The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-13
In THE CUMBERLAND GAP.
An Indiana Soldiers Experiences Dur.
ing Summer in the Mountains.
Prof. Scott Buffers Address to the Young Peo-
pie at Plymouth Church-Glowing Word
Pictures of Persons and Events.


Pictures of Persons and Events.
Prof Scott Butler addressed the school chill.
dren at Plymouth Church. yesterday afternoon,
being introduced to the audience by Mr.. j. B.
Roberts. His subject was "a Soldiers Summer
in the Mountains" He said it was at Cumber-
land Gap, in the heart of the Cumberland hills
that he spent the summer that he would tell
about The hillsides there are often dry, and
red, and semi barren; the rocks stick out through
the scanty grass, and along the edges of the
clearings the blackberry briars grow in thickets,
and the berries grow blscker and sweeter under
the hot August suns
In the little valleys between the steep hills
the soil is often rich and deep; vegetation grows
luxuriantly, the great-leaved pawpaw drops its
fat fruit for the 'possum to stuff himself, and
the muscadine trails from tree to tree its cluster
laden vines. There will be mountain stream
down there, the hiding place Of the speckled
trout, but you will not be able to trace its course
very well-the laurel bushes guard it so jeal.
ously
What was there in the unproductive hills
and lonely valleys to lure men into choosing
them for habitationsl But you will not wonder
when l remind you that they who settled there
were hunters and backwoodsmen, the descend
ants OF hunters and backwoodsmen of the
mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, who
sought in these wilds not sites for future brood
farms and crowded towns, but the hunters para
disc. the free life of the backwoodsman. You
will sympathize with them and enter into the
spirit of their life. ! know stream of wild
blood fingers in the veins Of youth and makes
boys and girls love camp life and the freedom Of
woods and river. like that original savagery
and like to trace it back to our barbarian an
cestors-the great red-haired giants of ancient
Germany who hunted the fierce boar and held
in check imperial legions
This gap in the Cumberland range is about $50
feet deep. In parts it is just wide enough for a
single roadway. To the west are others, Rog-
erss and Big Creek, but they are difficult to pass
and infrequently used. For $50 miles to the east
there are no passes in the range. Cumberland
Gap was Of considerable strategic importance
during the war. When occupied by Union
force it severed the connection between the con-
federate armies in the East and in the West.
When it was in confederate hands it kept the fed
eral forces out of East Tennessee. At midday
in mid-June / stood on the mountain top at
/ have seen others since in Switzerland, in the
Tyrol and in Italy. Our mountains are grand
with glory not borrowed from association with
human achievements, grand in suggestion that
appeals to the most powerful and enduring ele-
ments OF our nature. The ridge, as viewed from
the summit at Rogers's presents a continuous
line of uniform height, so steep as to be gener-
ally inaccessible little less steep here that it
becomes barely practicable for teams. Our ar
tiilery and wagons were fairly lifted up the
Sta a M a NJ work
it was. According to my recollection some
eight or ten of US spent the entire
night, boosting up the team belonging to our
command. In the ascent of a mountain the long
est way is generally the most expeditions. You
don't start right straight up; if SO, you would
| probably not start at all You have to tack back
and forth. first to the right, then to the left
then to the right again, and so on, avaing your
self of any advantageous inequalities there may
in the surface. The hard pulls come in on the
turns. Imagine team toiling along mount
ain side. with such pull before it. The mules
have to blow first; they stand the steep slope,
their thin sides smoking. an ear thrown back oc-
casionally in nervous expectation, their wide
eyes showing apprehension of what is before
| them. An army wagon 10 cumbrous affair,
with canvas top, and intended to be
drawn by six mules, The driver sits
sadie ths on %na the newt near II. Sss
on the left hand side. He drives with single
line attached to the bits of the lead mule on the
| near side The whip he carries is what wagon
| ers call a "back snake" So, all hands to the
| wheels, though it may De necessary for some to
| assist the driver in his mild persuasion of the
mules, and another provided with huge boulder,
will find profitable employment in ''chucking'
| the wheels When all things are ready then,
each. at the given signal, strains every nerve.
He lifts, and pushes, and strains and tugs and
whatever else he does. he yells. lis not neces-
sary for him to swear though-the driver does
| the swearing for the crowd And that driver.
seated on plunging mule, gavanic jumping
jack wouldn't be circumstance to him. And
the language Of him am salts
fed that in the way Of demo.
pac manifestations and satanic utterances
| the universe and all eternity have no surprises
in store for the soul that once has contemplated
wagon train on the side OF mountain. After
reaching the summit, the track, before punging
| down the southern slope, winds for a little way
under the thin shade of pine and hemlock
There is but scanty growth of vegetation among
the, for the most part, bleak rocks. along whose
gray surfaces the scaly lizards glide. To the
| ones feet, a fair valley. whose further side is
bounded by ridge, clean cut and continuous
running parallel to the Cumberland Looking
down, one behed scene Of farmhouse AMI
From the mountains base great spring poured
forth food of ice cold water. few hours
later and our artillery had cut great sNaths
through those harvest fields
During the war the mountaineers of the South
were Union men, They were true to their ira.
ditional nature. 1t was not through love of the
Union, think. They knew little Of this great
government. They have learned more of il
since the war. through the conflicts of thsir
moonshiners with the revenue officers. and Aieir
love for it has not been increased Their ebs; but
till after the war they had scarcely felt ats infiu
ence in their remote retreats What made them
Union men was hatred of the proud and over
bearing aristocracy, in the midst of which they
lived as a peculiar people. They
they bravely held their own always.
l had seen some of the mountaineers before
went into the army. Early in the year 1862, on
the capture of Fort Donelson. large number
Of confederate prisoners were brought up to In
dianapos for safe keeping; among them were
troops drawn from these mountain regions. I
remember standing on the Bates House corner