Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-07-23
ON HISTORIC SPOTS.
A VISIT TO THE BATTLE-FiELp'
AROUND FREDERICKSBURG.
DAYS OF WAR WILDLY RECALLED.
sInryes Heights - salem 'h"ren'
CbanceIIorsviIic-Th Wilderness
RecOIIcctiOns of Omcers-lhe hoh-
uments-NOtcs.


uments-Notcs.
A correspondent Of the Washington
Post. who recently accompanied an in
specting party on a visit TO the battle
fields around Fredericksburg. writes as
follows:
on the morning Of December u. 1862.
the Union forces were encamped on the
northern shore Of the Rappahannock
where their batteries commanded the
heights. and were also in possession of
the town. which had been shelied. on
the heights on the other side of the town
were the Confederate, in a long line,
when extended several miles from Ham
Nton's Crossing on the right 10 Beck S
Island upon the left Almost in the cen
tire OF the line was Marycs Heights,
hill about 2O0 feet high, with hnc man
sion at the summit of its grassy slope,
and with a stone wall and a sunkcn road
at It's foot. From the wall 10 the river
there stretched practically unbrcken
field. and when the mist was driven away
by the rays of the rising sun. the Con-
federates saw q portion OF the Union
army. under Hancock and French. drawn
up in line OF battle.
AS the party stood i'm the sunkcn road
last Wednesday morning. beginning its
travels over memorable ground. II was
remarked that the open neid had disap-
peared, and that il was now the site or
many pleasant homes. A considerable
section OF the wall against which the
Union army charged. and behind which
the Confederates were protected, has been
taken away and now forms the walls of
the residence of the keeper OF the Ma
tlOnal Cemetery, on the very heights
which the Union forces sought 20 gain.
Eighteen thousand soldiers now sleep in
this cemetery. all of whom lost their lives
either upon or within riheshOt of the
place where they lie buried. Some of the
wall. however. is still intact. the stones
now green and gray with age, while the
old Marye mansion. on the summit. is the
residence Of Captain Rowe. The columns
of its spacious porch are stil perforated
with bullet-hOles. It's walls are Clipped
where shell and shrapnel struck, and the
outbuildngs are bored in numerous places
with the small, round hole of the mimic
ball.
THE SLAUGHTER BELOW TIKI
HE1GTHS.
AS the party stood upon the hill top,
the story of the awful slaughter at the
foot of Marye's Heights was retold. In
marked the spot where General Cobb was
killed with the house still standing over
which came the shell which struck him. |
Longstreets description was recalled. "A !
fifth time the Federals formed and charg-
ed and were Tepulsed," he says. "A sixth |
time they charged and We're driven back |
when night came 10 end the dreadful
carnage and the Federals withdrew.
leaving the battlefield literally heaped !
with the bodies Of their dead. Before the ,
well-directed fire Of Cobbs Brigade, the (
Federals had fallen like the steady drip
ping OF rain from the caves of house.
Our musketry alone killed and wounded
at least 5000, and these. with the
slaughter by the artillery. left over 1000
killed and wounded before the foot of
Maryes Hill. The dead wero piled
sometimes three deep, and when morn
ing broke the spectacle that We saw
upon the battlefield was one OF the
most distressing ! ever witnessed The
charges had been desperate and bloody,
but utterly hopeless. l thought, as l saw
the Fedcrals come again and again 10
their death, that they deserved success
II courage and daring could entitle sol
diers 10 victory"
1T was a wonder 10 me-" said Con-
gresham Jones that any man escaped
alive. ] was a boy of u then. and 1 went
on the field with my father the morning
after the battle. / remember seeing !
peach orchard, every tree of which had
been literally stripped Of its branches by /
flying bullets. The field was covered with
the dead, and the sight was so terrible
that have never forgotten it. l romem-
Der, too. story OF the battle which my
father told me. lie had met in North /
Carolina regiment a man whom he had .
known years ago. and they were stand /
ing talldng-one on each side of tree
when cannon ball came along aud cut /
the tree down between them"
THE BATTLE or SALEM CHURCH. !
Down the hin and out upon the road F.
over which Sedgwicks Corps marched the .
visitors passed. the horses heads being .
turned toward Salem church. at some :
little distance from Fredericksburg Cap /
tain Rowe pointed out frame, two-story /
house. My father" he said placed all /
his furniture IN that house for safe-kcep- F..
ing and there IT remained until one day /
a shell came along. struck the house, and d
burst in the room IN which the furniture /
was stored. After that" said the Captain I
laughingly 1T wasn't worth much, even /
FOR hTewOod."
Cattle were grazing on the hills the 1
farmers were harvesting their wheat. and :
'AS sun was SHINING viii HolAfA HiltlAhA
a. the party rode along. The contrast /
with the days when regiments tramped /
YEARLY along when the roads and fields I
were filled with dead horses, and when 4
bursting shells made dreadful music /
Was very vivid. At Salem church. an .
olc-fashioned brick building the party
stood beside the old earthworks and 4
listened 20 the story OF Sedgwick's fight.
WIN the maps spread under the shade OF !
large tree. upon some tables which
had evidently been constructed Tor a
picnic party The walls OF the church
plainly showed the marks OF bullets and I
cannon balls. Within the edihce Is a
memorial altar built by the contributions
Of New Jersey and South Carolina men.
and Grand Army post In the former
State. composed OF survivors OF the night.
has suppoNed the Salem church Sunday
school FOR thirty years.
when Sherman marched through here
10 Washington I'm 1855" said Colonel Bird.
ne saw many bodies still unburied. and
reported that fact. came down here 20
pury them. ana found these woods fun
A. -