Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1910 — WAR REMINISCENCES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WAR REMINISCENCES

VILLAGE KILLED .IN BATTLE Scene of Many Stirring Events In Early Days of War Marked by Bullet-Pitted Walls. A In the heroic age of the republic, and that means the period of 1381-35, Centerville, Va., was what its name declares. The Civil war threw such a glare upon the haiplet that the eyeof the world was drawn to IL Centerville was a name that was sometimes uttered with a shout, but most times with a sob. . Great legions of the Union and at first great armies and later gaunt armies of the Confederacy grappled around this town, charging, counter-charging; reeling, mangling and winning arid losing as the gods willed or as the heaviest battalions compelled. CenterviHe was a war-racked village over which one army and then another rolled. It was now blue, now gray, changing color in a breath. Mars held red revels here. Four signboards posted at the crossroads where the village stands tell the way. One reads: “To Bull Run, 3 Miles.” The legend on another is: “To Chantilly, 4 Miles.” A third is inscribed: “To Aldle, 12 miles,” The fourth points the way to Fairfax Court House, seven miles away. These signboards, roughly lettered on rough oak boards, are seared and warped by rain and sun. Centerville is not a stirring place. It does not feel' a single busy throb. If ever a village was killed in battle it was Centerville. Today it bears wounds and scars. Bullet-pitted walls and shot-riven trees, sunken graves and vine-veiled redoubts may be seen there. A dozen houses compose the village. Half of them cling tp the roadside as though to feed their lean and leaning sides on such excitement as the visitation of a stranger brings. These wan houses seem to sniff the yellow dust whirled up by slowly passing teams as though it were exhilarating snuff. They bear a feeble and listless look. If they were sentient things it is likely they would say: “Centerville is a little slow Just now, but if ybu’d been here a few years ago, back in the you wouldn’t laugh at us for being a little shaky and out of Joint now.” Rusty cannon ball and shell, harvested from the old camps and the battle blasted fields around, are heaped at tree trunks and in some fence corners, though many of these relic piles have been sold for old iron and

tons of the war metal have been converted into implements of peace—per* haps literally into plowshares. There are no houses in Centerville in which gun battels, shattered gun stocks, broken swords, distorted bayonets, tarnished belt buckles and dented canteens are pot used as ornaments.' Shrapnel and canister rest on tall mantelpieces over cavernous fireplaces. Perhaps' there was no regiment in the Union army of Virginia, the army* of the Potomac and the army of northern Virginia that did not march and fight along this highway. The old road, still deep-rutted from the supply* and artillery trains, Is little traveled pow. One may walk miles without meeting a man, but if one ha ve the power to talk with ghosts he should not lack company. The mystic or the medium might see phantom armies traveling the road and the fields abutting it. The stones In this highway were worn by the feet of the hosts of McDowell, Pope, Burnside, Meade, Kearney and Porter, Lee, Jackson, Beauregard, Longstreet, Stuart and hundreds of other soldiers of renown. When McDowell moved to the attack of Beauregard, behind Bull Run it was from hts canjps at Centerville. It was at Centerville he made final effort to rally bls beaten forces. When Jackson dashed upon Pope's rear and burned the Federal stores at Manasgas, he re tiffed to Centerville? It was from Centerville that he moved to SudlejLand Groveton for the second fight. When Pope yielded the field to Jackson and Longstreet he retreated to Centerville. When the troops from the South pressed forward to Chantilly they swarmed through Center ville.

Centerville Today.