ncipation Proclamation-Fredericksburg-Burnside against Lee-Chancellorsville-Lee and Jackson against Hooker-Death of Stonewall Jackson-Guinney Station-The Wilderness-Mine Run-Grant's Southern March-Ba

Charlottesville-University of Virginia-Monticello-Thomas Jefferson-Shenandoah Valley-Cross Keys-Jackson's Exploits-Cedar Mountain-General Sheridan-Cedar Creek-Sheridan against Early-Luray Cavern-Battlefield of Gettysburg-Lee Marches into Pennsylvania-Hooker Resigns-Meade against Lee-Gettysburg Topography-Seminary Ridge-Cemetery Ridge-The Round Tops-Confederate Advance to Carlisle

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movements, sanguinary conflicts and wonderful strategy of the great American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. We have described the environment of Chesapeake Bay, and now proceed to a consideration of this noted region west of the bay, where the tide of battle repeatedly ebbed and flowed. The first northern invasion of the Virginia Peninsula and the abortive siege of Richmond in the summer of 1862 were followed by McClellan's retreat, Pope's defeat and the southern

ATTLES OF

1, the Northern troops were gradually assembled in and around Washington; but there came an imperative demand from the country that they should go forth and give the Confederates battle and capture Richmond before their Congress could meet, the opening of the session being fixed for July 20th. The Southern armies were entrenched at Manassas Junction, west of Washington, and at Winchester to the northwest, and they were making forays almost in sight of Washington. General McDowell, with nearly forty thousan

Stonewall Jackson with thirty thousand men, who, by a forced march, went around the western side of the Bull Run Mountains, came east again by the Thoroughfare Gap, and on the night of the 27th was in Pope's rear, and had cut his railroad connections and captured his supplies at Manassas. Pope, discovering the flanking movement, began falling back towards Manassas, and Jackson then withdrew towards the Gap, waiting for Lee to come up. There were various strategic movements afterwards, with fighting on the 29th; and on the 30th the Confederate wings had enclosed as in a vise Pope's forces to the west of Bull Run, when, after some terrific combats, Pope retreated across Bull Run towards Washington. Pope had about thirty-five thousand men and Lee forty-six thousand engaged in this battle. During the night of September 2d Jackson ma

URG AND THE

ly entrenched; but the attack failed, the shattered army after great carnage withdrawing to the north bank of the river, and it lay there for months in winter quarters. Burnside was superseded by General Hooker, and in May, 1863, the Northern army again crossed the Rappahannock at several fords above Fredericksburg and started for Richmond. Lee quickly marched westward from Fredericksburg, and Lee and Hooker faced each other at Chancellorsville. Then came another of Stonewall Jackson's brilliant flank movements. Chancellorsville is on the eastern border of the Wilderness, and Jackson, making a long detour to the south and west through that desolate region, got around and behind Hooker's right flank, surprised him, and sent General Howard's entire corps in panic down upon the rest of the Union forces, making the greatest surprise of the war. During that same night Jackson, after his victory, was accidentally shot by his own men, a blow from which the Confederacy never recovered. Twelve miles south of Fredericksburg, at Guinney Station, is the little house where Jackson died. He and his aides, after reco

ogress a dozen miles, and he could only move during the lulls in the fighting, the advance being usually made by changing one corps after another from the right to the left by marching in the rear of the main body, thus gradually prolonging the left wing southward through the forbidding country. Lee pressed forward into the vacated space, fortifying and fighting, his object being to force Grant eastward and away from Richmond, which was towards the south. "More desperate fighting has not been witnessed upon this Continent," said Grant of this struggle in the Wilderness; and later he wrote to Washington the famous declaration of his intention "to fight it out on this line if it take

uin of the war, but the few buildings are generally most primitive, the favorite style being a small wooden cabin set alongside a huge brick chimney. It is said the chimney is first built, and if the draught is all right they then build the little cabin over against it and move in the family. The agriculture does not appear much better until Richmond is approached, where the surface of the country improves. At Hanover Court House are more signs of battlefields, for he

