Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1907-02-21
SCENES Or FAMOUS BATTLES
or TIE NATION laE ABOUT
EXPOSITION CITY.
GREAT EARTHWORkS
Traces o. Conflicts cf Revolutionary
and Civil Wars worth Visiting
forsi6exslon Ruins ssin Exist.
tBy Mark e.. MaaeFw.l

Ahg MARK ~ @&1NEhB
4 Norfolk. ya-On account Of tn
jamestown Exposition. many veteran.
LOT the Great War viii tread the sol
Iof Old Virginia again this summel
latter lapse OF forty odd years. The,
wifi come with a little less fire In theil
leyes, and little more halt In their
footsteps and a little more gray In
their locks. nevertheless they will
Ioome with memories as bright and
Iminds ~ keen as when they followed
lthe fortunes Of battle with Grant and
Isheridan or Lee and Jackson. They
will walk over the hattlafields of Seven
Pines or Fair Oaks. Cold Harbor or
the Wilderness and stop occasionally
10 gather up a gray leaden bullet, a
mimic bali or rusty grape shot. They
may. by a little search. discover the
Ipoint Of a bayonet protruding from the
soil or n may be only a buckle from
a soldiers belt with ~. s. A." or &C.
8. A." emblazoned with the brassy-
green Of the by.gone years.
In some places the scenes of that
great conflict are fast becoming oblit-
Grated by the storms Of the seasons
as they pass. and by the plow Of the
unsentimental farmer, yet a thousand
years win not be sufficient to entirely
destroy the great earthworks which
the vast armies of the sixties threw up,
sometimes In a single night. AT Sew
ellis Point, where the jamestown Tx,
position opens April 2s. there are huge
piles Of eartk and fortifications ruins,
lsrxtcd by tho Confederate forces for
The defense Of Norfolk, and In making
the streets and boulevards. OF the Ex-
position many relics such as pieces OF
cannon. cannon-balls. rusty muskets
and the like have been unearthed.
At Old jamestown, where the crumb-
ling church tower stands as the sole
remnant of the first English settle
ment In America the earthworks Of
near three hundred years ago may be
seen where they were thrown up as
defense against the Indians, builded
little higher by Lord CORVALLIS In
Revolutionary days and added to yet
more by Mcclellan In the days OF '62.
At Williamsburg, few miles distant
from jamestown. are some of the best
preserved earthworks Of them all.
Here the original Fort Magruder"
stands. a high circular embankment
with its accompanying deep moat. In
a tangle of blackberry bushes on this
embankment there was recently dis,
covered a heap of nine-pound leaden
mortar shells, which had lain there
undisturbed for nearly forty-five years.
Every household of the community has
its priceless collection of battlefield
relics turned up by the plow or un
covered by the frosts of winter and
the rains of summer. Here may be
seen some of the best preserved rife
pits thrown up during the war. The
railroad from Williamsburg to Newport
News cuts through one of these huge
earthwOrks about a mile out of vii.
liamsburg.
At Yorktown there may be seen the
traces of the famous redoubts thrown
up by CORVALLIS and In which he put
too much confidence. Newer and more
extensive earthworks appear there also
mementoes of the Peninsular campaign
of the Civil War. At Petersburg, a
thousand men might yet find shelter
in the Crater, the Balaklava OF the
Civil war. where so many brave lives
were sacrificed. All about Richmond.
the Confederate capital. are signs of
the city's defense in the days which
tried the souls of men. Entertainments,
trenches, redoubts. rifie-pits and fortifi-
cations of every kind dot the land
scape, especially to the east and
north of the city. Similar earthworks
abound all over Virginia, from Manas-
sas to Appomattox. and 1t will not be
difficult for the old veterans OF the
blue and the gray to get their bearings
as they traverse the scenes of their
battles of hong ago.
The jamestown Exposition promises
to serve many useful purposes to the