Evening Star Newspaper, September 25, 1921, Page 61

FICTION Part 4—6 Pages ‘Marines NITED-States marines will be marching, skirmishing, form- ing battle, taking up and a executing stratesic making charges on the h of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania this week. * The' pop and whiz of Springfield fice, the rip-rip of machine guns, the smash of ficld pieces and the crash of shell and bomb will sound through the shadowy woods, close tangles and acress rolling, hilly fields near the Chancellor House, Wilderness Church, Wilderness Tavern, Parker's store, Dodd's tavern. Alsop’s farm and Bloody Anglei-snd along the Fred- ericksburg and Orange tu Plank road. the Brock r Yopks of the Rapidan. and the smaller riers Ny and Po. one of the dloodies American of indoning pe lines and movements marines will told maneuvers. These will begin to- morrow. The whole force of marines at the Quantigo base will take part, and Brig. Gen.iSmedley D. Butler will be in command. The force will be igade up as 3 reinforced brizade act- E vance guard r an army The forces will camp at Aqu ‘redéricksburg and the W in the derness ndtproblems. The return march to Quantico will be made Oc- tober 3 and 1 five miles south-southw Washington is- Fredericksburg This may not be the precise o by rail. wagon road or air, but it is car enough se the truth. The old city nds at the head of tide on the Rap- annock river. Ten miles north- t. measured in an air line to the th of Potamac creek. which is the neat creek below Aquia, rolls the great Potomae river, there three miles Thiw 15 to n. what many of you no doudt know, the geosraph- jcal relation -ef Fredericksburg to Washington. * K HREE miles west cf the w limit of Fredericksburg is Salem Church.. Five miles west of Salem Church is Chantellorsville. One mile sest of Chancellorsville is a fittle nionument iaithe woods by the road- ide, which -marks' where Stonewall Jackson -received the wound from which he digd ‘in a plain little farm house near Quinea station, eleven miles south of Fredericksburg. One E iIs only three years old. but his faverite pet is a baby boa constrictor. - He is the small son of Mr.—Richard G. Paine of the National Museum, whose hobby for many vears has been snakes. At Ris home in Falis Church Mr. Paine has two boas which he keeps for amusement, one of which is about four years old, the other a mere baby. Recently, when Mrs. Paine was en- tertaining a party of friends, the small mon begged his father to allow him to take the baby boa in to show to the guests. “Hold him ge cautioned the father. “Don’t squeeze him! He is very much afraid of falling, and if he \wants to, let him wind himself ‘und your arm. But if you Squeeze R 1%o, he may ve afraid and then he f mizht bite you Son Richard joyfully marched into the unsuspecting gathering carefully arrying the clinging reptile, while in he distant rear the father listened vith a decidedly innocent twinkle in his eve. ¥* k ¥ X ~OMMOTION prevailed. Chairs tipped over. Doors banged. A | s-cond later the room was cleared. Not a woman of that assembly remained for nature study. Every other room in the house harbored a trembling ref- ugee. When the small zoologist compre- hended the situation his amusement knew no bounds. Atraid of harmless snakes! He roared with laughter. Howevery §onny 18 not allowed to hold the four-year-ald. That sophis- ticated gentleman might. decide to constrict too fofcefully. When he was Torn he was only about fifteen inches long, but four years on a menu of mice, English sparrows, guinea pigs and rabbits, with an occasional din- ner of pigeon, have increased his 10 five inches. His mate, if he had one; length of n‘f‘n largér, perhaps ten or eleven 13¢ long. When- lunch is announced to Mr. Jna his cage is cautiously opened and a in that tions. | longth to eight feet and his diameter | time would probably be|over the animal; then, live rabbit, guinea pig or altbroat in one big bunch, until, after f the olemn Tonely s Tavern. Nine mile: ! west of Fredericksburg. measured not by the road, but through the air, is Spottsylvania Court House, a llage tae roads. where about 150 pe 15 live. There are some old bulld- ings, comfortable and well taken care i i of. and a number of new structures. stores, dwellings and churches that are neat and have about them a pros- perous look. About two miles northwest of the courthouse is a battle area once so strewn with dead and so littered with wounded men that for fifty-seven years it has been called Bloody Angle. and that name will mever be effaced