Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-21
ON BLOODY FIELDS.
THE BATTLE-GROUND OF THE LATE
WAR AS SEEN By A BOY.

THE BATTLE-GROUND OF THE LATE
WAR AS SEEN BY BOY.
Thomas Nelson Page Writes About the
Terrible Scenes Attending the Battle OF
Country.
In the county of Spottsylvania, in which
fredericksburg stands, three campaigns
were fought out. and 400, 900 men We're killed
and wounded. The little town was ON the
road to Richmond, and surrounded by its
historic heights became an important stra-
tegic point. Years before the war Burnside,
then q young subaltern fresh from West
Point, came to fredericksburg on a visit to
wait at the wedding of one of his comrades,
perhaps that Of General Dabney Maury.
from whom had the story The young
officers walked around the heights and dis
cpssed the points of attack and defense. 1t
vas their judgment that 10000 men could
make the heights impregnable against any
Army that could muster under them. Years
afterward General Burnside was instructed
at Washington to cross the Rappahannock
at fredericksburg and proceed to Rich
mond. He stated his knowledge of the
place, but was told to proceed. The result
was one of the most decisive defeats suf-
fered by the Federal armies during the war.
Meagher's men charged up the heights
again and again, only to be swept back by
the deadly fire poured down upon them.
The place has always possessed a peculiar
interest to me because n child came up
from home and went over the battlefield
when they were burying the dead. My
home was in Hanover, about 80 miles to
the southwest, and for two days we could
hear the distant boom! boom! boom! of the
guns My father, two uncles and many
cousins were in the battle, their rank rang
ing from general down to private. The
next day was quiet, and hearing no news
my mother could stand it no longer so an
uncle, who was a clergyman, took my old
er brother and myself in the carriage, and
we drove up to see about them. We crossed
the little tributary streams, the Mat, the
Ia, the Pc, and the Nj, which flowing to-
gether make the Mattaponi. And follow
ing the road we soon arrived on the out
skirts of the great army which for two
days had been battling for the salvation Of
the south.
! remember the scene as we drove up
We were now In the heart of the army and
could scarcely get through for the camps,
camp equipaSe and campfres. One thing
struck me forcibiy-the amount of praying
that was going on. Time and again we
passed fires around which prayer meeting
was going on. 1t was a solemn time There
was not a regiment or battalion which had
not in the last two days battles lost dearly
priced comrades, and none knew what his
fate might be next day.
When reached my uncles camp
though my fathers was a half mile farther
on was too tired to wait longer. All l
recall IS the blue light Of the campfire and
a general greeting from smiling faces, some
of which l knew and some of which were
unknown to me, and when / became con-
Scious again it was next morning, and l
was in my uncles cot, and he was just ris
ing from his blanket on the floor of the tent.
which was of split oak saplings. The next
day rode over the battlefields in COM
pany with my uncle and his staff while the
dead were being buried under the flag of
truce
l shall never forget our ride that day,
and the picture of the battlefield and
the town is one which l shall never
lose; the roads filled with refugees af1oat,
as well as in every conceivable vehicle;
their families and household gear packed
together Unfortunately; the roads almost
bottomless and Uttered up with stuff
dropped or thrown out In the exodus of the
past few days; fragments of vehicles,
household furniture, books, wearing ap-
parel playing cards, everything.
The dead men had nearly all been taken
up and We're buried in long trench or
trenches stretching across n sort of COM
mon. But saw more dead horses than 1
had ever seen alive, and as we rode along
the places where the fight had ragged
fiercest we had abundant evidence of what
had been there. l remember at Marys
Heights seeing the fragments of the gun
which had exploded while General Lee
stood close by it. At the foot of the heights
II men of Meagher's brigade had fallen in
five minutes / remember that a railroad
cut along which the road was said to have
laid in the direct line of fire and to have
been almost filled with dead. \ little Or
chard was whipped into fragments, and Il
plank fence behind which line had laid
was shivered into splinters from end to end.
Unless had seen it would not have be
Geved that men could bleed much. 1t
looked as if barrels of blood had been
poured upon the ground along that fence.
As we rode into town the scene beggared
description. Earthworks and barricades
had been thrown up by the MON troops
to shelter themselves from the rolling fire
which poured from the heights above them.
l remember children were at work with
fire shovels filling up the trenches, and ON
one earthwork tiny Confederate flag was
planted, and the youngsters mounted on
the red embankment cheered us us we rode
by. The houses were riddled and battered
by bullet and shot, and the church steeple
had several cannon balls through it.
All of this was vivid enough to me as 1
rode the same road through the same coun-
try and town so many years afterward. We
could tell the place where my fathers camp
had been by the location of the roads, but
there was little else to show that one
among the greatest battles of history had
been fought here and that every turf be
meath the feet was a soldiers sepulcher.
The town lay so peaceful and quiet that it
justified my fathers speech that the only
signs he saw were in the cemetery. Yet
how history has tramped these quiet hills.