The head of Chesapeake Bay, on either side of the Susquehanna River, is composed of various broad estuaries, with small streams entering them. To the eastward the chief is Elk River, and to the westward are the Gunpowder and Bush Rivers, with others. Not far above the Severn is the wide tidal estuary of the Patapsco, so named by the Indians to describe its peculiarity, the word meaning "a stream caused by back or tidewater containing froth." A few miles up this estuary is the great city and port of the Chesapeake, Baltimore, so named in honor of Lord Baltimore, and containing, with its suburbs, over six hundred thousand people. The spreading arms of the Patapsco, around which the city is built, provide an ample harbor, their irregular sh.o.r.es making plenty of dock room, and the two great railways from the north and west to Washington, which go under the town through an elaborate system of tunnels, give it a lucrative foreign trade in produce brought for shipment abroad. From the harbor there are long and narrow docks, and an inner "Basin" extending into the city, and across the heads of these is Pratt Street. This highway is famous as the scene of the first bloodshed of the Civil War. The Northern troops, hastily summoned to Washington, were marching along it from one railway station to the other on April 19, 1861, when a Baltimore mob, sympathizing with the South, attacked them. In the riot and conflict that followed eleven were killed and twenty-six were wounded. A creek, called Jones"s Falls, coming down a deep valley from the northward into the harbor, divides the city into two almost equal sections, and in the lower part is walled in, with a street on either side. Colonel David Jones, who was the original white inhabitant of the north side of Baltimore harbor, gave this stream his name about 1680, before anyone expected even a village to be located there. A settlement afterwards began eastward of the creek, known as Jonestown, while Baltimore was not started until 1730, being laid out westward of the creek and around the head of the "Basin," the plan covering sixty acres. This was called New Town, as the other was popularly termed Old Town, but they subsequently were united as Baltimore, having in 1752 about two hundred people.
Baltimore is rectangular in plan and picturesque, covering an undulating surface, the hills, which are many, inclining either to Jones"s Falls or the harbor. Its popular t.i.tle is the "Monumental City," given because it was the first American city that built fine monuments. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the State of Maryland erected on Charles Street a monument to General Washington, rising one hundred and ninety-five feet, a Doric shaft of white marble surmounted by his statue and upon a base fifty feet square. This splendid monument stands in a broadened avenue and at the summit of a hill, surrounded by tasteful lawns and flower gardens, with a fountain in front. It makes an attractive centre for Mount Vernon Place, which contains one of the finest collections of buildings in the city, and presents a scene essentially Parisian. Here are the Peabody Inst.i.tute and the Garrett Mansion, both impressive buildings. Baltimore has a "Battle Monument," located on Calvert Street, in Monument Square, a marble shaft fifty-three feet high, marking the British invasion of 1814, and erected in memory of the men of Baltimore who fell in battle just outside the city, when the British forces marched from Elk River to Washington and burnt the Capitol, and the British fleet came up the Patapsco and sh.e.l.led the town. The city also has other fine monuments, so that its popular name is well deserved.
The City Hall is the chief building of Baltimore, a marble structure in Renaissance, costing $2,000,000, its elaborate dome rising two hundred and sixty feet, and giving a magnificent view over the city and harbor. There are two noted churches, the Mount Vernon Methodist Church, of greenstone, with buff and red facings and polished granite columns, being the finest, although the First Presbyterian Church, nearby, is regarded as the most elaborate specimen of Lancet-Gothic architecture in the country, its spire rising two hundred and sixty-eight feet. The Roman Catholic Cathedral is an attractive granite church, containing paintings presented by Louis XVI. and Charles X. of France. Cardinal Archbishop Gibbons, of Baltimore, is the Roman Catholic Primate of the United States. The greatest charities of the city are the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins University, endowed by a Baltimore merchant who died in 1873, the joint endowments being $6,500,000. Hopkins was shrewd and penurious, and John W. Garrett persuaded him to make these princely endowments, much of his fortune being invested in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, of which Garrett was President in its days of greatest prosperity. This railroad is the chief Baltimore inst.i.tution, giving it a direct route to the Mississippi Valley, and was the first started of the great American trunk railways, its origin dating from 1826, when the movement began for its charter, which was granted by the Maryland Legislature the next year. This charter conferred most comprehensive powers, and the story is told that when it was being read in that body one of the members interrupted, saying: "Stop, man, you are asking more than the Lord"s Prayer." The reply was that it was all necessary, and the more asked, the more would be secured. The interrupter, convinced, responded: "Right, man; go on." The corner-stone of the railway was laid July 4, 1828, beginning the route from Baltimore, up the Potomac and through the Alleghenies to the Ohio River.
