The Newtown bee., 1907-11-08

a canal across narrow peninsula
 when the river made q great loop
 which shortened. would shorten the riy
 er seven miles and also enable the Fed
 eral gunboats of his fleet 10 eyade tn
 rebel batteries opposite at the othe
 eid of the peninsula. Although tn
 Gap" was cut through so that ligh
 craft could avail itself of 1t. Butlel abandoned the undertaking. which th' 1 U. $. government completed in 1871
 and now all crafts avail themselves oi
 this cut off. saving thereby a distance of seven miles. Aikens Landing. jusi below. gained its place in history ai
 being the home of Pocahontas after hel marriage to John Rolf. and the place of exchange of prisoners during the Civil war. On the left bank opposit, lies Malvern Hill. dry high place sloping from high bluffs toward ths river. Here. in. July. 1862. the whole Federal army was massed. to be at, tackled by the Confederates under Gen k. E. Lee with an army of 80. 900 men confronting an army of los. 1000. which was supported by q fleet of gunboats that hurled their shot and shell into the Confederates with terrible effect, and when the four hours battle end cd the Confedertes had met with q terrible repulse, retreating to the woods leaving 5000 on the field, while the Federal army with loss of 2,00O retired down the river little way. to Harrison's landing. which became the chief depot of supplies while under Mcclellan called and waited some weeks for re-enforcements. the army ing been reduced from l05, 900 to 88, 665 reported as fit for duty.
 Here at Harrison's landing President Lincoln went to find the Army wreck, disorganized. Such are the horrors of war Do you wonder that when the man called out from the upper deck of the Richmond through the Megaphone "Malvern's Hill" that those of us who remembered those bloody days, craned our necks to see, and stood with uncov- cred heads as we passed that historic spot, once made red with the blood of those who died in that deadly strife. At the junction of the James and Ap- pomattox rivers little way below, Gen Butler with 30,000 men was com pelled to retreat onto neck of land on a peninsula and his force was made so useless for offensive operations that he was said to be"bottled up." Many heavy earthworks thrown up by But Ter still remain. This is at Der muda Hundred" Berkeley, 3S miles below Richmond, was the birthplace William Henry Harrison, once Presi- den of the United States. This place too, is where Mo Clellan retreated aft CT the battle of Malvern Hill. Five miles below at Windmills point, Gen Grants army crossed the river in 1864, when, on two pontoon bridges con structed in AS hours, 138,0O0 Federal troops crossed to invest Petersburg.
 A little further down is still stand ing the large frame house which was the birthplace of John Tyler, tenth president of the United States.
 As we move down the river we pass Sandy point where the Chicahominy river enters the James and not very far up that river in Kent county still stands the old church in which Wash ington was married, and also on that same river it was that Captain John Smith was captured by the Indians,
 Arrived at Jamestown we found four steamers already at the dock that had brought up enthusiastic excur- sionists from Norfolk and the James town Exposition, which added much to the spectacular open air scene and am sure you will be surprised to be told that among the steamers that came up from Norfolk was one that bore the familiar name, "Rosedale." To make sure that it was the identical craft that in years gone by had piled between Bridgeport and New York, 1 looked her over and sure enough just above the waters edge was Bridgeport" So in- tensely interesting had the three hours trip been to me that 1 was not tired with my long standing on this first his toric trip on the James river. And now before l leave you, few words about the river course, the river banks and the country stretching into the back ground. For the most part the banks along the river all the way from Rich mond to Norfolk are low, very low, with here and there bluff, short in its lineal course, and none more than 40 or 50 feet in height.
 The tide from the Chesapeake bay sets back to the city of Richm ond to Norfolk which is only 20 miles below Jamestown, is in its entirety, historic ground. In the early days previous to the war of the Revolution the settlers were harrassed by the Indians, when it seemed sometimes that the whole Eng fish population would be exterminated by them and in one massacre in 1922, yon will remember that 250 English settlers were killed though enough escaped the war in Jamestown to pre- pare for its defense. Later came the war of the Revolution, followed by the war of 1872 then by the dreadful Civil war, and in all those wars Virginia oc- cupied very conspicuous place and probably the soil of no state in the Union has been so drenched with hu- man blood as hers. Afraid, dear child ren, that my letter is already too long, 1 will close and in my next l will tell you of visit to historic Williamsburg and Jamestown B. L. Johnston.