The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-04-09

on a sorrel horse belonging to my uncle,
Colonel Nelson, I riding behind, and on
top Of n bank coming suddenly on q
dead horse and soldier lying az they had
been shot In the bushes. he SHE'D down
the bank and dropped us both off. We were
soon UP again, however, not Winding the
fall, but n little shaky over the ghastly
sight In the path above our heads. Ihls,
however, was nothing 20 what we were
TO see. The dead men had nearly all been
taken UP. and were buried in n long
trench or trenches stretching across a
sort Of common. But | saw more dead
horses than I had ever seen alive, and
as we rode along the places where the
hght had ragged hercest we had abundant
evidence Of what had been there. l re-
member at Marye's Heights seeing the
fragments Of the gun which had exploded
while General Lee stood close by It. At
the foot Of the heights 100 men OF
Meagher's Brigade had fallen I'm FIVE min
utes. ! remember that a railroad cut along
which the road ran was said TO have lain
I'm the direct line of fire and TO have
been almost filled with dead. A little
orchard was whipped into fragments. and
a plank fence behind which a line had
lain was shivered into splinters from one
end to the other.
Unless I had seen II I would not have
believed that men could bleed so much.
1t looked as If barrels Of blood had been
poured upon the ground along that fence.
AS we rode into town the scene beggarcd
description. Earthvorks and barrica1cs
had been thrown up by the Union troops
to shelter themselves from the rolling
FIRE which poured from the heights above
them. I remember children were at work
with fire shovels filling mp the trenches.
and on one earthwork a tiny Confederate
flag was planted. and the youngsters
mounted on the red emhankment cheered
ms we rode by. The houses were riddled
and battered by bullet and shot. and the
church steeple had several canno balls
through II.
Not long ago 7 heard a story which OK
planned these shots. 4 gentleman told
how he had charge Of n detachment at
a gun on the hill just across the river,
with orders to keep up a fire IT intervals
during the night. He became annoyed
by the clock in the town. which struck
the hours with calm regularity through
the night. and he determined to silence It.
So by the sound he trained his guns on
the tower and blazed away through the
darkness. Then he waited. II struck
again. and again he blazed away. SO all
through the night he kept up mis- fire.
Each time ne was sure that he must
id III IT, bul 'diH lililf a. lHT HbhI
approached the old clock rang II out
calm and undisturbed as if 10 show that
war and peace are alike insignificant in
the passage Of Time.
All OF this was vivid enough to me as
rode the same road through
the same country and town so
many years afterWard. We could
tell the place where my fathers
camp had been by the location Of the
- - - --- s44T- .1-~ 10 -,
that one among the greatest battles Of
history had been fought here, and that
every turf beneath the feet was a SOL
dier's sepulchre. The town lay so peace
full and quiet that II justified my fathers
speech tina the only signs he saw we're
in the cemetery. Yet how history has
tramped these quiet hills. Here at Fred
ericksburg itself. there away to the West
ward a few miles, where Jackson executed
his famous flank movement. which Moth
ing but genius could have conceived,
and nothing but genius could have per-
formed. and doubling up HOOker's wing
marched beyond the stars, with the name
and fame Of Stonewall Jackson dead on
the field Of glory at the age Of thirty
nine. Just back Of us is the Wilderness,
and there is Spotsylvania Courthouse,
where Lee and Grant met in that long
struggle which was TO give them both
fame. and end only when Lee. having
failed to drive Grant back across the
RappahannOck, but having wedged him
south Of Richmond with n loss Of more
men thar he himself had in the field,
met him at Appomattox in that interview
when the dignity Of the conquered was
almost TO eclipse the fame of the con-
queror. Poor as the country seems It is
rich with memories of our race.
If one wishes to see the changes Of
time let him stop at Dumfries. We came
upon it one day Unexpectedly as one might
come upon an abandoned partridge nest
from which the birds had gone. once a
town Of considerable importance. with a
good importing trade, the filling up Of
the creek, which once brought ships TO
it's doors, left it stranded high and dry
on the Stafford Hills. and it lies to-day a
deserted village, amid the deserted woods.
1t is said that George Peabody began his
great life there, and others who achieved
eminence did the same. A few ruinous
large brick houses stand at intervals on
the slope, back from the country road.
facing imaginary streets, and a large mill
hangs gray and lonely over a dry or dry
ing sand-flled stream as a monument
to the life that has passed. We We're told
OF a cemetery and made our way up
the hill through n dense growth OF pines.
We found II In the heart Of the woods
an extensive burial ground laid of in
handsomoly-inclosed sections and filed
with tombstones and monuments carved
with the emblems OF pride or grief.
The pines have grown W in II and all
around It. and. like the village near by,
Il lies with its sorrows and heartaches.
its broken hopes and its despair, as com
pletely sequestered from the world as
the persons Of those who sleep so silently
below. II appeared an emblem of the
country around.
THOMAS NELSON PAGE.