from the tragic sround. Something f CONSTRICTOR. REPTILE PETS. pigeon is inserted. Instantly the boa winds himself about his victim and squeezes the life out of it. Then begins the process of draw- ing himself over His meal. For he does not chew it even though his six rows of inward-pointing teeth are sharp as pencil points. Instead, he slowly adjusts one side of his mouth s _slowly, he lifts and draws over the other side. Inch by inch the snake works his own anatomy outside his dinner. Gradually it is seen to move down his The Sty Stae. WASHINGTON, T more than a mile from Bloody Angle, at the fork of two old roads that are full of steep and bumpy hills and| fclosely bordered by thick woods, is a | monument that marks where Gen.| Sedgwick—Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, U. S. Volunteers, commanding the 6th | Army Corps—a corps commander un- | der Grant. was killed in action on the | morning of May, 9, 1864. This dcscription points out some of | the landmarks, some of the “hizh| spots.” as it were, of a section of tiat | country in which the battle of Fred- ericksburg was fought in December. 1862, in which the battles of Cha: cellorsville and Salem Chu were | fought in May, 1863, and in which the battles of the Wilderness and Spot- | sylvania Court House were fought m | 1864—n litile patch of country been appropriately called | ckpit 0 *In this se the will have mimeu- ses in simulation of fields where the | thinnin; but gallant and intrepid Army of Northern Virginia and the vastly augmented and gallant Ariny of the Potomac fought and w Yowed in dust, mud and blood in the spring of 1864. Grant. with over- whelming fo and resources, had !begun to beat and hammer his way te Ricamond and Appomuittox, those places were still one year aw 1—a year of war. * kX re. but ay You | 1 war map of it | and find your way around. The old | tords are there. Some new roads { have been made and a few old ones | remade, but you will find longl can take a ¢ | flock of D. tangled stretch of growth, where able for lumber, heen cut away wonders in up, or de: If ther. such things as ghosts; United, the Mat. Ta. Po and Ny rivers | Ilys ford. Thirty-six hours later the there mus: Le armies of them in this' become the Mattapony rive | corps of Hancock, Warren and Sedg- tangle-land, for many. many thou-| Over at the west edge of this his-|wick were crossing on two pontoon sands of yeung men who wore the!toric ground. where the old Virginia |bridges at Germanna ford of the| blue and many, many thousands of { Midland railraod skirts it from Cul-| Rapidan. As Grant's plan” was to other young men who wore the gray e shot and this wild country w northwest Hous ness I wer of fore a ihe wi * % FRoM the T burg and rai ginia Mi is thirty-five miles in an air line due ' the to the From at west. uthern n lon; Fredericksburg and Potor the histor pass from Fred, roads that were n Union and Con were the Plank Toad and the Orani turnpike. The, area of 1862 and through areas of 1863 a country of Chancellorsville and | e, which w ., SUNDAY d third the timber merchant- and ties has s growth one ing through it why a s does not start r hreak from cover. second netted to death in Much ~of that bay Spotsylvania _ Court calied the Wilder- civil war, d during the Idernes: Frederick railroad tichmond, Potomac at sburg to the old Orange and, Digh mountain Iroad, later. the Vir- and and now the Southern, ! Rupidan. Fredericksburg Orange pas arrow-gauge T g. called the Pledmon ac. Two of gon roads of the world ericksburg to Orange. ade the most of by erate armies. The from the battle the battle Y pass nd 1864. Nine miles above Frederickshurg— that is, northw —there is a junction SPOTSWOOD INN. 'stretches of road. narrow, hilly and | forest-hemmed, that remain about as {'they were in the battle days of the, | republic. 1t is a section of country | closely veined with streams that run | through deep, steep valleys they have | cut. Between the streams are irreg- | {ularly formed patches of tableland | 200 feet higher than the streams. ! Much of the country is wooded and | much of the woodland is a dense and ' fifteen minutes or so, it reaches his|to keep him awake. of two river from the northwest nock and that is the Rapida erly through many stream: of them mu southernmost forms a junct and from that Matta river. ' Boa Constrictor Is Pet of Small Boy THE THREE-YEAR-OLD SON OF RICHARD G. PAINE OF FALLS CHURCH, VA, HAS A PET IN A BOA THIS PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE FATHER'AND SON flowing down s the Rappaha