Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-08

HOUSE IN WHICH sToNEwALL JACKSON DIED. changing outlines. It was such q wonder full contrast to the sandy flats and muddy streams, concealed in dense forests, the barren old fields and obstructed views of the region had lately traversed. The soil also of Culpeper is far more fertile than that of Spottsylvania, and the growth ev- erywhere gives a pleasing impression of abundance. There arc very few old fields grown up with pines few bare wastes of rock and sand, and thus the county in fer tility, healthfulness and inspiring scenery fully juStifies the encomiums we heard so long ago.
 A Race of Vigorous Men.
 It is also a region whero they raise men. All middle Virginia down to tide water is notably healthful, but the Piedmont re- gion--in fact, all the eastern slope of the Alleghany mountains from New York to middle Alabama-seems peculiarly fayora- bio for tho white race. There are more tall, fair haired and blue eyed people in a strip of, say, 75 miles wide and reaching as far south as Tuscaloosa than in any other part of America, and out of this re- zion and the adjacent sections Of tho in terior valley came thoso pioneers, vigorous both in mind and body, who gave charac ter to so many of the young common wealths of the west.
 From tho ridge east of Culpeper some 16 miles down to Germanna ford Git Is Germanna bridge now) the road is an al | most continuous down grade and runs for the most part between handsome farms. The few villages look smart and new, like | thoso of tho northwest, and the region gen. | orally bears an air of thrift and prosperity. On that part of it sometimes called the peninsula, lying between the Rapidan and l the north fork of tho Rappahannock, the Army of tho Potomac had its truly pleas | ant winter quarters. Much to my surprise, | a tract of four miles or so on each side of | the Rapidan is now an unbroken wilder ness of pines, though the most fertile land is in that region, and in 1864 it was nearly | all in a high state of cultivation.
 There one may trudge on hour after hour in the solemn shade of tall straight | pines q foot or moro in thickness, which, | in many places, actually mingle their tops l over the road and everywhere exclude the | suns rays. Not only is the slope to the Rapidan great, but the stream itself has n deep channel, and as it roars over its rocky bottoms the sound, as it is partly echoed and partly deadened by the overhanging pines, is like that soothing dr-r-e-e-e of the Colorado rivers which flow through deep canyons lined with mountain growths-a sound which is warranted to l cure any DGrNOuS IrOuDlS GIlttU CSlu D0 C1lreu at all.
 Prospective Gold Mines.
 In nine miles walk through this forest
 I saw but two dwellings. To the question
 why the common answer is, "Oh, tho peo- pie who owned it would not work them ] selves, and their niggcrs all went off after
 the war, and so it has been turned out. "
 Later, however, l found out that all this
 tract of "mulatto, us tho Virginians call
 dark red land, belongs to a northern com
 pany which bought it with intent to work
 1t for gold. The project hung f$e in some
 way, but the company still keeps the land
 idle and still insists that 1t will start its
 great system of ditches and sluices for
 the border of the forest arc already wash
 ing for gold in their own land and making
 wages, they say. am tolerably familiar
 with hydraulic mining in the far west, and
 yet tho idea of their having such mines in
 Virginia is as startling to me as proposi-
 tion ,a mine tho sands of New Jersey. Irellly must look into this matter.
 | 1.-Two miles south of Germanna bridge
 the great pine forest gives way to the little
 o;sS.. around tho Wilderness store, and not
 far north of tEere tho Confederates "struck
 G"Gai,'' as they put it. And now, having
 come in by this route, understand why l they struck him there and how it was they
 struck him so cruelty hard. He did not
 intend to fight there So much would be
 self evident even if he had not said it, And the view of the Federal generals was
 that Lee would await the onset farther
 back, and that Grant would therefore have abundant room to arrange his whole force
 on line generally parallel to and defend
 ing that road by which he entered the
 Wilderness. By what seems the result oi
 3 series of accidents, however, some sec ltions of the Confederate army were close
 up on the narrow but still practicable roads which crossed Grants main road, and
 as one of them has written it, Grant wa.
 caught In the act of moving his men intC | placc." ..-... First Battle of the Wilderness.
 Of course they yattacketl-they had n way 2 of doing that--and so tho first battle o the Wilderness began. Itwonld take weeks
 of toilsomc walking, of crawling over olt , breastworSs, through dense brush ant i tangled yines to follow tho lines and gel , comprehensive mind picture of the fight
 It would require days of study with map
 and the most careful reading of reports t
 got at the plan, If plan there was, for n
 nearly as .. nonmilitary mind can naek,