Historic Fredericksburg Part 7

All along the lines about Spotsylvania desperate fighting occurred that day, but the battle was distinctly a draw. Both armies lay in their trenches, now and then skirmis.h.i.+ng, until May 18, when Grant withdrew, again moving "by the flank," this time toward Milford, on the R., F. & P.

Railroad.

Near the b.l.o.o.d.y Angle, on the Brock Road, where it is intersected by a cross road, General Sedgwick was killed by a sharpshooter concealed in a tree. He fell from his horse, and although his aides summoned medical help he died almost immediately. The tree from which it is said the sharpshooter killed him is still standing.

General Lee had at Spotsylvania about 55,000 men and General Grant about 124,000.

The Federal loss was 15,577. The Confederate loss was 11,578. A large part of these, probably 15,000, fell in the b.l.o.o.d.y Angle.[1]

[1] Figures, see official reports.

[Sidenote: _Our Part in Other Wars_]

In the War of 1812 only one company was formed here, commanded by Colonel Hamilton. This company did really very little service. The fear that the enemy would come up the Rappahannock River to attack this place was never realized.

In the war with Mexico it is not recorded that any distinctive company was enrolled here, although a number of its young men enlisted, and one of the Masons of Gunston was the first man killed, in the ambush of the First Dragoons on the Mexican border. General Daniel Ruggles won honor in this war.

In the Civil War, every man, "from the cradle to the grave," went to the front voluntarily and cheerfully for the cause. They could be found in such commands as the Thirtieth Virginia Regiment of Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert S. Chew, in which, among the many officers were: Hugh S.

Doggett, Robert T. Know, James S. Knox, Edgar Crutchfield, John K.

Anderson, Edward Hunter, Thomas F. Proctor and many others. Of these it is sufficient to say that at all times they loyally did their duty, and this may also be said of the Fredericksburg Artillery, sometimes called Braxton's Battery, among the officers of which were Carter Braxton, Edward Marye, John Pollock, John Eustace and others. Some of "our boys" united themselves with the "b.l.o.o.d.y Ninth" Virginia Cavalry, commanded by that prince of calvarimen, Colonel Thomas W. Waller, of Stafford. Others of the town, voluntarily enlisted in many other branches.

Charles T. Goolrick commanded a company of infantry which was organized and equipped by his father, Peter Goolrick. Later his health gave way and his brother, Robert Emmett Goolrick, a lieutenant in the company, took command.

When the War with Spain was declared, the old Was.h.i.+ngton Guards, which has done its duty at all times in the life of the town, came to the front.

Captain Maurice B. Rowe was its commander at that time; Revere, first lieutenant, and Robert S. Knox, now of the U. S. Army, second lieutenant.

It is pertinent to state that in the War with Spain there was no draft, and there were more volunteers than there was work to do. The company marched away with great hopes, but spent almost the whole period of the war at Camp Alger, near Was.h.i.+ngton.

[Sidenote: _In the Great World War_]

When the Great World War came on, Fredericksburg sent two organized companies to the front. The first, the Was.h.i.+ngton Guards, under Captain Gunyon Harrison, and the second, the Coast Artillery Company, under Captain Johnson. No names can be recorded, for after the companies left, the draft men went in large bodies, and many won promotion and distinguished service medals.

On July 4, 1918, the town gave to the World War soldiers a sincere and royal "welcome home," in which the people testified to their grat.i.tude to them. In the war, our boys had added l.u.s.ter to the name of the town, and splendid credit to themselves. The joy of the occasion and the pleasure of it were marred by the fact that so many had died in France.

_Heroes of Early Days_

_The Old Town gives the first Commander, first Admiral, and Great Citizens_

[Sidenote: _Was.h.i.+ngton's Boyhood Home_]

Fredericksburg claims George Was.h.i.+ngton, who although born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, February 22, 1732, spent most of his boyhood on the "Ferry Farm," the home of his father, Augustine Was.h.i.+ngton, situated on a hill directly opposite the wharf which juts out from the Fredericksburg side of the river. Here it is that Parson Weems alleged he threw a stone across the river.

He was educated in Fredericksburg and Falmouth, a village of gray mists and traditions, which lords it over Fredericksburg in the matter of quaintness and antiquity, but obligingly joins its fortunes to those of the town by a long and picturesque bridge.

His tutor in Falmouth was a "Master Hobbie," and while this domine was "strapping the unthinking end of boys," George was evading punishment by being studious and obedient. He also attended the school of Mr. Marye, at St. George's Church. It was in this church that the Was.h.i.+ngtons wors.h.i.+pped.