DRUID HILL AND FORT McHENRY.
Baltimore is proud of the great art collection of Henry Walters in Mount Vernon Place, exhibited for a fee for the benefit of the poor; and it also has had as a noted resident Jerome Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who married, and then discarded by Napoleon"s order, Miss Patterson, a Baltimore lady. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has remarked that three short American poems, each the best of its kind, were written in Baltimore: Poe"s _Raven_, Randall"s _Maryland, My Maryland_, and Key"s _Star-Spangled Banner_. It is also proud of its park--"Druid Hill"--a splendid pleasure-ground of seven hundred acres, owing much of its beauty to the fact that it had been preserved and developed as a private park for a century before pa.s.sing under control of the city. The route to it is by the magnificent Eutaw Place, and the stately entrance gateway opens upon an avenue lined on either hand by long rows of flower vases on high pedestals, laid out alongside Druid Lake, the chief water-reservoir. The Park has an undulating surface of woodland and meadow, with grand old trees and splendid lawns, making a scene decidedly English, not overwrought by art, but mainly left in its natural condition. The mansion-house of the former owner, now a restaurant, occupies a commanding position, and on the northern side the land rises to Prospect Hill, with an expansive view all around the horizon and eastward to Chesapeake Bay.
In this beautiful park the higher grounds are used for water-reservoirs. Baltimore has the advantage of receiving its supply by gravity from the Gunpowder River to the northward, where a lake has been formed, the pure water being brought through a tunnel for seven miles to the reservoirs, of which there are eight, with a capacity of 2,275,000,000 gallons, and capable of supplying 300,000,000 gallons daily. These reservoirs appear as pleasant lakes, Montebello and Roland, with Druid Lake, being the chief. Across the ravine of Jones"s Falls is Baltimore"s chief cemetery, Greenmount, a pretty ground, with gentle hills and vales. Here, in a spot selected by herself, is buried Jerome"s discarded wife, Madame Patterson-Bonaparte, whose checkered history is Baltimore"s chief romance. Here also lie Junius Brutus Booth, the tragedian, and his family, among them John Wilkes Booth, who murdered President Lincoln.
The most significant sight of Baltimore, however, is its old Fort McHenry--down in the harbor, on the extreme end of Locust Point, originally called Whetstone Point, where the Patapsco River divides--built on a low-lying esplanade, with green banks sloping almost to the water. It was the strategic position of this small but strong work, thoroughly controlling the city as well as the harbor entrance, that held Baltimore during the early movements of the Civil War, and maintained the road from the North to Washington. Its greatest memory, however, and, by the a.s.sociation, probably the greatest celebrity Baltimore enjoys, comes from the flag on the staff now quietly waving over its parapets. Whetstone Point had been fortified during the Revolution, but in 1794 Maryland ceded it to the United States, and the people of Baltimore raised the money to build the present fort, which was named after James McHenry, who had been one of the framers of the Federal Const.i.tution and was Secretary of War under President Washington. When Admiral c.o.c.kburn"s British fleet came up the Chesapeake in September, 1814, the Maryland poet, Francis Scott Key, was an aid to General Smith at Bladensburg. An intimate friend had been taken prisoner on board one of the ships, and Key was sent in a boat to effect his release by exchange. The Admiral told Key he would have to detain him aboard for a day or two, as they were proceeding to attack Baltimore. Thus Key remained among the enemy, an unwilling witness of the bombardment on September 12th, which continued throughout the night. In the early morning the attack was abandoned, the flag was unharmed, and the British ships dropped down the Patapsco.
