The Ninth New York
Heavy Artillery

A History of its Organization, Services in the Defenses of Washington, Marches, Camps, Battles, and Muster-Out, with Accounts of Life in a Rebel Prison, Personal Experiences, Names and Addresses of Surviving Members, Personal Sketches, and a Complete Roster of the Regiment.

by

Alfred Seelye Roe of Company A

Published by the Author, Worcester, Mass., 1899.


CHAPTER XVI.

THE VALLEY AND WINCHESTER.

The 10th of August beheld the advance begun and we march through Charlestown, where December 2d, 1859, was presented the final scene in the John Brown tragedy, whose first act was at Harper's Ferry, the 16th of the preceding October; a tragedy whose sequel was the war in whose fourth year we are marching and fighting. Here the old hero was confined, tried, and hanged, and Judge Parker, who presided at the trial, is a resident, to survive the war many years. We can see the court house, the jail, though in ruins, and, in the distance, the field where was erected the gallows from whose crosstree, less than five years before, on that December day, hung the incarnation of hatred of slavery. Thousands sang "John Brown's Body," and it is claimed that no Northern soldiers ever marched through the place without giving the citizens the full benefit of their musical qualities in the John Brown line, nor forgetting to state their intentions to hang Jeff. Davis to a sour apple-tree.

We, however, have no time for moralizing, though farmers in our ranks could not help noting the beauty and fertility of the region - a limestone country, and clear, cold water, hard of course, but central New Yorkers are used to that. Early apples are prime, and green corn excellent. Southdown mutton, hogs and poultry betokened good farmers whose fields were glad with grain and fruit - a fair picture for soldiers to view, but too often clouded with the results of war. Our first camp is pitched at 5 P.M.

The sun of the 11th is not up earlier than we, and we zigzag, between railroad and river, till we strike the Winchester and Berryville turnpike west of the latter place. Much of our way is through fields and lanes, shaded with oak, locust, sassafras and wild cherry, a condition coming as near poetry as war ever.....


The above is three quarters of a page worth of text, and there are 22 more pages. The men will have little time to admire the beautiful scenery, as within a few pages this chapter launches into an account of the battle at Winchester.



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