Historic Fredericksburg Part 20

On each recurring Decoration Day, May 30th, from a beautifully constructed forum, services are held in tribute to the memory of the brave men who sleep there. At these services many who wore the grey and fought on the other side unite with the boys who wore the blue, in paying this tribute.

Near Fredericksburg Governor Spottswood inst.i.tuted the first iron work in America, and an old plate cast in his furnace is now in the possession of Mr. Val Dannehl of this city. It is probably the oldest piece of cast iron in America.

Governor Spottswood built the village of Germanna on the upper river for German workmen brought over here, and it was from that place, the first Courthouse of Spotsylvania County, that the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe began their journey. The mansion of this famous Virginian stood close beside the Germanna road.

Today, almost on that spot, stands a small white cottage, and within it are various relics of the Old Governor and his family and of the battle of the Wilderness.

But the strangest thing about the small cottage is that within it lives, with his wife, Alexander Spottswood, the lineal descendant of the Governor. Mr. Spottswood stands over six feet, erect and with the bearing that inevitably proclaims the descendants of great men. His daughter recently married Mr. E. H. Willis.

Thus a Spottswood lives today on the tract where the great Virginia Governor built his mansion and where he founded the famous Spottswood mines and furnace almost two hundred years ago.

[Sidenote: _Patti Once Lived Here_]

An incident brought the great singer Patti to Fredericksburg, to remain for some time. When she was a girl of sixteen, just beginning to train for her great career in Grand Opera, her brother Carlo Patti expected to inst.i.tute a school of music and was here for that purpose when he was taken suddenly ill. She came with her sister Madam Strackosh to see her brother. He remained ill for months and his sisters were with him during the entire time. They boarded at the Old Exchange Hotel on Main Street, now the Hotel Maury, and gave more than one concert at what was known then as "The Citizens Hall." If there are few here now who remember her, there is still among us one woman, a little child at the time, whom the singer often held in her arms and caressed. The parents of the child were boarding at the Hotel temporarily and the mother and Adelina became great friends and remained so for many years. Madam Strackosh and her famous sister said they enjoyed "real life" in our little Southern town. Carlo after regaining his health went farther South, joined a Confederate Company, and again as one of the boys in gray under the stars and bars, was in Fredericksburg and was well known to the writer. He entertained the weary boys in camp when the hard days were over, with his beautiful songs.

John Forsythe referred to in the above order was born in 1781 in a frame house, now standing at the corner of Prince Edward and Fauquier Streets.

He graduated from the Princeton Academy early in life, moving later with his family to Georgia where he studied law, practiced and in 1808 he was elected Attorney General, and in 1812 was chosen Congressman and served until 1818.

In 1819 he was appointed Minister to Spain and while acting as Minister, he was instrumental in the ratification of the treaty with the Country for the cession of Florida to the United States.

In 1827 he was elected Governor of Georgia and in 1829 became a member of the Senate and was in that body when he accepted the office of Secretary of State, which position he occupied to the end of Van Buren's administration. He died in the City of Was.h.i.+ngton, October 21, 1841, and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIONAL CEMETERY

_And Monument to the Fifth Corps. Here Sleep Thousands Who Died in the Battles About Fredericksburg_]

[Sidenote: _Joe Hooker Comes Again_]

Fighting "Joe" Hooker, as his troops called him and as he was, came here shortly after the war to gather evidence to refute the charges his enemies at the North were disseminating against him in a campaign of scandal. He attempted while here, and he was here for a long period, to show that his failure was not entirely his own fault, and the evidence which he procured, together with his own statements proved sufficiently that Gen.

Hooker's plan for the campaign at Chancellorsville far surpa.s.sed any conception of any other Northern general. They left the inference also (Lincoln had warned him in a letter that his insubordination to Burnside and other superior officers would one day result in his inferiors failing to co-operate with him), that Sedgwick had not put his full heart into the battle, for, important factor in the movement that he was, he started one day late and allowed 4,000 men at Salem Church to hold back the advance of his 30,000 men. Had he won this fight, he could have been at Chancellorsville and turned the tide of battle long before Jackson's genius had ruined Hooker's army.