Key wrote his poem on the backs of letters, with a barrel-head for a desk, and being landed next day he showed it to friends, and then made a fresh copy. It was taken to the office of the _Baltimore American_ and published anonymously in a handbill, afterwards appearing in the issue of that newspaper on September 21, 1814. The tune was "Anacreon in Heaven," and there was a brief introduction describing the circ.u.mstances under which it was written. It was first sung in the Baltimore Theatre, October 12th of that year, and afterwards became popular. The flag which floated over Fort McHenry on that memorable night is still preserved. Fired by patriotic impulses, various ladies of Baltimore had made this flag, among them being Mrs. Mary Pickersgill, who is described as a daughter of Betsy Ross, of Philadelphia, who made the original sample-flag during the Revolution.
The Fort McHenry flag contains about four hundred yards of bunting and is nearly square, measuring twenty-nine by thirty-two feet. It has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, which was then the official regulation, there being fifteen States in the American Union. The poem of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, thus inspired and written, has become the great American patriotic anthem, and has carried everywhere the fame of the fort, the city, and the flowery flag of the United States.
The following is the song, with t.i.tle and introduction, as first published:
DEFENCE OF FORT McHENRY.
TUNE--"_Anacreon in Heaven._"
O! say can you see by the dawn"s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight"s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O"er the ramparts we watch"d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets" red glare, the Bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there; O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O"er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
On the sh.o.r.e dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe"s haughty host in dread silence reposes; What is that which the breeze, o"er the towering steep, As it fitfully glows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning"s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream.
"Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave O"er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle"s confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul steps pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O"er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov"d homes and the war"s desolation, Blest with vict"ry and peace, may the Heav"n rescued land, Praise the Power that hath made and preserv"d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this is our motto: "In G.o.d is our Trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O"er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
II.
THE GREAT THEATRE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
On to Richmond--Horace Greeley"s Editorial Standard--The Conflict"s Ebb and Flow--The Two Battles of Bull Run-- Arlington--Mana.s.sas--McDowell against Beauregard--Lee and Jackson against Pope--Antietam--The Emanc.i.p.ation 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--Battles of the Wilderness-- Spottsylvania--Hanover Court-House--Ashland--Richmond-- The Capitol--Washington"s Statues--Stonewall Jackson"s Statue--Confederate White House--General Lee"s House-- The First House--St. John"s Church--Patrick Henry--Libby Hill and Prison--Belle Isle--Rocketts--Hollywood Cemetery--Noted Graves--McClellan"s Siege of Richmond-- Drewry"s Bluff--Chickahominy Swamps--Fair Oaks--Seven Days" Battles--Gaines" Mill--Cold Harbor--Malvern Hill --Harrison"s Landing--Grant"s Siege of Richmond--Second Battle of Cold Harbor--Bermuda Hundred--Petersburg-- Capture of Richmond--Kilpatrick"s Raid--Piedmont-- 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 and the Susquehanna--Three Days" Battle--Reynolds Killed--The Round Tops Attacked-- General Sickles Wounded in Peach Orchard--Ewell Repulsed at Cemetery--Pickett"s Charge and Repulse--Cushing and Armistead Killed--High-Water Mark Monument--Lee Retreats --Gettysburg Monuments--Jenny Wade--National Cemetery-- Lincoln"s Immortal Dedication--Valley of Death-- Ma.s.sachusetts Color-Bearer--The Reunited Union.
ON TO RICHMOND.