rom the west g southeast- tle country are called rjvers, and four t be mentioned. The is the Mat river, which ion with the Ta river, point on becomes the North of the Ta flows That flow n. th HOLDING THE LARGER OF TWO|of the valley at Harpers The hotter the *| mentioning Sherman spec! MORNING, SEPTEMBER 25, HEY Will March and Execute Strategic Movements in Fields of-the Wilderness and Spotsylvania This Week—Great Battles Fought in the Section and Some of the Landmarks—Grant and Lee at Heads of Armies in Virginia Toward End of Struggle—Hardships Suffered by the Southern Army—Many Generals Killed in the Spotsylvania and Wilderness Battles. the Po viver, point ver. and north of that the Ny} These streams unite at a | thirteen miles south of Fred- ! jercksburg and close to Bowling| ! Green, near where, on the Garrett ! tarm, John Wilkes Boath was shot in | !a blazing bern by Boston Corbett. | peper to Orange Court House, Lee's| larmy lay along the south shore of | the Rapidan and for a cousiderable | distance behind it. The Army of the| Potomac lay along the north sid ‘T)Iu( was in the winter of 186 jand in the spring of 1864 South of {the mver is a long. high mountain named Clark mountain, and a Confed- jerate lookout was kept there on thei ‘encampments north of the river. orth of the Rapidan and between {the river and Culpeper is another called Mount Pony. | Federal obscrvers were there, though i the mountain is four miles from the while Clark mountain. Confederate side of the riv slopes to the water's edge and its is not more than two miles and excellent points of ob- servation may be found on the heights of the mountain within a mile of the | river. e. 1l on ispring of 1864. In his memoir: ten in 1885, he tells of his pluns the campaign of 1864 and the prep- arations for carrying execution. e w lieutenant general M. on the following da Meade, commanding the Arm H j Potomac, at his headquarters, Brandy i station, north of the Rapidan. The following paragraph from Grant's memoirs may interest you: I was a 10 most_of the Army of the Potemac: et xay to @il escept the | officers of the Reguiar Arny who had served the Mexican waur. re bad been so s ordered in iie organization of tl before my otion. One was cousolidaiion of fi DS into thi throwing some. off rank oot tant commands. wight want to make still yet ordered. He said to m an officer who had served those plans into th thus impor- e more chang that I might want place. If so, he begged me about muking the change. He urged that the work before us was of wueh vast importance to the whole nation that the feeling or the wishes of no one person should stand in the way of welecting tie right men for all posi- tions. For himself, he would serve to the best of his ability wherever placed. I assured him that T had no thought of substituting any one for him. As to Shexman. he could not be spaied fiom the wext. This incident gave me even 5 more fav opinion of Meade than did Lis great vi le ory at Gettysburg the July before. 1i ix men wait to be se- ilected, aud not those who seek. from whom e [may alwass expect the most efficient xervice. *® ¥ TTHE high-water mark of the Con- federacy was reached at Gettys- burg in July, 1863. The last draft had brought all the white boys of the south able to bear arms into the military service. Nearly all the draft | animals within the Confederate lines were doing military work. The coasts had been long blockaded. A ¥aring blockade runner now and then helped a little, but not much. The Mississippi river from St. Louis { to its moutk was under federal con- | trol. Al northwest of the Arkansas river was held by federal troops. West Virginia was in federal hands. AlL of old Virginia north of the Rapi- dan and casi of the Blue Ridge had been conquered. The ports of Nor- i folk, New Bern, Beaufort, Port Roval, Fernandina. St. Augustine, Key West | |and Pensacola were under the Union i The civil population within the Confederate lines was in distress for jfood. clothing and medicine. Prac- | tically all able-bodied white men | iand boys were with the arimies and {had been throughout the war. Such food as was being grown was by the | colored people, who loyally worked Tor and took care of the white fam- ilies to which they belonged or had belonged. It was this devotion of the old colored people to the white women and children which makes the bond of good will and even af- fection between the oMl landholding families of the south and the old colored people and their children. The winter of 1863-64 was one of | great hardship and