The subject of this sketch was the son of Captain and Mrs. Joseph W.

Sener. His father was several times Mayor of this city. Judge Sener graduated when quite a young man, with the degree of Bachelor of Law, from the University of Virginia, and was a very successful pract.i.tioner for many years in the courts of this State. He was elected to represent the first Virginia district in the Congress of the United States several years after the civil war. After his retirement from Congress he was appointed by President Hayes Chief Justice of the then Territory of Wyoming. After performing the duties of this office very acceptably for several years he returned to Virginia, and again took up the practice of his profession. Much of his time was spent in Was.h.i.+ngton where he died. He was buried in Fredericksburg with Masonic honors, being a very active member of Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M. of this city.

[Sidenote: _Abraham Lincoln's Address_]

When the Federal army first held Fredericksburg, during the winter of 1861, President Lincoln came to stay at Chatham and hold a grand review of the army of the Potomac. He was accompanied by Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Edward Staunton, Secretary of War. On the plateau behind Chatham there was held a great artillery review. On the following day the President, accompanied by some of his cabinet officers and the staff officers of the army, crossed the river on the lower pontoon bridge. They rode immediately to the provost marshal's headquarters in the building on the corner of Princess Anne and George Streets, which the National Bank now occupies. After taking lunch with General Patrick and in response to the calls of some troops present, President Lincoln from the front steps made a short but splendid address. The writer of this, sat on the steps of the St. George's Church, on the opposite side of the street and heard President Lincoln's speech.

On the Bowling Green road, a mile from town, a stone marked "Stuart-Pelham" shows about where those two brilliant young men met when they advanced their guns against the Northern host. In the woods, back of Fredericksburg, a stone marks General Lee's winter headquarters--where stood his tents. The spot where Cobb fell is marked, and there is a marker where the pontoon landed near the foot of Hawk street. The New Jersey monuments are near Salem Church, General Hays monument (where he was killed) near Plank road on the Brock road. "Lee to the Rear" one mile west of Brock on Plank road, Sedgwick's monument near Spotsylvania Court House.

Where Jackson fell, monument two miles west of Chancellorsville on Plank road.

[Sidenote: _Other Distinguished Visitors_]

In the midst of the war England sent Lord Wolesley, who became the Commander-in-Chief of the English Army, to serve a short time as Military Observer with the army of General Lee. He was with General Lee about Fredericksburg and in his commentaries on him said, "There was about General Lee an air of fine n.o.bility, which I have never encountered in any other man I have met." General Wolesley attended a dance here in the house then called the Alsop house, on Princess Anne Street, now occupied by the Shepherds.

The Prince of Wales, who afterwards became King Edward the Seventh, visited Fredericksburg in 1859. The Prince was accompanied by the Duke of New Castle, Lord Lyons and others of the Royal family. They were welcomed here in an address by the late Maj. Elliott M. Braxton. The local band played "G.o.d save the Queen" and flowers and bouquets were presented to the Prince.

Among those who came in time of peace we record the name of one whose fame is known to all English readers. Thackeray, the great English novelist, was here, and on taking leave said, "To come to Virginia and mingle with its people, to learn how they live and see their home life, is to have England pictured to you again."

Again the father left, and we next hear of the little girl as Madam Romero, wife of the once Secretary of State of Mexico and then Amba.s.sador to the United States from Mexico. During the stay of Amba.s.sador Romero at Was.h.i.+ngton, this girl of Virginia lineage became the leader of the social life of the Capitol of our Nation, and one of the most popular women ever known there.

It was perfectly natural that Chester A. Arthur should be often a visitor to Fredericksburg for he married Miss Ellen Lewis Herndon, of this city, a daughter of Captain W. L. Herndon, whose distinguished life has been touched upon. The home in which President Arthur stopped on his visit is on Main Street, now occupied by Mrs. R. B. Buffington.

