The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-09-05
MANASSAS IN STONE,
Historic Scenes on the Noted Battlefield

Historic Scenes on the Noted Battlefield
MANASSAS, Va, August 30.-The ded-
ication of the confederate monument here
to-day in the magnitude of the demon.
stration, the character of the address, and
the intense interest manifested WIS strik.
ingly imposing and Impressive:
Its dlIhetilt to convey an adequate idea
of the profound feeling and restrained
enthusiasm of the vast multitude.
The monument, which is erected just
outside the village, is not an imposing
structure. 1t is au obelisk forty feet
high, with a base ten feet Square. 1t is
built of brown sandstone from the yicini.
ty, with four Wbits marble tablets or
slabs, four by FIVE feet, set into each face.
1t is enclosed by handsome, substantial
iron railing. The work was undertaken
and carried through BY the men of this
section Of the State, with some assistance
from the legislature, and
THE sIMpJ.E INSCRIPTIONS
recites that the Ladies' Memorial asso.
citation, of Manassas, dedicate it to the
confederate soldiers of Virginia and her
sister States, who fell in the battle Of the
Grst and second Manassas.
The village is at the junction of the
Manassas Gap railroad with the Virginia
Midland, thirty.two miles from Washing.
ton City. During the war it was a mere
railroad station, and was the point which
Jackson surprised, destroying immense
my stores, and giving the unsuspecting
Pope the FIRST intimation that this ubiqui-
tous commander was in his rear" It is
not the immediate field of either of the
battles that bear its name. 1t is just six
miles from the Henry house, around
which the 1uctuating tide of battle at the
first Manassas surged for hours, and where
the appearance Of fresh confederate
troops on the federal flank was tt = sigma
for the final stampede that did not STOP
short OF the long bridge over the Poto
mac.
By an astonishing historical coinci-
| dence, it was at this same Henry house
that Pope made his last Intellectual stand
| against the united assaults of LoDgstree
and Jackson on the Goth of August, 1862
THE SECOND MANASSAS.
For two days Jackson, by his charac
teristic strategy, his countermarches ant
stubborn resistance, had bewildered ant
baf1ed Pope till Longstreet came VI
with his splendid corps, and forming s
junction with Jackson, ended Pope'
disastrous campaign in what was proba
bly, the fercest conflict of the war. Or
an eminence mile from the Henry
house, Colonel Fletcher Webster, the onl.
son of Daniel Webster, fell at the heat
of his brave Massachusetts regiment
while gallantly and obstinately resisting
| the confederates assault Most Of tht
| dead on both sides were, for the time
necessarily buried on the field of conflict
Two small monuments were erected owe
the federal dead, one at the Henry hous
and one at GravetoD, a. mile distant.
But these we're subsequently removed
as far as practicable, to the splendid fed
eral cemetery at Arlington. No e1for
has been, or ever will be, made to remov
the confederate dead. The four hundrel
buried in the modest cemetery here die'
in the hospital here of wounds and disea
ses. Blu. the monument dedicated to da,
is designed, in more general sense, as
memento to all the confederates who per
ished in the two memorable battles. I
is the best the impoverished confederate
can do. The smallest estimate puts th
concourse to day ct five thousand
Nearly the whole of this great tbron
was from the section circumscribed by
radius of twenty miles. From all tn
surrounding section the population o
both sexes and all ages emptied itsel
into this village. 1t was indeed, sigh
to See.