say
bat what not to say in . single letter.
Briefly, then, the south was massing for
battle ct this point. You can to this day
zee miles Of earth works. Fort Beaurc-
gard 10 still an imposing piece o, fortif
cation, eArthwork with beech trees, pear
trees, willows, and in fact, all kinds of
Wild - well rs tame woods climbing
over. It is too heavy to level down and
restore again to the dominion of the
pillow. 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.
The first bs.tle of Bull Run stands
Arst in the alphabet of great American
battles. Greater battles have been
fought hereabouts; greater battle,
indeed. on this same ground. But the
first has fastened itself on us. There is
. savage fascination about which we who
lived on shat day cannot escape. And yet
il was not yesterday. I saw lounging
against lamp-post here at Manassas not
an hour ago, handsome young south.
erner pulling at his mustache. I
approached and asked him OF the bat
tie. He had been born since it
was fought! So you see it was not fought
yesterday, this battle of Bull Run, when
the cannon shook the earth even to the
shores Of Oregon. And do you know the
north played the air of "Dixie" in this
first battle? It is so. The south had not
yet learned it, but played 1.-THE Girl 1
Left Behind Me-" Let rs look in upon
this battle field as we look upon the face
of one whom We knew nearly q quarter
Of century ago. By Q wide, welLkept
country road, through corn fields aud
clumps Of oak, chestnut, walnut, hick-
DRY aud half dozen other kinds Of scrub
trees, some of them badly shot to pieces,
we were driven toward the muddy, slug
gish, crooked and ugly little stream II
Bull Run. In this drive of four miles
We met one man on horseback; we passed
one man on horse and barefoot negro
boy on foot, driving . little flock of
sheep. Overhead saw single raven;
not q bird, not q squirrel, on either
hand; but the crickets and grasshcppers
in the corn fields and clumps of wood on
either side Of US chirped and sang inces-
sanity.
At the end of four miles we turned
through . gate to the right into field;
? COWS were scattered here and there around
the crescent of the hill; On the crest of
the hill stood q long frame farm house;
back Of this house little brown
stone monument to the dead soldiers
soldiers; in front of it, in the door yard,
agraveyard. The house which formerly
stood here had been torn to splinters
during the battle. The lady
buried in the grave in 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 Alexandra at the time
his mother was killed here; school
teacher for forty years. He and his Sis
ter live in this old gray house together;
no one but these two old deaf people for
many q mile about. The peach trees are
breaking down under loads of fruit in
the heart of the battlefield; little wsv
down the slope of the hill below the
grave in the door-yard. Long strings Of
fat turkeys tread on tangled grass through
the orchard, chasing the grasshoppers.
Below this orchard, hals mile away and
curved around in muddy crescent, but
hidden by young growth of trees,
creeps Bull Run. On the morning OF
the battle in the broad cornfields, and
away out yonder, miles away over the
foothills, the federal bayonets cleaned
by tens Of Thousands. They we're march.
ing for Beauregsrd's rear, or rather for
the Midland line. by which he had come
up from the south. he bad come out
from Manassas, four miles away, TO stop
this movement, - all the world knows.
The north was not to be stopped. Hence
the battle. But this il trsuching ON his
tory, and We must draw the line. You
can zee where the south retreated to
whore stood Jackson, like stone wall"
Back Of this house, where the old
schoolnaster lives With his Oldest sister.
about hundred yards, and almost at the
top Of the gently sloping hill, on the
outer edge Of the tall. rank corn, and
agsipss . young growth of pines, Is the
place where Jackson got down to pray.
And here it was he sat on his horse,
wounded, and held his men in stubborn
linz that day, while the storm Of battle
- agninsf them, and 20 won his Singh
Lar name. On the front Of this sIoping