Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-10-11
FORTRESS MONROE IN 1890.
Peaceful Scenes and War Memories of
JcU Davis Prison.


The casemlte i'm old Fort Monroe, IN
which Jefferson Davis. president of the late
cor fe lelacy, WIS for a short time confined
il now used as storage room for misili
lumber, iron scraps, etc. \ sentinel STANDS
on guard at this entrance of the fort says
New York Post correspondent ana IN
answer to the visitors query points to this
dungeon with solitary bull s-cyc window
looking. out over the moraSS OF PraGk,ish
ili-smelling water surrounding the hiSh-
walled fort The Guard comes ,,t 10 h2ris
duties seem TO be merely to put IN ilme 70
earn his rations, for no one u denied al
mission and any one may walk throughout
the grounds and upon the ramparts cN-
amining the unloadcd cannon al VIII win
no one 70 say halt; A rev cannon are
and old. rusty cannon balls are piled up IN
pyramids throughout the grounds, winch
curious tourists delight in kicking around.
At the vNrlous entrances stands only one
sentinel, while throughout tae ErouhdS me
probabilities of a war. Being recruits, ana
never having seen war they are ANXIOUS LOT
one They gliby discuss the mcfitn OF the
various new nuns with inGuirinr y'ltorS
and tell them how the fort Is defended or
rather how it is not defended at present
After being removed ,ro-n III
the wall" casematc, Davis was placed In a
quarters" 1t IS now occupied by some
artillery officers and is beautifully shaded
hahltable place than it was in those days;
Here the prisoner of state remained
ant Garrison. ali new men know abso-
lutely nothing and some of them have no
idea of the extent of the war. excepting the
fight between the Monitor and the Merrl-
mac They had not heard Of the burning
Of Hampton-the old borough a few miles
distant. I asked an cd citizen II the town
had, in truth, been totally DESTROYED
Yes" he replied, al except two houses
and they escaped only because the Conted,
crates were hard pushed and they burned
the bridges behind them so that the feder-
ais could not follow, knowing that cannon
shots from the PunhoatS could not ftAch
ab6ut ? OOh That morning the confederate
general, Magruder, formed his forces, about
10000 in line Of battle abo9t TWO niles from ire
challenge to the federal commander to
come out and fight, which was declined;
the town But had the commander fOught
and whipped the confederates he could have
gone into Richmond. for we 'ttsrWar1i
the peninsula no men having been left at
Yorktown or Williamsburg"
And that might have ended the war; !
mo doubt" replied the old gentleman,
regretfully thinking Of his burned home.
one of the buildings saved was st. Iohn'
church-thc oldest church In America in
which services are now held, ana thlrd IN
age of any built In this country. The
stopcs-a few quaint English characters
show them to have been made before THIS
these ancestral tombs which invite tres
passcrS TO halt in the cool church yard and
learn from these crumbed stones that
this ends ALL" 1t Is picturesque spot to
Coming over from Fort Monroe to Nor
folk the steamer crosses the his'nrlc bat
and the point at which the MerrimaC vas
grounded and blown up; also the places
where the Cumberland was SUNK ana tnr
Congress blown up by the confederate ram
Merrlmac.