Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1914-05-14
FLORIDA.

IN tndt CITY. III Was dH ditOScuICi CuJoY
able and delightful experience, and the
editor has thought that an account OF the
trip and his impressions OF Florida might
be interesting to the Registers readers.
Jefferson county would. we think, be
entitled to the honor of sending the larg-
est delegation from the greatest distance,
for though,Jacksonville is almost goo miles
away, there was quite company OF vet
Grams and Others to start from Shenandoah
Junction at the appointed time. BY B. q
o. train to Washington, where genial
Congressman Brown met the old boys
and extended them the coutesies OF
generous man, then at 3 O'Clock the party
left for Jacksonville by the Atlantic Coast
Line-a Journey of some twenty-five
hours. This road runs fine trains OF all
steel cars, with sleepers and diners and
all needed conveniences and comforts.
The route is through historic country,
and the trip through Virginia was OF es-
pecial interest to the old soldiers, who
had fought many a desperate battle on
those hills and plains hall century ago.
Fredericksburg brought back many recol-
lections, and little way beyond, in plain
view from the train, was the humble but
historic little house where the great SOL
der, Stonewall Jackson, breathed his
last. II was remembered with sadness
that the day we looked upon that lated
house was within few hours OF fifty one
years since Jackson had received his fatal
wound. He had driven Hooker back into
the Wilderness on May lst, and all next
day he was on the march, seeking to turn
the right flank of the Union army, finally
driving it back to Charlottesville. 1t
was here that he was fired upon by his
own men in terrible mistake, receiving
three wounds that week later ended the
great soldiers glorious career. 1t was
another coincidence that on May 10th
we again passed, on our return Journey
the dwelling from which fifty -one years
ago to the hour his gallant spirit had gone
out, to "cross over the river and rest un-
der the shade of the trees"
Past Fredericksburg, on through the
Wilderness, where the Shepherdstown
company fought so bravely and where
death once more took toll from its thin
ming ranks, on to Richmond and the his
toric James river-the city now a great
business and social metropolis and the
stream that once ran red with blood muir
muring in peaceful monotone, with no
sound nor sight OF war or the horrors OF
fifty years agone. Still on historic
grounds, the train passes Drewry's Bluff,
across the quiet but ever-to-be remem-
bered Appomattox river, on to Peters
burg. Then the shades ofevening come,
and soon we are abed. When we awake
next morning we are at Charleston, South
Carolina. Then through long stretches
of pine woods to Savannah, and through
Georgia TO Jacksonville, where the train
is due at | 20 in the afternoon.
Through most OF Virginia and all OF
North and South Carolina, Georgia and
Florida the country is as flat as pan
cake. Not hill or rise ten feet high is
to be seen-everywhere it is the same
level, monotonous waste of pine forest
and thicket, the vegetation growing more
tropical in appearance the further South
we 90. The streams are infrequent, and
still and sluggish. II may be that the
railroad has chosen straight line through
the poorest and most thinly settled Sec
ton, for there are few signs Of life. Once
In fifty miles or so there appears town
worth while, and these are supplemented
by shabby collections ofunpainted houses
that make up the infrequent villages be-
tween. Very little OF the land seen from
the train is enthusiastically pines, pines,
pines, most of which, il could be OBJ
served, had been tapped for the tur-
pentine they yield. No fields of growing
crops, no herds OF cattle or sheep, practi-
cally no evidences of agricultural activity
are to be noted.