Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/220

204 by hiding behind a rock. At night the Chewning house was reached, a building conspicuous on the military maps, for all around it were the Confederate works. In the morning the line of march was taken up along a private road which led into the Orange turnpike. There are said to be about 20,000 acres in the Wilderness. In olden times it was practically a trackless forest, but now there are farms scattered through it, and it is only in occasional localities that primeval nature is seen. The demand for railroad ties have been the principal cause of the cutting down of the enormous trees that were once the pride of the Wilderness.

Across the fields on each side of the turnpike Longstreet's men came, after an all-night march to relieve A. P. Hill. "There is Tapp's field," said Major Biscoe. "I was in Hill's Division, and we had fought through the 5th of May. I was lying down in that field on the morning of the 6th, when Longstreet's men came rushing over us on their way to meet the Union Army." "As I came along with Longstreet," said Mr. Hume, "the woods were all on fire. It was an awful sight. Both the dead and wounded were being burned. The woods were full of bodies." "Yes," said Captain Quinn, "we were charged with setting the woods on fire, but we did not do it. We tried hard to extinguish the flames, but it was impossible to do so." Every inch of the read was now full of historic interest. The point where Longstreet was wounded, where Jenkins was killed, and where General Wadsworth was fatally shot, were all pointed out. Then, a few minutes later, the party stood around a rough shaft of granite a hundred feet from the road. The stone stood upon some smaller rocks beneath a tree. It marks the spot where a soldier grasped the bridle of General Lee's horse. There had been some wavering on the part of the Confederates, and Lee rode forward, intending himself to lead a charge. He placed himself at the head of a Texas regiment. His evident purpose changed the spirit of the men. "If you will go back we will go forward," said they, and when Lee hesitated one of them seized his horse's bridle and turned the animal around.