The L'Anse sentinel., 1922-05-26
Asst September United States ma
rines marched, skirmished. formed

r Asst September United States ma
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 shell and bomb sounded
through the shadowy woods, close
tangles and across rolling, hilly fields
near the Chancellor house, Wilder
ness church, 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 po. Here on
one of the bloodiest and ghostiest
areas of the American Civil war the
marines held maneuvers. Four days
were spent In the vicinity of Wilder
ness run, and those days We're devor-
ed TO battle exercises ana problems
WHcTc oNoHcWdlI JdCkSOn Y Gtt
Three miles west of the western
limit of Fredericksburg is Salem
church. Five miles west of Salem
church is Charlottesville. One mile
I west of Chancellorsville Is little
monument in the woods by the road
side which marks where Stonewall
Jackson received the wound from
ial, hn In, Iat, g..
house near Guinea station, IL miles
south of Fredericksburg. One mile
west of the solemn little monument
In its lonely site is Wilderness church.
About two miles northwest or the
courthouse Is a battle area once So
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 fun of steep
and bumpy hills and closely bordered
by thick woods. Is 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 o, 1864.
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,
1862, in which the battles of Chancel-
lorsville and Salem Church were
fought In May, 1863, and In which the
battles of the Wilderness and Spott-
sylyania Courthouse were fought In
Max, 1864--a little patch of country
that has been appropriately called
"the cockpit of America
Still the Wilderness.
If 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 were shot
and bayoneted to death in this wild
country. Much Of that country west
of Charlottesville and northwest of
Spottsylvania Courthouse, which was
called the wilderness before and dur
ing the Civil war, is still "the wilder
ness"
The winter Of 1s83-64 was one Of
great hardship and privation for the
Confederate Army Of Northern vir-
ginia, as well as for other Confeder-
ate armies. The winter Of 1s64-65 was
valley Forge winter for the south
ern troops. Gen. p. NJ. Law, @. s. A.,
writing Of the wilderness and Spctt-