The Delaware farmer., 1883-10-12
..MANAssAs ! MANAssAs p

memory, a sense Of history, a sound o
war, a scent of Waterloo color abou
this name, a roar of cannon, which car
never be quite disassociated from ''Man,
assas p
I wonder if biblical old Manassah,
who kept the wayside inn at Manassas
Gap hundred years ago, and gave his
name to the place, was man of war or
man of peace, or felt the weight of
cannon on his shoulders as he bore about
this great battle name.
This railway station is about thirty
miles from Washington City, through
the City of jackson, which was laid
out-and buried, too-during JacksOn's
administration; also through Alexan-
dria, storied town, where Washington
went to church after he had buried the
hatchet and that cherry tree episode.
We got a good dinner at Manassas, and
hiring team and driver we set out for
the battlefield of Bull Run, four miles
distant, over the same road which Beau
regard travelled to meet Mcdowell on
the 21st of July, 1861.
The trouble now is not what to say,
but what 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 is still an imposing piece of
fortifcation, earthwork, with peach
trees, pear trees, willows, and, in fact,
all kinds of wild as we'll 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 sur
rendered to the husbandman, and mount |
ing there to-day the tall corn stands in
regiments, flashing its green, bent sabres
in the sun.
The first battle of Bull Run stands
first in the alphabet of great American
battles. Greater battles have been |
taught hereabouts; greater battle in
deed; on this same ground. But the first
has fastened itself on us. There is a
savage fascination about it which we
who lived on that day cannot escape.
And yet it was not yesterday. I saw
lounging against a lamp-post here at
Manassas, not an hour ago, handsome
young Southerner pulling at his NOUS
tache. approached and asked him of
the battle. He had been born since it
was fought ! Soyou 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 "The {
Girl Left Behind Ne" Let us look f
back upon this battlefield as we look &
upon the face of one whom we knew Z
we'll nearly a quarter of a century ago. a
By a wide, well-kept country road, L
through cornfelds and clumps of oak, @
chestnut, walnut, hickory and half Q
lozen other kinds of scrub trees, some r
# them badly shot to pieces, we were I
lriven to the muddy, sluggish, crooked n
md ugly little stream of Bull Run. In b
his drive of four miles we met oneman
IN horseback; we passed one man on a
lorse and a barefoot negro boy on foot,
irving a little flock of sheep. Over
lead saw a single raven; not bird, Il
lot a squirrel on either hand; but the a
ricketts, and grasshoppers, in the corn p
elds and clumps of wood on either side =.
f us, chirped and sang incessantly. p
At the end of four miles we turned :
trough gate to the right into field. -
lows were scattered here and there :,
round the crescent of the hill. On the !,
rest of the hill stood long frame farm =.
ouse; back of this house, little brown F.
one monument to the dead soldiers. in ~
ont of it, in the door yard, grave ~
one. The house which formerly stood =
ere had been torn to splinters during g.
le battle. The lady buried in the grave
the door yard was killed here. She 80
as the mother of the kind old gentle -
an who now inherits this place. This 90
was his mothers farm. 1t is -,
wv his, and he shows you about over a.
He was teaching school down at ~
lexandria at the time his mother was -,
lied here; a school teacher for forty -,
,ars. He and his sister live in this old n,
ay house together; no one but these -
70 old deaf people for may be a mile no
out. The peach trees are breaking an
'wn under loads of fruit in the heart of
e battlefield, a little way down the