Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-04-26
STANDS ON CRaTFR'S RIM
GENERAL ROGERS CALLS TIE ROLL
OF COMRADES IN ARMS
Visits 'hs Fields of Carnage Of the Late
RsbeIlton-BreSstworks Not Dimmed
by Elements of Dissolution

water, passed mills cutting lumber and
| squaring timber; booms well filled with
logs fioated from up-country, pass tur-
pentine camps, unsightiy ruins Of aban-
doned mills that had cleaned up the for
ests adjacent and moved on.
| Turning north we pass over the sonth-s
ernmost end of the Appalachian range,
/ then east to the mountains of southern
! West Virginia. Entering valley grad
ually narrowing pass through cuts and
tunnels, over gorges, around innumer-
able curves and are in the depth of the
mountains. Passing through deep cuts
a layer of coal five feet in thickness Ia
seen, placed there ages and ages ago.
when the earth was in formation and
the mountains in making, and forested
with trees that no axeman has touched
Far up the winding valley | saw trim
rushing down grade at great speed, and
only that a double track was visible, a
headon would have occurred to me.
Following the serpentine course a train
of many cars puffs hard loaded with
coal; it pulled along side at the station,
and | inquire about destination of the
coal, and was informed ''to tide water"
where four. masted ships would take the
coal and freight it to French West At
RIGA, to supply engines running 500 miles
into Africa, the home of the ancestors
of the American slave. Our engine
puffs hard as it rounds the curves.
We pass many coke ovens, all aflame
with a red hot heat, concentrating
coal to lighter fuel, quicker and great
er heat. Iron furnaces are seen, coal
mines and salt works are numerous,
while from the earth hundreds of springs
from which flows water impregnated
] ..,sN $40, ls.hs I'D A. TO-
absolutely pure, which is shipped to
many cities, Notwithstanding we want
mint julip and beer Up in the noun
tain meadows we see evidence of lost
agricultural art of two centuries past.
Some good farms, some worn out, a
few good homes, many that sheltered
the pioneer two centuries ago-they
who trecked over the mountains with
rifles, traps and packs, a hardy people
who left their impress on the trail and
in the clearing in the contest for the
right of way, contesting with the saw
ages who refused to back up any fur
Their without more scalps and more
blood, wherein honors we're easy. By
the wayside, | see a Touring mill, over
shot wheels that a century and q half
ago went round and round, then for
want of volume of water ceased TO turn
and now stands as a landmark of the
forgotten past 1t Toured grain, ira
dition says, when the men who titled
the soil car to mill on horseback grain
in one end of sack and a stone in the
other to balance. Long ago, boys broke
the glass windows, and ! enquired why
they had never applied the torch to the
old mill by the mountain brook, where
water no longer flows.
NNa iaaVa bn car at the maintain
station, standing on the platform and
looking far away over the atforested
mountain peaks sight most awe-in-
spring, grandeur only seen from
mountain tops, a snblimity that thrilled
me, and ] repeated:
O, We mountains, bless We the Lord
and magnify Him forever!
o, ye valleys. hail and frost, springs
and forests, bless We the Lord and
praise Him forever!
Far away, | see the peaks from which
flows the Tennessee river; over there
the source of the Cumberland and the
Kanawah; not far a way the source of
the James river; at nv feet the water
flows to make the Roanoke, Town which
we wind and curve. II is grand pan
Drama of rugged mountains and passes,
through which the people Travelled west
ward, fighting their way to colonize
Tennessee They were a hardy people
whom God had made strong for the
trials they were to meet with--many
Scotch Irish Presbyterians, fearing and
relying only on God, Hugenots, whose
forbesrs had fled from France to avoid
the inquisition which sent dissenters 10
the stake; also cavaliers of established
church, many Of whom had scars fight
ing for the Divine rights of kings. Only
of recent years has the great wealth OF
the mountains been made known. Great
expenditures of money to build rail-
ways. open mines, build blast furnaces,
coke ovens j saw an account Of lane
sale last week, of u, 900 acres noun
tains. which sold for $500 per acre, from
which, after an expenditure of millions,
the mountains, the home of the hunter,
will add billions to the wealth of the
country.
We run into Roanoke, then over the
Blue Ridge, down the James few
miles, then to the Appomattox river
and down to the court house, where the
train slows up and the engine takes
water. This place is historic. Here
General Phil Sheridan captured the last
train of Confederate . my supplies, and
where General Lees amy, without ra-
tions or forage, surrendered, and the
rebellion ended The brave men furled
flags, stacked their arms and packed
artillery, reformed TO their homes and
commenced life anew Another short
run and we stop at Petersburg. In
company with a daughter Of the Con-
I federacy, a daughter Of General Ma
hone, We ride out to the old line of
! breastworks, near the city, that forty
six years of rain, sunshine, frost and
wind have not leveled, nor dimmed. L.
walked to the crater and stood on the
rim, in the shadow If the stalwart pine
\ trees that have grown since the war,
and through the bouRhs, all these years,
signing winds have sounded requlems
/ of the dead, who fell here July 30, 1854.
! What was expected to be a break in
( the Confederate line proved to be
/ Union tragedy. a tunnel was dug from
rear of Union line to and under a Con-
! federate fort. The tunnel was cOmplet-
| ed. the fort ruined sixty-five tons of
giant powder was packed thirty-flye
/ feet below the surface. The time for
! the explosion four o clock in the morn
I ing. Jus 30, 1854 The Ninth Corps,
under Burnside, was massed in front to
I rush to the Confederate line, where his
break would be. The train of powder
vas fired, It ran into the great maya
zine: the earth rose like a billow; it
opened and out belched the fire from
the magazine, which carried up full so
feet the earth, horses and equipment,
artillery shells exploding, two regiments
of infantry, tents, camp kettles, blank