privation for the i Confederate Army of Northern Vir- ginia, as well as for other Coafed erate’ armies. The winter of 1864-65 was a Valley Forge winter for the southern troops. Gen. E. M. Law C. S. “A.. writing of the wilderness and Spotsylvania battles. said: “The Army of Northern Virginia had gained little in numbers during the winter (1863-64) and had never been so scantily fed and clothed. Equip- ment as to arms was good, but com- miseary and quartermaster supplies were scarce and poor.” He says that nearly all the soldiers were ragged, barefooted and half-starved, “but the morale of the army was high and Grant knew that it was still a dan- | gerous foe in battle.” Grant's plan of campaizn was to put all the armies of the Union, east and west, into offensive opera- tions at one time. He brought together scattered commands and built up the Army of the Potomac to a strength which he believed i would overwhelm Lee, who faced him across the Rapidan astride the |Orange and Alexandria railroad and maintained touch with the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad thirty- five miles to the cast. Grant believed that Lee had positions prepared on all the natural defensive lines from the Rapidan to the James. He planned to wear down the Army of Northern Virginia by successive attacks with superior numbere and jat the time of the attacks to flank it out of one position after another. The greater size of the Army of the Potomac made this practicable. As they faced each other from opposite sides of the Rapidan, Grant planned to cross the river below the Con- federate right, strike south for Richmond, and as the first point in the game force Lee to leave the strong position he occupied south of the Rapidan. Lee knew this. As part of the big plan Sherman was ordered to move agalnst John- ston and Atlanta. This move was carried out. Gen. Crook in West: Virginia was ordered with cavalry and artillery to move south and out the rallroad passing from Virginia to Tennessee. This Was done. Sigel, in the valley of Virginia, was to move up the valley; cover the mouth rry and keep watch against another Invasfon of the North. He started on this mission, was whipped and driven back. Butler was to advance by the Grant came to Virginia early in the | o, 1921. mountain, Confederate signal station ! south of the Rapidan, wers studying | the lay of Grant’s army. 1. was mak- ing preparations to move. Lee was at the signal station. He said that Grant would cross the river to his! (Lee's) right, either at Germanna or cross the Rapidan and push past Lee's | army ten miles east of its right flan and strike straight south toward Le: cear and Richmond, Lee's plan was to let Grant cross the river and while on the march south from Germanna ford through the Wilderness to strike his suddenly and beat it, sur- priscd and disordered, into the Wilder- nes: ar midnight, May 3-4, 1864, the Army of the Potomac began its march from its position north of the Rapi- dan toward Germanna ford, the be- ginning of that “memorable cam- gn destined to result in the cap- ture of the Confederate capital and the army defending Those two old reads previously spoken of, the ! Fredericksburg-Orange turnpike and the Fredericksburg-Orange plank 10ad, lead east through the Wilder ness from the position Lee held. They s the road by which Grant was marching south from Ger- manua ford. Frants army was crossing the Rapidan without opposition, evident- Iy without being discovered by Lee. At noon Muy 4 Ewell's corps was ordered by Lee cast along the Orange turnpike 1o strike Grant’s marching army at the strike Grant's marching army at the intersection of the pike and the Ger- manna road, where stood the Wilder- ness T n. A. P. Hill, with twe divisions, was or- | dered cast along the plank road to fall upon Grant's southward moving column. where the plank road inter- sects the road from Germanna ford, about four miles south of the point vhere [well v 1o strike. Long- rect's corps, at Gordonsville, was or- dered to march fast to take part in the fighting in either theater of ac- tion. As Warren's Union Corps was - Hold Maneuvers on Historic Battlefields of the Civil War sharpsh 5 and smail firing here | between the bodies of the men fallen and there alons the lines as march- | in the morning. The Blue lines once ing bo became exposed within recoiled. News 10 L ANy the morning of the 9th Hancock hud gwick was killed by a Confed- Shady Grove erate sharpshooter. The ball struck £ 1o his rea him in the left cheek beneath the division mo . attacked eye. He zone