Lay down the Axe; fling by the spade: Leave in its track the toiling plough; The rifle and the bayonet blade For arms like yours were fitter now; And let the hands that ply the pen Quit the light task, and learn to wield The horseman"s crooked brand, and rein The charger on the battlefield.
Thus trumpeted William Cullen Bryant in "Our Country"s Call," while the most powerful American editor of the time of the Civil War, Horace Greeley, raised his standard at the head of the _New York Tribune"s_ editorial page early in 1861 with the words "On to Richmond." The region between Washington and Richmond, and much of the adjacent country stretching southward beyond James River and northward into Pennsylvania, will always be historic because of the momentous 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 invasion of Maryland, which was checked at Antietam in the autumn. The northern attacks at Fredericksburg in December and at Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863 were followed by the invasion of Pennsylvania, checked at Gettysburg, the "high-water mark" of the rebellion; and Grant"s march down through "the Wilderness" in 1864, followed by his gradual advances south of the James, forced the evacuation of Richmond, and Lee"s final surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
THE TWO BATTLES OF BULL RUN.
The main route from Washington to the South crossed the Potomac, then as now, by the "Long Bridge," pa.s.sing in full view of the yellow Arlington House, fronted by its columned porch. This historic building was the home of General Robert E. Lee in his early life, the chief Confederate Commander during the Civil War. The estate is now a vast cemetery, and upon it and all about to the westward are the remains of the forts and earthworks erected for the defence of Washington. After the war began, in April, 1861, the Northern troops were gradually a.s.sembled 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 Mana.s.sas 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 thousand men, marched out of the Washington fortifications on July 17th to attack General Beauregard at Mana.s.sas. The Confederates brought their Winchester army hastily down, and took position along the banks of Bull Run, a tributary of the Occoquan, their lines stretching for about eight miles. McDowell attacked on the morning of the 21st, each side having about twenty-eight thousand available men.
The conflict lasted with varying success most of the day, McDowell being finally beaten and retreating to Washington.
Thirteen months later, after McClellan"s retreat from Richmond, was fought in almost the same place, on August 29 and 30, 1862, the second battle of Bull Run. General Pope had a considerable force in Northern Virginia, and when McClellan, whom Pope superseded, retreated from before Richmond, and started on his return from James River, Lee moved nearly his whole army up from Richmond, hoping to fall upon Pope before McClellan could join him. On August 22d the opposing forces confronted each other along the Rappahannock, when General Stuart, with the Confederate cavalry, made a raid around Pope"s lines to the rear, reaching that general"s headquarters and capturing his personal baggage, in which was his despatch book describing the position of the whole Northern army. This gave Lee such valuable information that on the 25th he sent 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 Mana.s.sas. Pope, discovering the flanking movement, began falling back towards Mana.s.sas, 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 made a reconnoissance towards Washington, in which the Union Generals Stevens and Kearney were killed at Chantilly, and the authorities became so apprehensive of an attack upon the Capital that they ordered the whole army to fall back behind the Washington defenses. Pope was then relieved, at his own request, and the command restored to McClellan. The Confederates marched northward across the Potomac and McClellan followed, ending with the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, later in September, when Lee retreated and recrossed the Potomac into Virginia on the 18th. The significant result of this conflict and withdrawal was the issue of the famous Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation. President Lincoln had made a vow that if Lee was driven back from Maryland he would issue a proclamation abolishing slavery, which was done September 22, 1862.
FREDERICKSBURG AND THE WILDERNESS.
