THE GETTYSBURG PARTY

                                                  Survey of Many Battle Fields

 [Correspondence of the Gazette] Washington D. C. June 4, 1886-My last letter from the 15^th Regiment Battlefield Excursion left the party at the close of the dedication of the monuments at Gettysburg.  The next day was yesterday.  The forenoon was a busy one.  Many of the veterans again visited the location of the two monuments in which they were particularly interested, while others visited the scenes of the first days battle.

 Among other points of interest was the Gettysburg Kalalysine? Spring? and the Spring Hotel, which is to be re-opened for the season by Mr. H. Yingling, the proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, the headquarters of the party at Gettysburg .  The Spring Hotel is on the site? where the battle of Gettysburg began.  It is also near where General John Reynolds was killed and where a monument to his memory is to be erected next week.  Gen. Devens was obliged to leave yesterday morning and was escorted to the station by the entire party.

 The start from Gettysburg was made yesterday at 1 p. M., and the first stop was at Carlisle where we visited the Indian Industrial School at Carlisle Barracks.  There we saw some 300 Indian boys and girls, representing some 36 or 38 tribes.  we found them at work at various kinds of industry.  The girls were sewing and cooking, while many boys and girls were in school.

 The next point was Hagerstown , Md. , reached about dusk, and where we stopped for the night.  Mayor Holm, Capt. W. W. Walker of the Reno Post of Hagerstown , Col. H. K. Douglas of the Maryland National Guard, as well as author of “Stonewall Jackson in Maryland”; which appears this week in the June number of  the Century.  Also the Hagerstown Light Infantry Lieut. J. C. Roulett in command who escorted us to the Baldwin House to the tune of “Marching Through Georgia.”

 The start from Hagerstown was made this morning at 6 o’clock and we went directly to Antietam station on the Shenendoah Valley Railroad where carriages were found waiting for the party.  The first place we visited was the town of Sharpsburg .  Passing through the town we went down the hill  to the Burnside Bridge .  There are three pictures of the bridge in the June Century.  Returning to Sharpsburg we passed through the village to the National Cemetery then we saw Lee’s headquarters, the old Lutheran Church , and other points of interest in the town.

 At the cemetery Mrs. George H. and Mrs. George W. Ward also Mrs. Kimball of Fitchburg decorated the graves of the 15^th Mass. Volunteers buried there.  We then went to the Dunker Church where we saw the marks of war on every hand, the Bloody Lane and Roulett’s House where Gen. Devens had his brigade headquarters in a cider mill.  After looking about a little the veterans went back a little to the right and beyond the Dunker Church , and then located the site where they were engaged and where they lost over 60 men.  It was about this spot that they had their lunch.  About 1 o’clock they returned to the church and took carriages for Keedysville where they boarded the train for Washington .

 At Weaverton the party was temporarily divided, a large portion leaving the line we were on and going up the Potomac River to Harpers Ferry .  There we saw the John Brown fort, the starting point of the Rebellion.  The old fort or engine house where that veteran from Kansas made his stand and for a time created a reign of terror still stands; although the post holes he made have been closed up their location can still be seen.  At Harper’s Ferry it was our pleasure to meet Hon. John Graham, one of the first men taken prisoner by John Brown.  Mr. Graham was at one time mayor of Harper’s Ferry and his story of the taking of the town and the scenes which followed were brim full of interest.  One of the features of the town which has grown up since the war is the Storer College , the only institution of learning open  to colored students between Washington and the Ohio River .  One of our party who was there frequently during the war said he could report but little progress or increase in the place.

 The two divisions of the party reached here late last evening and is largely quartered at the Ebbett House, the army and navy hotel of the nation.  We are all well, a few will leave on the morrow, but the bulk will go on to Ball’s Bluff, the old camping ground of the regiment and the place of its first baptism of blood.  The weather has been thus far delightful, the only rain was during the second night at Gettysburg .

                       H. D. L.