The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-27
but that has not been at government
expense.
Serious Expense.

Many economical statesmen incline to
believe that these battlefield parks will
be a serious expense if continued, and
1t Is quite likely that congress will go
slow in setting apart new ones. Some
people regard it all as a very foolish
outlay; the claim is made that the me-
MORALS will interest only the genera
ton OF war survivors, or at most one
generation after, and that a hundred
years from now the people then living
Will wonder why all these things were
undertaken. The experience of Revolu-
uonary memorials hardly bears out
that view, but the Revolution was nat
urally peculiar war-a first cause, as
1t were-and the ultimate place OF the
civil struggle in our history cannot yet
be seen. If we continue to have one
war in each generation, as in the past.
the time is sure to come when the
achievements of any one struggle ex-
cept the first will fade and grow dim.
But whatever may be ones individual
view of the wisdom of this system of
memorials it might perhaps be well to
make careful study and serious in
qulry as to which fields most deserve
this form of immortalizing AS it is
now, we take them one at time, and
the project which can command the
most support in congress gets there"
first Gettysburg was undoubtedly a
great battle. but if it had been in
Rhode Island, with her two representa-
tiyes, instead of in Pennsylvania, it
might have waited q little longer for
recognition. Southern fields have an
element of strength politically in that
they secure the support, out of local
interest, OF the man who would natur-
ally oppose such expenditures.
But to return to Fredericksburg,
winch is now the project prominently
in the public eye by reason of Wednes-
days meeting. 1t is a place full of
history. Near the Falls of the Kappa
hammock besides the city, Capt. John
Smith is believed to have anchored in
160S, and there combatted the Indians.
George Washington was born near
there; monument to his mother was
recently dedicated there, for in that
city she died. Within the ten thousand
acres which actually comprise the six
battlefields 500, 900 men were engaged in
battle, of whom 100000 were either
killed, wounded or captured. Here in
the Wilderness Gen. Grant began the
stern struggle that ended in the taking
of Richmond and the surrender at APP
pomattoX. The battle of FredericIs-
burg itself, in December, 1852, was one
of the most terrible of the war. A
beautiful unfinished monument over
the grave of the mother of Washington
was battered and SCARED by missiles
from the guns of the contending ar
mics. Near her grave are ''Marye's
Heights" the 'Sunken Road" and
Jackson's stone wall, the famous points
of that battle The map which the
friends of the Fredericksburg project
have recently published is their most
telling argument.
The presence there, or within easy
carriage or bicycle reach, of memorials
of so many famous names in Civil war
history, suggests that if these places
can, for a small expense. be set apart
for the future, it might be a good thing
1t is somewhat of a shock to have cei-
ebrated scenes obliterated, especially in
a country where land values do not
economically compel such destruction
y few years ago real estate auction
eer, in advertising some farm lands for
sale, incidentally mentioned that they
constituted a part of the field of Bull
Run. Perhaps in time this area will be
included among the memorials, but the
longer such things are put off the har-
der it is to restore original conditions.
Among the list of Fredericksburg
battlefield incorporators, showing the
non-seetional character of the under
taking, are:
Gen. r. N BatchcIder. Gen Daniel But
terrified. Horatio C. King. Col. Fred Grant
Warner Miller, Gen. Daniel E. Sickles Elk
Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy, John S. Wise.
Gen. James A. Beaver, John Russell Young,
Gen. FitZhuSh Lee, Gen. James Longstreet
Charles j. Faulkner, NJ. C.. Butler, John
T. Morgan and E. S. Pettus of Alabama,
and c. Catchings.