Y OF RI

State Capitol and a broad white penitentiary crown two of the highest. The town was founded at the falls of the James in 1737, and the capital of Virginia was moved here from Williamsburg in 1779, when there was only a small population. The place did not have much history, however, until it became the Capital of the Confederacy, and then the strong efforts made to capture it and the vigorous defence gave it world-wide fame. Beginning in 1862 it was made an impregna

reets crossing at right angles is well displayed, and the abrupt sides of some of the hills, where they have been cut away, disclose the high-colored, reddish-yellow soils which have been so prolific in tobacco culture, and give the scene such brilliant hues, as well as dye the river a chocolate color in times of freshet. The city spreads over a wide surface, and has populous suburbs on the lower lands south of the James. This Capitol was the meeting-place of the Confederate Congress, and the locality of all the statecraft of the "Lost Cause." It contains the battle-flags of the Virginia troops and other relics, and in a gallery built around the rotunda are hung the portraits of th

Monument, R

as a tribute of admiration for the soldier and patriot, Thomas J. Jackson, and gratefully accepted by Virginia in the name of the Southern people." Beneath is inscribed in the granite the remark giving his sobriquet, which was made at the first battle of Bull Run in 1862, where Jackson commanded a brigade. At a time when the day was apparently lost, his troops made so firm a stand that some one, in admiration, called out the words that became immortal: "Look, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall!" A short distance from the Capitol is the "Confederate White House," a square-built dwelling, with a high porch in the rear and a small portico in front. Here lived Jefferson Davis during his career as President of the Confederacy; it is now a museum of war relics. Nearby is St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Davis was attending service on the eventful Sunday morning in April, 1865, when he was brought th

t Virginian Convention was held which paved the way for the Revolution in 1775, and listened to Patrick Henry's impassioned speech-"Give me liberty or give me death." The pew in which he stood while speaking is still preserved. An adjoining eminence is called Libby Hill, where lived Luther Libby, who owned most of the land thereabout. Under its shadow was the Libby Prison of the Civil War, since removed to Chicago for exhibition. It had been a tobacco warehouse, occupied by Libby Co., but during the war it held at various times over fifty

er way going westward beyond the Alleghenies. In mid-river above is Belle Isle, a broad, flat island, which during the war was a place of imprisonment for private soldiers, but upon it is now an iron mill. Along the lower river are the wharves and shipping, in the section called Rocketts, and here are also the tobacco storehouses and factories, the chief Richmond industry, for it is the world's leading tobacco mart, re

the Virginia Division at Gettysburg. It also contains the graves of the eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke; Commodore Maury, the navigator; Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia when the State seceded, and Thomas Ritchie, long editor of the Richmond Enquirer, a most powerful writer and political leader in the early part of the nineteenth century, who is regarded in Virginia as the "Father of the Democratic Party." There are crowded into this cemetery in one place twelve thousand graves of Confederate soldiers, and in the centre of the ghastly plot there rises a huge stone pyramid, ninety feet high, erected as a memorial by the Southern women. Vines overrunning it almost conceal the rough joints of the stones. No name is upon it, for it was built as a monument for the unnamed dead. On three sides are inscriptions; on one "T

S SIEGE OF

a between James and York Rivers, approached Richmond from the east, and extended his army around to the north, enveloping it upon a line which was the arc of a circle, from seven miles east to five miles north of the city. The Chickahominy flows through a broad and swampy depression in the table-land north and east of Richmond, bordered by meadows, fens and thickets of underbrush. It thus divided McClellan's investing army, and the first great battle near Richmond was begun by the Confederates, who took advantage of a heavy rain late in May which had swollen the river and swamps. They fell upon the Union left wing on May 31st, and the inde

f Gaines' Mill, on the second day, during which Jackson, coming from the northward and joining the others, compelled the Union lines to change front, the contest thus turning into the first battle of Cold Harbor, in which the rear held their ground until the retreat was completed across the Chickahominy, and withdrew, destroying roads and bridges behind them. McClellan then made a further retreat, for which these obstructive tactics gave time, across the White Oak Swamp down the river, moving on a single road, leading to higher ground, which was held by hasty defenses. The Confederate attacks upon this new line made the battles of Savage Station, Charles City Cross Roads, and Frazier's Farm, the pursuit being checked long enough to permit another retreat and the formation of lines of defense on Malvern Hill, fifteen miles so

