Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-06-11
FIELD OF BULL RUN.


|. W kkeG W0Is
/ ihirty-hve years ago, July 20-21
1851, the irst serious battle of tn,
civil war was fought at Ball Run
Every man who fought in the bat
tie OF Bull Run remembers tn,
Henry house. 1t was the center q
the fight, and the taking Of the pla
teaa upon which il stood was th,
whole aim Of the Federal army. and
e keep & Ahs whole ain oe.fh,
Oonfederates. They kept Il. rht
old house was pretty badly demor.
allied BY the cross firing Of friend
and foe, and new house was built
on the stones that held the old one.
Bleak and bare. and brown with
the storms Of many winters, the
warpings Of many q summer sun,
it stands as a Star writer found on
q recent visit, in the midst of as
fair a scene as artist ever pictured
with walls Of corn and waving green
fields.
Its sole tenants are Prof. Henry,
son of the former owner, and a
faithful colored servant, who is
cook and plow hand, valet and
chambermaid to the old man, the
sum Of whose life was tosaled when
the smoke of that battle rolled be-
yond the Blue Ridge mountains.
leaving him lonely and bereft of
loved ones, when the sun of exist
ence was already far down the west
ern slopes. For twenty years or
more he had been the professor of
young ladies' seminary in Alexan-
dria. When he heard that the bat.
tie was raging about the home Of
his mother, who was bedridden
with old age, with no one to care
for her but her daughter, then
woman near sixty, and a black SER
want or two, he left his school and
started home. He had to walk and
hide himself for hours at q 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 mp to
his home the road was red with the
scarlet uniformed Zouavcs, who sold
their lives SO dearly in the last fear
full charge. The demoralized ar
mics had gone of and left their dead
unburied, and the air was black
with the birds of prey, greedy for
the fast preparing gorge. His home
was slackened and battered ruin,
and his mother was dead
When the order came to open fire,
it was SO hastily given that the
Confederates. who held the Hen.
ry house, gave no thought to its
inmates, and the frightened wo-
men were left alone in the center
of the field with the enfilading fire
of heavy batteries from both sides
Of the conflict raking their residence
from front and rear, from right
flank and left ! 1t was q 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 fireplace, but the bricks and
mortar knocked of by flying bullets
fell upon them and drove them
back.
Then Mrs. Henry asked to be car
ried to . 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.
Terrified, she begged to be taken
back again, and was scarcely laid
upon her bed when u bursting shell
wounded her cruelty in the side.
Thirteen times she was wounded
and torn BY balls and splintered
shells before death cut her torment
short. The daughter was not wound.
ed seriously.
Prof. Henry's first sad duty was
to bury his mother. You can zee
the grave today, close by the house,
with its tall, white slab "Sacred to
the memory Of Judith Henry" the
first woman killed in the war of the
rebellion. Close beside her lies hel
daughter. You have to prsh the
briar roses aside to find the graves,
roses as red as the blood of the mar.
tyr, and roses a. white as the pure
"a