Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-05-30
ANTlETAM battlefield.
An Entertaining Writer Describes His
Visit There.

OF ali old battlefie eds IN the world.
Antietam, as saw it last Sunday. bess
realizes Robert Louis Stevenson's de-
|scfiption:
We Travelled in the print of olden wars.
Yet all the land was green.
And Love we found. and Peace.
Where fire and war had BEEN.
They pass and smile. the children OF the
The sword no more they WELD.
And oh. how deep the corn
Along the battlefield!
Green, green, green was all this land;
rolling hills all about. green in the dis
lance with trees and pastures, green
near at hand with waving wheat; green
grassy roadsides; green willows In the
ho,'ows: green orchards smothering the
far.a houses with superabundant foil
age: IN the national cemetery on the
hill a mass Of naples and elms hiding
the graves with. their emerald; green
pillows of the rolling earth as far as
the eye could reach.
Antieram battlefield has much more
than the beauty Of greenery. The val
ley Is one of paradisiacal' beauty. At
the northeast extends the long. UNI
broken range which we call South
Mountain. To the southwark and
westward rise the mountains Of Vir-
ginia and West Virginia. Embowered
in Is willows and elms. the Antietam.
a clear and charming little river, winds
between.
1t is an Inhabited region: almost
every acre is titled. Quain; old houses
and cottages nestle here and there.
Where the main road from Keedysvillc
to Sharpsburg crosses the Antietam
there Is an ancient stone mill. now in
ruins. whose gigantic water wheel has
settled immovably into the gravel at
the bottom of the stream. BY its side
stands a sawmill. plainly newer. but
now in q state of decay. We took re-
fuge under its roof Of r;ven shingles
from shower: and as we sat there
quite dry, It was pleasant to listen to
the murrurng water that ran below
to see the stream plash around the
naked roots of gigantic sycamore tree
by the bank, and to note with what
deep immeasurable. cohtehting peace
nature can overspreal q scene that has
been proeaned by the bloody CONFLICTS Of
men.
I The peace of Antietam was more inter
esting to me than It's wars had ever been.
All the tablets monuments. towers and
statues that tell the story of the fight
Rre in a week time insensibly merged
Into one not beautiful composite structure.
and their iteration of the record of
rhargess and retreats will not abide But
shall not forget the babbling of the
little river around the tangled roots Of
the old sycamore tree. And the lovely
si92ltne Of the, hills that surround the
valb.S Is etched permanently on the plate
Of ny braim Mature sometimes has her
own say as to what Is really worth re-
meHnbefing in this world.
-" 80 "'s - -
Likewise. the people who inherited this
p3radise are men and women of mighty
eShGeahlenesat > We rested under 1.-The
canopy Of stone. hard by the little old
bunker church, which the State OF Mary
land hns reared to honor its dead OF both
armies fkhe only Joint blue and gray me
naofiai that have seen. As we sat
there. watching the approach Of n thun-
der storm that seemed inclined to simu-
lnte the hateful salyos of forty-three
wears ego. the bearded toll-keeper. whom
ne had noticed at the cottage below.
anne out in his shirt sleeves to gossip
with US.
A big, strong man. but radiant with
gefltleness. he told us In broad South
ern accent how his plow Or spade had
often turned up bullets and bits Of shrap-
mel on the field. He took from his pocket
two greAn and battered old leadrn bullets