The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-07-19
WHERE JACKSON FOUGHT.
81 inni> niuir- UcmOcyui.

CNA>crl.lnn-> >utl June -.
With the army engineers who cane
from Washington to IA n-lcct and report
u.,n the great -roup Of ba;tlctields
wer2 men who had foualit over this
cr ln,; acr. by acre un,icr burnside.
lio)aer and Grant in the successive
start, for Richmond. There were
,,..e in the party who had been with
I.av and Jackson and Longstrcct.
What they marvclcd at most wa, that
thirty-odd years after they faced each
other on the bloodicst fields oi the
war they came to fino the same build
ines. the same proportions of farm
and forest, the same roads and stone
walls Perhaps nowhere else in all
Of the States which furnished fighting
yrJunl could there be found so little
change as here. 1t is almost as il the
Almighty had said to the shrincs of
\mcrica S greatest sacrifices, ''I'cace'
lie Still,' and thereafter the progrcs
svc hand Of man had been stayed for
Il third Of q century.
The engineers and their party rode
ont Of Frederick sburg by what was
the peach orchard over which Burn
side lines Of battle advanced to the
impossible attack upon Maryc',
Heights in December Of l@62 They
passed along the sunkcn road and in
front 0: the stone wall at the foot OF
the heights. where dead men lay so
thick that December morning Of 1862
that, as local historian said it was
possible to walk for quarter Of II
mile stepping from corpse to corpse.
''ron this inspiring spot the party
took the old Orange plank road and
went due west over gently undulating
country with wheat in the shock, the
cosn knee high and the grass ready for
che mower. Some Of the farms have
passed to the possession Of others
than those who held them third Of
century ago. But in many cases the
buildings and the fields arc as they
were.
Four miles out on the plank road is
Salem church. plain brick structure,
standing at convenient crossroads,
with little graveyard behind and no
houses Immediately ncar-a place Of
worship in the woods typical of the
old Virginia custom. Sedgwick, with
his corps, came out the plank road on
the 9th of May, 1863. He had cross
ed the river near Fredericksburg and
had stormed Maryc's Heights success
fully, because his longer lines were
able to wrap themselves around the
tanks of the smaller force Lee had
left there to check this movement.
Sedgwick was on the way by forced
march to reach Hooker a. Ciianccllors-
vile. Having won the second Fred
cricksburg, where Burnside had failed
so signally the previous December, he
proceeded out the planb road. but
when he reached Salem church, lit
tie less than half Of the way to Chan
cellorsvillc, he came upon Mclaw S
division, posted to stop him. And
then followed day of fighting which
has gone into history as the battle Of
Salem church and which is only
dwarfcd by the much heavier losses
on the neighboring fields. The walls
of the brick church are SCARED and
perforated with tho cannon and mus
ket balls. Frank Hume, q Washing
ton merchant, who was in the fighting
at Fredericksburg, tells how the
wounded were brought into Salem
church all night long to be treated by
the surgeons. The operating tables
were near the altar. A window near
was open, and as the shattered limbs
were taken off they were tossed out
through that window.
On the morning after the battle, ~
said Mr.. Hume, Il saw In front OF
that window heap of arms and legs
higher than my head
Where those operating tables stood
and where that CHASTITY work went on
all night there is to-day memorial
altar, in front Of which the farmers
worship. 1t was erected by the Joint
contributions of survivors of South
Carolina regiment and new Jersey
regiment which fought each other
desperately at the church in 1868.
And the Sunday school Of Salem
is to-day supported by an annual con-
tribution of an army post in New
Jersey.
Sedgwick was delayed by having to
take Marye's Heights. lie was more
ooyo~ol, ohooLo1 az Co1nm churnh ha