The Portland daily press., 1895-07-26
WHERE BULLETS FELL.
Appearance of the Bull Run Battle Field
Today.

IOday.
Thlrty-Fo years ago today and to-
morrow, July 20-21, 1861, the first serious
battle Of the civil war was fought at Bull
Run.
Every man who fought in the battle of
Bull Kun remembers the Henry house.
1t was the center of the fight, and the
taking of the plateau upon which 1t
stood was the whole aim of the federal
army, and to keep it the whole aim of the
confederates. They kept it. The old
house was pretty well demoralized by
the cross firing of friend and foe, and a
new house was built ON the stones that
held the old one. Bleak and bare, and
brown with the the storms of many Win
ters, the warpings of many summer
sun, it stands, as Star writer found on a
recent visit, in the midst of as fair a
scene as an artist ever pictured, with
walls of corn and waving grain fields.
Its sole tenants are Prof Henry son of
the former owner, and a. faithful colored
servant, who is cook and plow hand
NclOo dIQ CiltbIllCbEIlrtlu W ullO Ol0 lllctuy
the sum of whose life was totaled when
the smoke of that battle rolled beyond
the blue ridge mountains, leaving him
lonely and bereft of loved ones, when the
sun of existance was already far down
the western slopes. For twenty years or
more he had been the professor of a young
ladies' seminary in Alexandria. When he
heard that the battle was raging about
the home of his mother, who was bed
ridden with old age, with no one to care
for her but her daughter, then woman
near sixty, and black servant or two,
he left his school and started home. He
had to walk and hide himself for hours
at time to keep out of the way of the
enemy, and he did not reach home till
the second day after the battle.
Even yet he cannot speak calmly of the
fearful sight that met his eyes. Along
the lane leading up to his home the road
side was red with the scarlet uniformed
zouaves, who sold their lives SO dearly
in the last fearful charge. The demor-
allied armies had gone off and left their
dead unburied, and the air was black
with the birds of prey, greedy for the
fast preparing gorge His homo was
battered and blackened ruin, and his
mother was dead
When order came to open fire, it was
SO hastily given that the confederates,
who held the Henry house, gave no
thought to its inmates, and the fright
ened women were left alone in the cen
ter of the field with the enfilading of
heavy batteries from both sides of the con-
and rear, from right flank and left 1t
was cruel thing to leave them thus, for
there was absolutely no mode of escape
The poor bedridden old lady and her
daughter crawled into the big wide fire.
place, but the bricks and mortar knocked
off by flying bullets fell upon them and
drove them back.
Then Mrs. Henry asked to be carried
to a small ravine close to the house, where
it seemed to her the bursting shell might
fly over and leave her in peace. Vain
hope She was injured while being car
ried down, and struck while there. Ter
riffed she begged to be taken back again,
and was scarcely laid upon her bed when
bursting she'll wounded her cruelty in
the side. Thirteen times she was wound
ed and torn by balls and splintered shells
before death cut her torment short. The
daughter was not wounded seriously.
Prof. Henry's first sad duty was to bury
his mother. You can see the grave today,
close by the house, with it's tall white
slab, Sacred to the memory of Judith
Henry, 1.-THE first woman killed in the
war of the rebellion Close beaide her lies
her daughter. You have to push the
briar roses aside to find the graves, roses
as red as the blood of the martyr and roses
as white as the pure purpose of life.
Prof. Henry has never left the old place.
He is feeble old man now, and very deaf,
but always courteous to callers. He
reads and thinks and broods over the in
cidents of that awful time, and since
that July day life has not held much OF
interest else With infinite patience he
has marked every spot on the planta-
tion inside the Henry bounds with plac-
ards, showing where each command
stood and how the batteries were located,
| where each brave officer fell and where
the high tide of blood rolled deepest.
That spot was marked by other hands
| than his before the close of the war
Those who took part in the loyal side il
that battle erected monument on the
| spot where the fighting was a hand tt
hand conflict. 1t is of soft sandstone
found near the Manassas Junction, is
twenty y-seven feet high, including the
base, and stands on an elevated mound
On each corner is tall block of sand
stone, and on each rests conical 100
pound shell, the top being surnounted