The National tribune., 1892-08-18
REAV'S STATION
Echoes from that Battlefeld-Its
Appearance To-day = Wilson's
Raiders-Five Forks as it Now
Looks.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE:


s. SARs and rumors of wars have ceased
GNAHi5 The thrice historical battlefield oil
I GItAfR Ream's Station is waving with
81 A-a coru as it waved in "a, tits true,
| coTVItsVTos but no Yankee soldiers are pluck
! ing the roasting ears. Shrieking trains are
driving along the Weldon (now the Atlantic
Coast Railroad at intervals where displaced
| and disabled rails and half-burned ties once
met the view The old lines erected here have
pretty much disappeared. BY courtesy these
| lines are penned in the parsonage, whose pro-
| prietor, Rev. J. L. McSparran, was Chaplain
| in the rebel army. am sojou.ning elsewhere
| on the battlefield in little house used as a
field hospital. whose exterior still bears honor
| able scars inflicted in the fray, and have as my
hostess an excellent, large-hearted woman. who
WAS one of the most loyal supporters the Con-
federscy knew, Mrs. n. p. Freeman.
She was raised nearly two miles from here,
being daughter of the late j. g. Bick, a
| planter once owning 20 slaves and over 2,c0o
| acres OF land in this section. i have just paid
| the old homestead a visit. Mrs. Blick, who is
| the peTsonifcation of good nature, gave me a
| hearty welcome. Here was a house that IN Its
| pamy days was the center of 30 other build.
| ings used for various purposes. First and fore
most there were the slave cabins near at hand,
| aud several spacious barns only lItile further
| away. Here was the gin-ho where the cot
ton seed was removed from the cotton raised in
| the vicinity, and close by the wcaving-house,
| where il was made into cloth for the immense
| household. Then there were the tobacco barns.
| the meat house. the smoke-house, the icehouse,
ETC., uniting to comprise what must have ap-
peared. when all were standing like little
country village
or this collection few buildings remain
| not more than a dozen, and the place stands
| typical monument of the decaying splendor
and comfort which must once have marked its
int iIctn hasa
roundings, l easily find myself in sympathy
with my hostess, whose allegiance to the Con-
federacy was so intense who, with mucn more
limited resources to day, and q humber sphere
OF life, looks back upon her youth spent i'll
this abode OF ease and plenty as a dream of en-
chanted land.
Mrs. Blick herself was opposed to the war and
opposed 10 slavery, but after the armies reached
this section in June, 1864, her house was in
neutral territory, and she gave as much aid and
conntenance TO one side as TO the other. AS
sat on the piazza and listened to her yemnis-
cences of the war as she saw it, her eyes at
times lighting with the old fire with which
she flashed her Indignation at reb or yank who
offered indignities or committed depredationS
upon the place. was filled with admiration
for a woman who. panoplied in the shield OF a
courageous womanhood, should have dared
and did what she did. Now she was starting
of th rough the lines to complain to Gen. Meade
of some marauders on her premises. and anon
she goes to Petersburg and arraigns before
Gen. Lee some Johnny whose insolence or
other offsnses have aroused her indignation.
At her front gate the Confederate Generals
Rosser, Fitz Hugh Lee, and w. III. L. Lee
have drawn rein, with others Of lesser note.
When Sheridan passed through here en- route
to Five Forks, Custer, it may be remembered,
brought up the rear with his division guard
ing the supply trains. Mrs. Blick relates how
IL, L. x0
train some oats for her family use and for
planting. In field near Monks Neck Bridge,
about three miles from here, squad of men,
a dozen or more in number. had pitched four
tents in a field and had q dozen more steers
from the herd, which the butcher. man by
the name of Mingey, was slaughtering and
dressing. When Mrs. Blick appeared she was
engaged to cook some of the meat for the
squad, so taking piece selected for that pur-
pose she and her daughter started towards
home. Before they had gone half mile they
heard scattering shots proceeding from the di-
rection Of the butchering. On their return
with the cooked meat later they found the
butcher lying in his gore, with no one else
near. They were much distressed lest it
might be thought that they had had hand in
the tragedy. Just then a Union officer with
an Orderly appeared on the road, to whom they
beckoned. 1t seems that the butcher had
shown them pocket book filled with green
backs, which he said he was going to send to
his mother. naming her address. When the
officer reached the spot the ladies narrated
what they knew of the event. The officer
seemed to have no use for the dead man until
they told him of the money he had in his
breast pocket whcreupon he told his Orderly
to dismount and look for it. The Orderly did
so, and drew out the wallet dripping with
blood, and took also revolver from the dead
mans belt. The address of the murdered mans
IA
TO forward the wallet, with its contents, to her
Did he do it? Who knows Mingey? The sir
name is all that is now remembered by which
to identify him. His case of knives were left
there; also one steer. This latter Mrs. Blick
sold after the surrender for Sl00-the only
money she had to start anew with.
This cold -blooded act was the work of BUSH
whackers who were following in the wake of
our army. was their wont. One of this
party is said to be livi' g here to-day. No
other particulars were ever learned. The
ladies found another dead soldier some distance
from the camp the next day.
During Wilson's raid Connecticut soldier
from Hartford, cavalryman, died in house
near here and was buried in the family lot
His name was Ames Who knew him?
have not moved headquarters since writing
the above, but have been spending quiet
week in this vicinity, where, were he not dis
turbcd by the occasional rush Of a railroad
train, Rip Van Wrinkle might sleep out another
20 years undisturbed. 1t is an interesting
spot. ! find current here the belief that Ham
cocks men constructed the frai breastworks,
sections of which are still to be seen, at the
time of his disastrous expedition here in Au-
gust, 1864. The credit of this performance,
however, belongs to the Sixth Corps, which
threw them up to help out the cavalrymen on
their return from the Wilson raid. And soreIy
they needed some one to help them, if one is to
credit the tradition related in the neighborhood
b. the Oldest inhabitants That this body of
troopers committed great exeesses as they roved
AT VIII from farm house to arIa- house has long
been matter of undisputed history, although
no one. so far as j am aware, charges greater
impropriety to these raiders than to any others
which went on similar independent campaigns.
Yet when any body Of soldiers goes out into
the eneuy's country and spends much of its
time in sackiDg private property, carrying
away women's dresses and jewelry, silver plate,
family portraits etc, destroying much property
besides which could in no earthly way further
tue cause and which did much to embitter the
enemy against the army engaging in it, nothing
but condemnation should be meted out to such
warfare. Wilson's expedition WAS especially
rich IN this kind of warfare, and at Monks
Neck Bridge about three miles from here the
JoAnnies lay in wait for the cavalry with its
train of spoils, with result too well known to
need repeating here. Some of those spois are
still in the ghborhood.
From the time that the army arri we'd before
Petersburg this section was between the lines,