Page:Bierce - Collected Works - Volume 11.djvu/403

Rh 'A' BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD

WAY up in the heart of the Al- legheny mountains, in Pocahontas county, West Virginia, is a beauti- ful little valley through which flows the east fork of the Greenbrier river. At a point where the valley road intersects the old Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, a famous thoroughfare in its day, is a post office in a farm house. The name of the place is Travelers' Repose, for it was once a tavern. Crowning some low hills within a stone's throw of the house are long lines of old Con- federate fortifications, skilfully designed and so well " preserved " that an hour's work by a brigade would put them into serviceable shape for the next civil war. This place had its battle— what was called a battle in the " green and salad days" of the great rebellion. A brigade of Federal troops, the writer's regi- ment among them, came over Cheat mountain, fifteen miles to the westward, and, stringing its lines across the little valley, felt the enemy all day; and the enemy did a little feeling, too. There was a great cannonading, which killed