The route from Washington to Richmond skirts the Potomac for a long distance south of Alexandria, winding among hills and forests, crossing various broad creeks and bayous, among them the Occoquan, the outlet of Bull Run, and then diverges towards the Rappahannock. This is more historic ground, for the terrible battle of Fredericksburg was fought here in December, 1862, and the battle of Chancellorsville, to the westward, in May, 1863, where Stonewall Jackson lost his life. The "Wilderness" is to the southward of the Rappahannock, occupying about two hundred square miles, a plateau sloping to cultivated lowlands on every side. The original forests were long ago cut off, and a dense growth of scrub timber and brambles covered nearly the whole surface, with an occasional patch of woodland or a clearing. After the battle of Antietam the anxiety for another forward movement to Richmond led the Administration to remove McClellan, and then General Burnside took command. His troops crossed the Rappahannock in December to attack General Lee"s Confederate position on the Heights of Marye, where they were strongly 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 reconnoitering, had returned within the Confederate lines, and the pickets, mistaking them for the enemy, fired into the party. Several of his escort were killed and Jackson was shot in three places, an arm being shattered. Being put upon a litter one of the bearers stumbled, and Jackson was additionally injured by being thrown to the ground. The arm was amputated, but afterwards pneumonia set in, which was the immediate cause of his death. He lingered a week, dying May 10th, in his fortieth year, his last words, dreamily spoken, being: "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."
It is said this loss of his ablest lieutenant had such an effect upon Lee that he afterwards aged rapidly, and his hair quickly whitened.
The spot where Jackson was shot is alongside the Orange Plank Road, and is marked by a granite monument. Jackson is buried at Lexington, Virginia, where he had previously been a professor in the Military Academy. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock, Lee started northward, Hooker was succeeded by Meade, and the battle of Gettysburg was fought at the beginning of July.
Then came another movement towards Richmond, late in the year 1863.
Meade marched down to the Wilderness in November, had heavy skirmishing and fought the battle of Mine Run on its western border, and then went back and into winter quarters. General Grant came from the West, took command, and early in May, 1864, started on his great march to Richmond through the Wilderness, with Lee constantly fighting on his right flank and front. There followed during that month a series of sanguinary battles, in this inhospitable region, in which the losses of the two armies exceeded sixty thousand men. While moving southward, Grant faced and fought generally westward. It took him ten days to progress 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 takes all summer." The whole of this desolate region south and west of Fredericksburg and down to Spottsylvania is filled with the remains of the fortifications constructed in these memorable battles. Grant said that "In every change of position or halt for the night, whether confronting the enemy or not, the moment arms were stacked the men entrenched themselves," adding, "It was wonderful how quickly they could construct defenses of considerable strength." Thus the way was worked, by shovel and sh.e.l.l and musket and axe, through the Wilderness. There is a plan afoot for acquiring these battlefields and the connecting roads, so as to preserve this historic ground as a public reservation.
The railway route to Richmond goes through the Wilderness, thinly peopled, spa.r.s.ely cultivated, and exhibiting a few negro settlements, where they sun themselves alongside their cabins and watch the trains go by. There is an occasional horse or cow, but almost the only animals visible are the nimble-footed and hungry-looking "razor-backed" hogs that range the scrub timber in search of a precarious living. Once in awhile is seen an old homestead that has survived the ruin 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 here McClellan had his early conflicts in besieging Richmond in 1862, while Grant came down from the Wilderness and had the battles of the North Anna near the end of May, 1864, and of Cold Harbor in June, after which he moved his army to the south side of James River.
Ashland, sixteen miles north of Richmond, is in an attractive region, and is a favorite place of suburban residence. This was the birthplace of Henry Clay, in 1777, and is the seat of Randolph Macon College.
THE CITY OF RICHMOND.
Richmond, the capital of Virginia, has about one hundred and thirty thousand population, and occupies a delightful situation. The James River flows around a grand curve from the northwest to the south, and pours over falls and rapids, which display many little cascades among a maze of diminutive islands. There are on the northern bank two or three large hills and several smaller ones, and Richmond is built upon these, it is said like Rome upon her seven hills. The 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 impregnable fortress, and its fall, when the Confederate flank was turned in 1865 through the capture of Petersburg, resulted from General Lee"s retreat westward and his final surrender at Appomattox. When Lee abandoned Petersburg there was a panic in Richmond, with riot and pillage; the bridges, storehouses and mills were fired, and nearly one-third of the city burnt. It has since, however, been rebuilt in better style, and has extensive manufactures and a profitable trade.