SIEGE OF

of Richmond, went south to the James River, and, crossing over, started a new attack from a different quarter. This removed the seat of war to the south of Richmond, and in September, 1864, General Butler's Unionist troops from Bermuda Hundred captured Fort Harrison, a strong work on the northeast side of the James, opposite Drewry's Bluff, and not far from Malvern Hill. The campaign then became one of stubborn persistence. Throughout the autumn and winter Grant gradually spread his lines westward around Petersburg, so that the later movements were more a siege of that ci

ossed to Shockoe Hill, rushed up to the Capitol, and raised the Union "Stars and Stripes" on the roof, replacing the Confederate "Stars and Bars." Then they went vigorously to work putting out the fires, and the new infusion of life given the city by its baptism of blood imparted an energy which has not only restored it, but has given it an era of great prosperity. It is a curious fact that the nearest approach any Northern troops made to Richmond during the progress of the w

D THE SHENA

of picturesque valleys and rolling lands, the general elevation gradually increasing towards the northwest, where it is bordered by the towering Blue Ridge and its many spurs and plateaus, with passages through at various gaps. The Blue Ridge is elevated about fifteen hundred feet at the Potomac, but Mount Marshall, at Front Royal, rises nearly thirty-four hundred feet, and the Peaks of Otter, farther southwest, are much higher. Beyond this is the great Appalachian Valley, which stretches from New England to Alabama, the section here being known as the "Valley of Virginia," and its northern portion as the Shenandoah Valley. This is a belt of rolling country, with many hills and val

ough the exertions of Jefferson, and has some five hundred students. Its buildings are a mile out of town, and the original ones were constructed from Jefferson's designs and under his supervision, the chief being the Rotunda, recently rebuilt, and the modern structures for a Museum of Natural History and an Observatory. Jefferson was proud of this institution, and in the inscription which he prepared for his tomb described himself as the "author of the Declaration of Independence, and of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and fat

second battle of Bull Run; then capturing Harper's Ferry and eleven thousand men September 15th, and finally taking part in the battle of Antietam two days later. When Grant began his siege of Richmond after the second battle of Cold Harbor, in 1864, he made General Sheridan commander of the troops in the Shenandoah Valley, and fortune turned. Sheridan opposed Early, and in September and October had a series of brilliant victories, the last one at Cedar Creek, where he turned a rout into a victory by his prompt movements. Sheridan had been in Washington, and came to Winchester, "twenty miles away," where he heard "the terrible grumble and rumble and roar" of the battle, and made his noted ride, the exploit being so conspicuous that he received the thanks of Congress. Early in 1865 he made a cavalry raid from Winchester, in the Valley, down to the we

FIELD OF G

Cumberland Valley. In the latter are two prominent towns, Chambersburg in Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown in Maryland, on the Potomac. General Lee, in preparation for the march northward, gathered nearly ninety thousand men at Culpepper in Virginia, including Stuart's cavalry force of ten thousand. General Hooker's Union army, which had withdrawn across the Rappahannock after Chancellorsville, was then encamped opposite Fredericksburg, and one hundred and fifty miles south of Gettysburg. Lee started northward across the Potomac, but Hooker did not discover it for some days, and then rapidly followed. The Confederates crossed between June 22d and 25th, and concentrated at

incipal grave then was that of James Gettys, after whom the place was named. There is an outlying eminence called Culp's Hill farther to the east, making, with the Cemetery Ridge, a formation bent around much like a fish-hook, with the graveyard at the bend and Culp's Hill at the barb, while far down at the southern end of the long straight shank, as the ridge extends for two miles away, with

f the Union pursuit, then determined to face about and cripple his pursuers, fixing upon Gettysburg as the point of concentration. He ordered Ewell to march south from Carlisle, and the other commanders east from Chambersburg through the mountain passes. The Union cavalry advance under General Buford reached Gettysburg on June 30th, ahead of the Confederates, and Meade's army was then stretched over the ground for more th

