Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/221

 Then they hastened to the front and Lee went back. The soldiers placed the improvised monument on the spot, and there it stands to this day, in all its solitude and simplicity, the mute reminder of a war-time episode. ARTILLERY WORKS PRESERVED. It was one of the many curious coincidences of this battlefield region that the very road over which Jackson marched to flank Howard—known as the Brock road—was also the point which a year later Hancock told General Getty to hold at all hazards. It was then the line of communication for the Union army, when Grant was moving toward Spotsylvania. The point where the Orange turnpike crosses the Brock road was reached in a few minutes after passing the point where Wadsworth was killed. There was desperate fighting along here between Hancock and Longstreet. The Brock road is still lined with the defensive works built by the Union army, while the artillery works erected by Barlow, on Hancock's extreme left, were found in a wonderful state of preservation. They could even now be used at a moment's notice. They stand in a small field on the brow of a hill, with woods surrounding. "I remember," said Major Hine, as he pointed across the field, "that I was sent with two regiments to cut down about 500 acres of oak over there, so as to give ample play to our guns." The trenches are in the deep woods and are covered with a carpet of pine needles. They are nearly all still waist-deep. The forest is very thick—very much as it must have been when the trenches were built, and when Hancock reported that his men could not see a hundred yards ahead. WHERE SEDGWICK WAS KILLED. Still on and on. Slowly the carriages made their way along the Brock road, passing the narrow-gauge railroad, in the cuts of which Mahone formed his men, until Todd's Tavern was reached. It is no longer a tavern—not even the old house is standing. The present house is a plain, frame dwelling. Its occupants did not even live at the place during the war. The party was now well out of the Wilderness, and was