The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-10-23
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Virginia Revisited After Thirty
Years---NO. 6.


the city of
WASHINGTON
without exhausting the subject. The
column or two here available only per-
mits barely touching upon few of the
almost innumerable points of interest,
such only as are of interest to the SOL
der. Those who saw Washington in the
days of the Rebellion remember it only
as "city of magnificent distances"
distances not ouly between the sides
of the streets but also between the
buildings. Even Pennsylvania Avenue,
the principal thoroughfare, was street
of low, rambling wooden buildings,
many of them of but one story.
Through the very heart of the city ran
the old Washington and Georgetown
canal, and not far from the White
House itself were the Potomac marshes,
the stagnant waters of which emitted
miasmatic vapors and noisome stenches
which were often the cause of illness
in the presidential family. The Cap
itol was then unfinished, and all the
great departments of government, ex-
cept that of the treasury, occupied tenn
porary quarters quite untitled for the
Perley" Gays: The streets gener-
ally were wagon tracks, muddy in the
winter and dusty in the summer, while
the numerous public reservations were
commons overgrown with Weeds" -
certainly not an over-statement, for
Pennsylvania Avenue, after a few bat
teries and army wagons had passed
over it, was veritsble "Slough of Des-
pond" He tersely sums up the then
condition of the city by calling it " a
slovenly and comtortless sleepy old
town" But what shall be said of the
grandeur, magniticence and beauty of
the Washington of to-day? 1t cannot
be described in any reasonable space
as we'll attempt to describe the indie
scribable. An attempt will, however,
be made to delineate the salient fea-
lures of localities of peculiar interest to
the soldier.
FORT MYER.
Crossing the Potomac by the Aque-
duct bridge, at Georgetown, and climb
ing the hill for half mile, one reaches
this fort, the only one remaining of the
Gordon which constituted the former
defenses of Washington. Although its
course, dismantled of its armament and
no attempt is made to keep the parapet
in repair. Its only use now is as
cavalry station, and is occupied by the
Sixth Cavalry, or detachment of it.
l happened to be there on Sunday morn
ing, and so had an opportunity to watch
the regular Sunday morning inspection.
What was said in No. l of this series
in regard to the artillery soldiers at
Fortress Monroe applies equally we'll to
the cavalrymen at Fort Myer, except
that the cavalrymen are lighter, more
1.-the and active, men. The necessities
of the service demand such. From Fort
Myer one gets a fine view of the range
of hills which in war times were COW
cred with Notifications. A cavalryman
pointed out to me Halls hill, where
the Vermont Brigade was mustered out
of service.
ARLINGTON CEMETERY
is less than quarter of mile from the
fort Here are inferred more than 49,
600 Federal dead, those in the western
part being white and those in the
northern being colored. The usual in
scribed stone marker is at the head of
each grave. The proportion of the
known to the unknown is here much
greater than in the cemeteries at Peters,
burg and Fredericksburg, for the rea-
son that more died in hospitals in and
around Washington, so their names
could not be ascertained. Near the Fort
Myer entrance are the graves of Off
GERS high in rank-Sheridan Ingalls,,
Doubleday, and many others. 1t is
scarcely necessary to say that their
graves are marked by imposing monu.
ments. Approaching nearer the Ar.
lington house, one discovers an am
phitheater, designed for use on Memo
rial Day, capable of accommodating
5000 persons. Near it is a circular
stone pavilion, of Greek architecture,
called the Temple of Fame" Upon
its columns are inscribed the names of
Washington, Lincoln, Farragut, Grant,
and others whom the country holds in
lasting remembrance. But greater in
terest centers in the massive soldiers
monument, of granite. The inscrip-
ton tells the story, thus: Beneath
this stone repose the remains of 2,111
unknown soldiers gathered after the
war from the fields of Bull Run and
the route to the appahannock. Their
remains could not be identified, but
their names and deaths are recorded
in the archives of their country, and its
grateful citizens honor them as of their
noble army of martyrs. May they rest
IN peacel" This cemetery comprises
200 of the 1,l00 acres of the original
ARLINGTON, OR GUSTS, ESTATE,
brief history of which will be nstruc-
tive. The founder of the American
family of Custs was an emigrant inn
keeper, formerly of Rotterdam, Hol-
land, who, about 1858, married the
daughter of Edmund Scarborough,
prominent in early colonial times as
surveyor-general and representative
from Accomac county, Va. This mar
riage gave him immense landed pos
sessions, of which Arlington v as part.
A descendant of this GUSTS, George
Washington Parke Custis, adopted son
of George Washington, was the grand
son of Martha Washington. General