REAT

Reynolds; but he was killed, and they were all driven back and through Gettysburg to the cemetery and Culp's Hill, which were manned by fresh troops that had come up. Meade was then at Pipe Creek, laying out a defensive line, but when he heard of Reynolds' death and the defeat, he sent General Hancock forward to take command, who decid

the two Round Tops, but after a bloody contest he was repulsed. General Sickles, who held the line to the south of the Little Round Top, then thought he could improve his position by advancing a half-mile into the valley towards the Seminary Ridge, thus making a broken Union line, with a portion dangerously thrust forward. The enemy soon took advantage of this, and fell upon Sickles, front and flank, almost overwhelming his line in the "Peach Orchard," and driving it back to the adjacent "Wheat Field." Reinforcements were quickly poured i

ix guns being discharged every second. The troops suffered little, as they kept down in the ground, but several Union guns were dismounted. After two hours deafening cannonade Lee ordered his grand attack, the celebrated charge by General Pickett, a force of fourteen thousand men with brigade front advancing across the valley. They marched swiftly, and had a mile to go, but before they were half-way across all the available Union guns had been trained upon them. Their attack was directed at an umbrella-shaped clump of trees on the Cemetery Ridge at a low place where the rude stone wall made an angle, with its point outside. General Hancock commanded this portion of the Union line. The grape and canister of the Union cannonade ploughed furrows through Pickett's ranks, and when his column got within three hundred yards, Hancock opened musketry fire with terrible effect. Thousands fell, and the brigades broke in disorder; but the advance, headed by General Armistead on foot, continued, and about one hundred and fifty men leaped over the stone piles at the angle to capt

g great battles, the Confederates next day withdrew through the mountain passes towards Hagerstown, and afterwards escaped across the Potomac. Upon the day of Lee's retreat, Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant, and these two events began the Confederacy's downfall. There were engaged in the battle of Gettysburg about eighty thousand men on each side, the Union a

YSBURG M

the various organizations in the opposing armies. To the north and west of Gettysburg is the scene of the first day's contest, but the more interesting part is to the southward. Ascending the Cemetery Hill, there is passed, by the roadside, the house of Jenny Wade, the only woman killed in the battle, accidentally shot while baking bread. The rounded Cemetery Hill is an elevated and strong position having many monuments, and here, alongside the little village graveyard, the Government established a National Cemetery of seventeen acres, where thirty-five hundred and seventy-two soldiers are buried, over a thousand being the unknown dead. A magnificent battle monument is here erected, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and at the base of the shaft having figures of War, History, Peace and Plenty. This charming spot was the centre of the Union

might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they

broken stones of the "Devil's Den," a ravine through which flows a stream, coming from the orchard and wheat field, and separating them from the rocky "Round Tops," the sandstone cliffs of the "Little Round Top" rising high above the ravine. The fields sloping to the stream above the Den are known as the "Valley of Death." Among these rocks there are many monuments, made of the boulders that are so numerous. A toilsome path mounts the "Big Round Top" beyond, and an Observatory on the summit gives a good view over almost the entire battlefield. This summit, more than three miles south of Gettysburg, has tall timber, preserved as it was in the battle. There are cann

d as the special Union hero of the battle, as Armistead was the Southern. Nearby a spirited statue, the "Massachusetts Color-Bearer," holds aloft the flag of the Thirteenth Massachusetts regiment, standing upon a slope, thus marking the spot where he fell at the opening of the conflict. Such is the broad and impressive scene of one of the

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Y OF THE