Shy in boyhood and eclectic in the matter of a.s.sociates, he had the genius for real friends.h.i.+ps.

The cherry tree which proclaimed him a disciple of truth has still a few flouris.h.i.+ng descendants on the old farm, and often one sees a tourist cheris.h.i.+ng a twig as a precious souvenir of the ground hallowed by the tread of America's most famous son. It was on this farm that George was badly hurt while riding (without permission) his father's chestnut colt.

We take Was.h.i.+ngton's career almost for granted, as we watch the stars without marveling at the forces that drive them on, but when we do stop to think, we are sure to wonder at the substantial greatness, the harnessed strength of will, the sagacity and perception, which made him the man he was.

He left school at sixteen, after having mastered geometry and trigonometry, and having learned to use logarithms.

He became a surveyor. His brother, Lawrence, who at that time owned Mt.

Vernon, recognized this; in fact, got him, in 1740, to survey those wild lands in the valley of the Alleghany belonging to Lord Fairfax.

He was given a commission as public surveyor after this. It is hard to realize that he was only sixteen! We will not attempt to dwell upon his life in detail. We know that at nineteen he was given a military district, with the rank of major, in order to meet the dangers of Indian depredations and French encroachments. His salary was only 150 pounds a year.

On November 4, 1752, he was made a Mason in Fredericksburg Lodge, No. 4.

The Bible used in these interesting ceremonies, is still in possession of the lodge, and is in a fine state of preservation. Was.h.i.+ngton continued a member of this lodge until he died, and Lafayette was an honorary member.

At twenty-one, as a man of "discretion, accustomed to travel, and familiar with the manners of the Indians," he was sent by Governor Dinwiddie on a delicate mission which involved encroachments by the French on property claimed by the English. During all these years he came at close intervals to visit his mother, now living in her own house in Fredericksburg, which was still his home.

After his distinguished campaign against the French army under M. De Jumonville in the region of Ohio, where he exposed himself with the most reckless bravery, he came to Mt. Vernon which he inherited from his brother, Augustus, married Martha Custis, a young widow with two children and large landed estates, and became a member of the House of Burgesses, punctually attending all the sessions.

Indeed, one finds oneself eagerly looking for an occasional lapse in this epic of punctuality. It would humanize him. Anyway, one is glad to see that he was a patron of the arts and the theatre, and his industry in keeping day-books, letter-books, contracts and deeds is somewhat offset by the fact that he played the flute.

He seldom spoke in the House of Burgesses, but his opinion was eagerly sought and followed. We will pa.s.s over the time when Dunmore prorogued the "House," and of the events which ended in Was.h.i.+ngton's being made Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

We are, perhaps, more interested in another visit to Fredericksburg to see his mother, after he had resigned his commission. From town and country, his friends gathered to give him welcome and do him honor. The military turned out, civic societies paraded, and cannon boomed.

[Sidenote: _When "George" got Arrested_]

In between his career as statesmen and as soldier, we strain our eyes for a thread of color, and we discover that he was once brought before a justice of the peace and fined for trading horses on Sunday. And again, that he was summoned before the grand jury and "George William Fairfax, George Was.h.i.+ngton, George Mason," and half dozen others were indicted for "not reporting their wheeled vehicles, according to law."

It is worth noting, too, that while her son, George, was leading the American army, Mary, his mother, was a partisan of the King; a tory most openly. "I am sure I shall hear some day," She told some one, calmly, in her garden, "that they have hung George."

Nevertheless, his first two messages, after he crossed the Delaware and won signal victories, were to Congress and his mother. And after the hard-riding courier had handed her the note, and the gathering people had waited until she laid down her trowel, and wiped the garden earth from her hands, she turned to them and said: "Well, George has crossed the Delaware and defeated the King's troops at Trenton."

[Sidenote: _Was.h.i.+ngton Advises Lovers_]

The stern fact of the Revolution, which cast upon George Was.h.i.+ngton immortal fame and which was followed by his election to the Presidency of the United States, is softened somewhat by a letter on love written to his daughter, Nellie Custis. A few excerpts are as follows:

"When the fire is beginning to kindle, and the heart growing warm, propound these questions to it. Who is this invader? Is he a man of character; a man of sense? For be a.s.sured, a sensible woman can never be happy with a fool. Is his fortune sufficient to maintain me in the manner I have been accustomed to live? And is he one to whom my friends can have no reasonable objection?"

And again, "It would be no great departure from the truth to say that it rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough paced coquette dies in celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others by encouraging looks, words and actions, given for no other purpose than to draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected."