The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-05-25

40 SSpltlIDtI NllItu suites Ild-
rines marched, skirmished. formed
lines of battle, took up and aban-
doned positions, executed strategic
movements, and made charges on the
historic fields Of the Wilderness and
Spottsylvania. The pop and whiz of
Springfield fire. the rip-rip Of machine
guns, the smash of field pieces and
the crash Of she'll and bomb sounded
through the shadowy woods, close
tangles and across rolling, billy fields
near the Chancellor house, Wilder
ness chu. oh, Wilderness tavern, Park
er's store, Dodd's tavern, Alsop's
farm, and Bloody Angle, and along the
Fredericksburg and Orange, turnpike,
the Plank road, the Brock road, and
the banks Of the Rapidan. and the
smaller rivers. Ny and Pc. Here on
one of the %hlOOdieSt and ghOstliest
areas of the American Civil war the
marines held maneuvers. Four days
were spent in the vicinity of Wilder
ness run, and those days were deyor-
ed TO battle exercises n problems.
Where StonewaII jackson Fell.
Three miles west of the western
limit of Fredericksburg is Salem
church. Five miles west of Salem
church is Charlottesville. One mile
west of Charlottesville is Il little
monument in the woods by the road
side which marks where Stonewall
Jackson received the wound from
which he died in a plain little farm
house neal Guinea station, II miles
south Of Fredericksburg. One mile
west Of the solemn little monument
In its lonely site is Wilderness church.
About two miles northwest OF the
courthouse is a battle area once 50
strewn with dead and so Uttered with
wounded men that for so years 1t
has been called Bloody Angle, and that
name will never be effaced from the
tragic ground. Something more than
a mile from Bloody Angle, at the fork
of two old roads that are full of steep
and bumpy hills and closely bordered
by thick woods, Is a monument that
marks where General Sedgwick-Maj.
Gen. John Sedgwick. United States
Volunteers. commanding the Sixth
Army corps-a corps commander un-
der Grant. was killed in action on
the morning Of May Q, 1854.
This description points out some of
the landmarks. some of the high
spOts,' as Ii were, Of a section OF that
country in which the battle of Fred
ericksburg was fought In December,
1852, In which the battles of Chancel-
louisville and Salem Church were
fought in May, 1863, and in which the
battles of the Wilderness and SpOtt-
s~ylvania Courthouse were fought In
May, 1894 little patch Of country
that has been appropriately called
"the cockpit Of America
Still the Wilderness.
IL there are such things as ghosts
there must be armies of them In this
tangle-land, for many, many thousands
Of young men who wore the blue and
many. many thousands of other young
men who wore the gray we're shot
and Saycsc:ca TO death In this Wild
country. Much Of that country west
OF Charlottesville aud northwest Of
Spottsyivania Courthouse, which was
called the wilderness before and dur
Ing the Civil war, is still "the wilder
ness"
The winter of 1SG3-G4 was n Of
great hardship and privation for the
Confederate Army of Northern vir-
ginia, as well as for other Confeder-
ate armies. The winter Of lS84-65 was
4 valls- Forge winter for the south
ern troops. Gen e. M. Law. G. =. A.,
writing Of the Wilderness and Spott-