to an exposed part | Hancock's rear division and drove of the line. Shots were coming over | Hancock back. Again news c inow and the: He was warned. | that Grant Wwas preparing to Why," he answered, “they couid not | & southward rush to reach tiie ) hit an elephant at that distance. . Lee ordered back He fell dead a minute later. artillery that defended There. at a lonely fork. where one north salient a t the trains road leads northwest to Todds Tav-|in motion. A false alarm. ern. one northesst to salem Chuarch - salient was threatened and one southeast to Spotsylvania, went out stands a small and handsome monu- | the field and bru 2 ment. One face iz inscrib “Sedg- | brought back muskets and cartridge wick. Dedicated May 12, on the | boxes from the Union dead. Of course third anniversary of the!they brought back all foud found A passing, the crossing of the Orange ! turnpike at the Wilderness Tavern, five miles south of Germanna ford, Edward Johnson's division of Ewell's corps attacked it. The southward marching column faced to the right and the fighting in that part of the Wilderness was on. Four miles farther south. and at the same time, A. P. Hill's advance struck Hancock's corps where the plank road intersects the road from| Germanna ford at Parker's store.! And the fighting in that part of the Wilderness was on. The fighting spread along a front of four or five miles. One side drove the other back, and then was driven back. Hancock's corps was driving HIIl's fast. Grege’s Texans, oniy $00 strong, rushed against Webb's brigade of Hancock’s corps, lost haif their men in killed and wounded, but checked the Union advance in that part of the line. and Longstreet's corps, with Kershaw's division lead- ing, was coming into line. Long- street nt Mahone with several brigades — brigades were pitifully small then—around the Federal left, | which had advanced far west of the Brock road, on_which It had been marching south from Germanna Ford. Mahone brought his -men at right angles to the advancing federal left, attacked it, and it sariveled back to the Brock road. There in the Wilder- ness the land was dotted with dead. Gravely wounded men died for want | of surgical ald; died without the comfort of a cup of water. After thej war the bones of thoueands of men, unknown, were brought from the fields of Chancellorsville, Wilderness | and Spotsylvania and buried in thej Union and Confederate cemeteries at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, but woodchoppers, tie cutters, hunters and farmers today come upon skulls and other relics of brave men who fell in the Wilderness. Lee's plan had_succeeded in part, failed in part. He had inflicted on! Grant much heavier losses than he had sustained, but he had not hurled the Army of the Potomac into con- fusion and -disorder. ; * % % ¥ J‘EB STUART reported to Lee tkat Union troops were moving south Dehind the firing lines. Here was Grant working to get between Lee and Richmond. The main road south led: through Spotsylvania Courtbouse, eleven miles south by east of the Wilderness Tavern and nine miles southeast of Parker's store. Lee would beat Grant to It and check him on that rough tableland between the stomach, where it is digested, bones|climate of a country the more snakes|James river, threatening Richmond|rivers Ny and Po, where Spotsylvania and all, except possibly the teeth, or, if it was a b‘l’rfl, the quills. * ok k% TTHE boa constrictor is: particular about the temperature of 'his! apaftment. He thrives and becomes ‘energetic the ‘hotter it grows, and| gets sluggish and stupid the colder the weather. So that after the cool fall days come sfeam heat will be we find, and the larger and more active they appear. Although he does not bite in order to kill his victim, when frightened the boa will grab whatever is near- est his mouth. person’s hand, his If it happens to be a teeth will hpld so firmly that ‘the Jeast pull will tear the flesh to shreds. Very_little is known of the breed- ing habite of these particular snakes, for only twice have they been known , turned on in the pipes under his age | to bredd in captivity in the zoos. . and Petersburg. He advanced pretty far, was stopped with slaughter by Beauregard, and his force pocketed. stands. Stuart got across the road ahead of Grant’s advance and held it. ‘Warren's corps came into the fight- Buyrnside at Annapolis was ordered ling to brush aside the cavalry ob- into position between Bull Run and ‘the Rappahannock to keep watch Meade. when they should need him. ‘This was done. * % x X G