The centre of Richmond is a park of twelve acres, surrounding the Capitol, a venerable building upon the summit of Shockoe Hill, and the most conspicuous structure in the city. It was built just after the American Revolution, the plan having been brought from France by Thomas Jefferson, and modelled from the ancient Roman temple of the _Maison Carree_ at Nismes, the front being a fine Ionic portico. From the roof, elevated high above every surrounding building, there is an excellent view, disclosing the grand sweep of the river among the islands and rapids, going off to the south, where it disappears among the hills behind Drewry"s Bluff, below the town. The square-block plan with streets 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 the Virginia Governors and of the three great military chiefs, Lee, Johnston and Jackson. Upon the floor beneath is Houdon"s famous statue of Washington, made while he was yet alive. In 1785, the talented French sculptor accompanied Franklin to this country to prepare the model for the statue, which had been ordered by the Virginia Government. He spent two weeks at Mount Vernon with Washington, taking casts of his face, head and upper portion of the body, with minute measurements, and then returned to Paris. The statue was finished in 1788, and is regarded as the most accurate reproduction of Washington existing. A statue of Henry Clay and a bust of Lafayette are also in the rotunda.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Washington Monument, Richmond, Va._]
On the esplanade north of the Capitol is Crawford"s bronze equestrian statue of Washington upon a ma.s.sive granite pedestal, one of the most attractive and elaborate bronzes ever made. The horse is half thrown upon his haunches, giving the statue exceeding spirit, while upon smaller pedestals around stand six heroic statues in bronze of Virginia statesmen of various periods--Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, George Mason, Andrew Lewis and Chief Justice John Marshall--the whole adorned with appropriate emblems. This artistic masterpiece was constructed at a cost of $260,000. In the centre of the esplanade is Foley"s bronze statue of Stonewall Jackson, sent from London in 1875 by a number of his English admirers as a gift to the State of Virginia. It is of heroic size, standing upon a pedestal of Virginia granite, and is a striking reproduction. The inscription is: "Presented by English gentlemen 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 the fateful telegram from General Lee which said that Richmond must be immediately evacuated. In the central part of the residential quarter, on Franklin Street, is the plain brick house which during the Civil War was the home of General Lee. It is related that after the Appomattox surrender, when he returned to this house, the people of Richmond got an idea that he was suffering privations and his family needed the necessaries of life. His son, Fitz Hugh Lee, afterwards said that the people then vied with each other in sending him everything imaginable. So generous were the gifts that the upper parts of the house were filled with barrels of flour, meats and many other things, and the supplies became so bountiful that Lee directed their distribution among the poor. This house is now occupied by the Virginia Historical Society. A magnificent equestrian statue of General Lee was erected on Park Avenue in 1890.
Some Richmond memorials, however, antedate the Civil War. Its "first house"--a low, steep-roofed stone cabin on the Main street, said to have been there when the town site was first laid out--is an object of homage. The popular idea is that the Indian King Powhatan originally lived in this house, but it was probably constructed after his time.
Not far away, upon Richmond or Church Hill, stands St. John"s Church among the old gravestones in a s.p.a.cious churchyard. It was built in 1740--a little wooden church with a small steeple. Here the first Virginian Convention was held which paved the way for the Revolution in 1775, and listened to Patrick Henry"s impa.s.sioned 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 thousand Northern prisoners. All the captured soldiers were first taken to Libby, the commissioned officers remaining there, while the privates were sent to points in the interior. The most noted event in the history of this prison was the boring of a tunnel through the eastern wall, in February, 1864, by which one hundred and nine prisoners, led by Colonel Streight, managed to escape into an adjoining stable and storehouse, and though more than half of them were recaptured, the others got safely out of Richmond and into the Union lines.