The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-16

/ each other. Its curious how often differ
ent battles We're fought on the same
ground.
/ Here to the south was another road,
| and if we follow it we come along the
margin of the Potomac to the quiet lit
/ tie town of Fredericksburg, quieter if
possible even than Alexandria. Here
before the war was an almost unique
town, with a society the like Of which
was elsewhere found only in country
neighborhoods. The gentry of the Rap
pahannocll had their residences here,
somewhat as on u more splendid scale
the Mississippi planters had theirs at
Natchez. George Washington went to
school here, and here his mother lived
and died in quaint little Old house,
with its garden behind it, as it was
when she received Lafayette there,
flower pot in hand. Not long since a
gang Of spectators by sharp trick
thought they had secured the little
tomb and unfinished monument and,
making them q special feature of
brazen corner lot advertisement. they
prepared to "cry" them for sale in
Washington on the day of a great cele-
bration. This was little more than
Fredericksburg could stand and there
was an excitement III the place such as
had not been there since the DAYS when
armies used to appear on the heights
yonder and open their guns upon the
place. Indeed, there was more excite
ment, for Gen. Dabnev St. Maurv tells
how during Burnside's hombartlment
one of the old gentlemen Of the place,
church warden of st. Georges. took his
chair out and sat all day in his garden
to show his unconcern. Commodore
Maury was born in this quiet town. and
Lewis Herndon, who gave a friend his
| watch and last message to his young
wife and went down with his ship as
calm as if he had been sailing into port.
Down the river, where it widens out.
is Westmoreland, the birthplace OF
Washington and the Lees. Some years
ago, a republican representative in con-
gress from New England having slurred
at Virginia, Judge Critcher, who then
represented Wcstmoreland in the house,
rose and stated that from within a
circle Of twenty miles in his own coun-
ty had come George Washington. Arthur
Lee, ChaSles Lee, Light Horse Harry"
Richard Henry Lee and Robert e. Lee,
while only little outside Of that radius
had come Thomas jefferson, James
Madison. James Monroe, and he might
have added Paul jones. Matthew
f. Maury and Lewis Herndon. 1t was
A convincing reDlr.
We are now on the very ground where
the war was mainly fought. Ia the
county Of Spotsylvania, in which Fret
erickSburg stands, three campaigns
were foughtoat ard four hundred thcu-
sand men were killed and wounded.
The little town was on the road TO Rich
mond, and. surrounded ny Its historic
heights became an important strategic
point. Years before The war Burnside.
then 4 young sub2lterD fresh FROM West
Point. came To fredericksburg on a
visit % wait at the wedding II one of
his comrades, perhaps that of Gen. Dab
ney &aurv. from whom had the story.
The Young officers walked around the
heights and discussed the points Of al
tack and defeuse. Il was their iud--
mert that twenty thousand men could
make the heights inprCgrahje arains,
any army that could muster under
shArn EAa02 aftarvrard Gan BssrI,@i1I.a