EN. LAW tells that on May 2, 1864, a group of officers on’ Clarks struction. Kershaw, Humphrey, Law —sgoldiers all—swung {ato line behind inward-curving | over Washington and join Grant and | Stuart's position. That was on: May Sedgwick and Warren's corps |’ 8th, g were thrown against Anderson and Early, and. thrown pack with heavy loss. : The day of the 9th was spent in reconnoitering, lmr‘eglchlng. .unlqln‘. STREET SCENE IN SPOTSYLVANI |in the haversacks. Coffee and sugar heaviest day's fighting at Spotsyl- vania. Tribute to a beloved com- | were priceless luxuries. Bread and mander by the survivors of his corps | bacon were worth risking life for. A and their friends.” On another face | pair of shoes from a dead man! Why is thi; Erected to commemorate | the dead man had no use for them | and ‘many a soldier in the Northern Virginia had not had on his feet since the Gettysburg cam- paign thej vear before! These men bringing bdck Union muskets and am- munition from Union dead loaded all the muskets and lay down with, per- haps half a dozen by their side. There were no repeating rifles and not many brecch-loaders. Another attack on Bloody Angle was coming. The artil- lery that had been withdrawn was or- dered back, but the attack came 100 soon. Some guns got back, but not in time to help much in repeliing the at- tack. There was all the valor on both sides that man can put into fighting. The line at one part of the salient was broken and Hancock's men held the ground. Gen. Johnson. twenty guns and 2.800 men, nearly his division, were captured. Barly's di on came for- ward and the Blues were driven bac Another part of the salient was as- sailed and the line broke. Gen. Perrin was killed. Gen. Daniel was kille8l. Gen. Ramseur was wounded. Lee was sending all available troops and the Confederate line was partly restored and al! gaps closed. That was the 12th of May. All day and far into the night the fighting went on. At one part and then at another part of the salient it was hand-to-hand fighting. The Confederates constructed a short- er line in the rear of the salient and fell back to it on the 13th. Both armics had been marching and fighting since the 4th of May. There was a lull untjl the 1§th, when two corps of Grant's army, the 2d and 6th, attacked again. but the Confederate line held and the attack cost Grant many me:. | On the 19th strange things were hap- pening. Grant was starting south to get between Lee and Richmond. A Conferedate force moving around the Union right had got that informati~n but 1t cost them about a thousahd mm~ in killed and wounded to learn }i. Hancock was leading the way to the south and to Richmond. The North Anna_river, fifteen miles south ot Spotsylvania was the immediate ob- Jective of both armies. Spotsylvania was left behind and the North Anna river, Cold Harbor, Be- thesda Church and then the Chickho- mina came into the red light of the history of the civil war. Solar Lamplighting. CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT I'r is pointed out that the sun regu- SPOTSYLVANIA. lates the lights in the acetylene three miles south to some high land | beacons that line the Panama canal. sbove the Po river. a quarter of a|the regulating device having been mile east of Snelis bridge. From!planned for some years ago by the the west base of the salient the line {canal engineers during the period of ran two miles southwest to the Shady | construction. Grove road. Each of these regulators contains It was that sallent which Grantia copper cylinder that expands under icked as the place to break Lee's|the. influence of sunlight. and thus ine and .perhaps .smash the army, |closes a valve and shuts off the flow of and that salient came to be called |gas to the burner. At sunset or. when “Bloody Angle.” That point of the |the sun is obscured the cylinder con- line was attacked in the morning of | tracts. & spring opens the valve gnd the 10th and the attack respulsed.|[the gas flows to the burner. The Again. in the afternoon, the Union [apparatus is said to reduce the con- legions came at it, moving forward | sumption of gas materially. this spot, where Maj. Gen. John Sedg- wick, U. S. Volunteers, was killed in action on the morning of the 9th of May, 1864." The Confederate lines were very irrezular, adapting themselves to the broken contour of the land. At the north end of the position, two miles above the courthouse, was a salient that bulged northward for nearly a mile, and _in places was half a mile across. From the east base of that salient the Confederate line ran