The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-11

found ont that MI this tract Of tina
latto, as the Virginians call dark red
land, belongs to a northern company
which bought it with intent to work il
for gold. The project hung fire in some
way, but the company still keeps the
land idle and still insists that it will
start its great system of bitches and
sluices for washing next year. " A few
residents on the border of the forest are
already washing for gold in their own
land and making wages, they say. I am
telerably familiar with hydraulic min
ing in the far west, and yet-the idea Of
their having such mines in Virginia is
as startling to me as a proposition to
mine the sands Of New Jersey. I really
must look into this matter.
Five miles south of Germanna bridge
the great pine forest gives way to the
little oasis around the Wilderness store,
and not far north of there the Confed.
crates "struck Grant, as they put it.
And now, having come in by this route,
I understand why they struck him there
and how it was they struck him so cruel
II hard. He did not intend to fight
there. So much would be self evident
even if he had not said it. And the
4
Lee would await the onset farther back,
and that Grant would therefore have
abundant room to arrange his whole
force on a line generally parallel to and
defending that road By which he entered
the Wilderness. BY what seems the re-
salt Of a series of accidents, however,
some sections Of the Confederate army
were close up On the narrow but still
practicable roads which crossed Grants
main road, and as enc Of them has writ
ten it, Grant was caught in the act Of
moving his men into place.
First Battle of the Wilderness.
OF course they attacked-they had
way of doing that-and so the first bat
tie Of the Wilderness began. It would
take weeks Of toilsome walking, OF
crawling over old breastworlzs through
| dense brash and tangled vines, to fol-
! low the lines and get q comprehensive
mind picture Of the fight. 1t would re-
quire days of study with maps and the
most careful reading of reports to get at
the plan, if plan there was, for as near
~ as Il nOnmilitary mind can make out
from the history there was one day when
each division or corps commander fought
on his own system. After seeing tho
roads across which these six or seven
detached battles were going on stimuli
taneously one is not at all surprised 10
read that both Lee and Grant reported
the results Of the day as very unsatis-
| factory Yet all this field has been
surveyed and mapped out, and he who
cares may study the maps and mutual
contradictions of the generals and the
wholesale contradiction of all Of them
| by the war historians
A narrow gauge railway from Fred
ericksburg to Orange Court House
crosses the Wilderness in a direction
southwest by west, and every mile or
so the timber cutters have made prac-
| ticable roads across it from north to
south, SO the veteran can easily reach
that section Of the field where he fought.
Having traversed all the eastern part on
previous trips, I took that road leading
down along the extreme western edge Of
the line Of battles as far as the Sedg-
wick monument and the bloody angle.
The MattspOny.
! La tbs western part Of the county M
merOus rivulets draining little ponds
and swamps run together and form the
four strealns-Alat Ia, Pc and Ny
which unite in Caroline county and
form the Mattapony river In plany
parts Of the Wilderness, however, one
might come within a rod Of one of these
streams and never suspect its vicinity,
and in somo places he would only dis
cover enc by falling into it. The dark
and yellow water, with it's sluggish cur
rent and overhanging brush and shadow
which makes the MONDAY seem like
! icrl,+ ELL 80
some Of those queer wild rivers I have
seen in the remote west, overshadowed
by black rocks or pines, to which In.
dams, Frenchmen and Spaniards gave
such suggestive names as River Of
Shades, River of Souls (Las Animas),
Purgatory and Water of Suffering.
The northern two of these, the Ny Oh
the north and the Pc on the south, in
close in horseshoe shaped tract a sandy
fat of perhaps ten miles in diameter, in
the center Of which stands Spottsyl-
vania Court House, hamlet of some
800 people, which apparently prides it
self on looking exactly as it did 40 years
ago, except for the marks of a few can
non shot on some old brick houses.
viii not go so far as to say that these are
renewed from time to time, like that
ink spot on the famous door which Lu-
ther made by throwing his inkstand at
the devil, but they look remarkably
fresh. After the terrific slaughter Of
May IL Grant moved off eastward into
Caroline, and Lee marched down through
this village and southwark to again con
front the Federals at the North Anna
crossing I had, however, followed their
route long enough to weary me, and SO
climbed upon a farmers market cart
and rode up here for a days rest and
still more for a daily paper, as the tramp
Of a week in the Wilderness is like q
voyage across the Atlantic for dearth Of
news.