Certainly the greatest orator who ever visited Fredericksburg was Edward Everett, of Ma.s.sachusetts, distinguished among literary men of his day. He came to this city to speak and was entertained in several homes here. He afterwards spoke all over the Nation in an effort to aid the Mount Vernon a.s.sociation to purchase Was.h.i.+ngton's home.

An English officer Colonel Henderson, whose life of "Stonewall Jackson" is from a literary and military standpoint the best work of its nature in the world, came here and stayed for a long period securing data for his book.

He lived during his time here at the Old Eagle Hotel, now the Hotel Maury.

Among our old time merchants was Mr. William Allen. His son married and lived in many foreign lands. The son's wife died and he returned to visit his father bringing his beautiful little daughter, a child of ten or eleven years. The writer recalls her at that time, with her lovely golden curls.

Another n.o.bleman who came here drawn by the quaintness of the old American town and his desire to see the home of Was.h.i.+ngton, was the Count De Paris, of the French Royal Family.

The Irish poet, Thomas Moore, was here once and declared he would not leave America until he had been a guest in an old Virginia home.

_Where Beauty Blends_

_Old Gardens, at Old Mansions, Where Bloom Flowers from Long Ago_

Buds and blossoms everywhere! and honey-bees, b.u.t.terflies and birds! It is Spring now in the lush meadows and sweeping hills about Fredericksburg.

Flowers, leaves, shrubs and vines have burst forth once more with joy and life. The wild tangle of beauty and fragrance is everywhere perceptible; hedges of honeysuckle, whose hidden foundation is the crumbling old stone wall, trellises heavy with old-time roses, arbors redolent with sweet grapevine, st.u.r.dy oaks and maples, whose branches shelter the clinging tendrils and the purple wistaria blossoms, borders, gay with old-time favorites, heliotrope, portulaca, petunias, verbenas and hollyhocks, and the loved English ivy, with a welcome right of way wherever its fancy leads.

The characteristic which is conceded to be the chief charm of Fredericksburg is its historic a.s.sociation and its picturesque past. This feature alone does not appeal to all who agree that the old town is charming, but when this is combined with romantic and interesting tales of the gentry of years agone who have won immortality not only in this locality, but in this world, the charm is undeniably irresistible to all.

Fredericksburg has many beauty spots which combine these conditions--spots which are of increasing pride to residents and visitors.

Some of the gardens here are old, very old, antedating by many years the celebrated formal gardens at Mt. Vernon, but few preserve so well their pristine form. Though the box-bordered parterres have largely disappeared, the old-time favorites are here still, the same loved shrubbery "just grown tall," descended from those set out originally by those of generations gone. Mazie V. Caruthers has, in a few words, unknowingly delineated some of the garden spots here:

"Long, brick-paved paths, beside which row on row, Madonna lilies in their sweetness grow-- Planted by hands to dust turned long ago;

Odors of fern and moss and pine are there-- Wild loveliness of roses everywhere With pinks and mignonette their fragrance share;

Around the dial, stained by sun and showers (Whose slender finger marks the pa.s.sing hours), Stand purple iris, proudest of the flowers;"

[Sidenote: _Mary Was.h.i.+ngton's Home_]

At the corner of Charles and Lewis Streets stands the pretty little garden spot, which, since the year 1775 has been a.s.sociated with Mary Was.h.i.+ngton.

The tall and vigorous, pungent and aromatic box-wood trees, planted by her own hand, seem typical today of the splendid old lady. A small section of the pathway bordered by the same old shrub, which led to "Betty's" home at Kenmore, is still here. And here is also the sweet-scented lavender, and the roses, and near the high board fence on the north, is the sun dial, that still and silent informant of the pa.s.sing hours. Was.h.i.+ngton, Mason, Jefferson, Marshall, the Lees--a score of the great have trod these shaded walks.