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The Camp On James River--its Surroundings

The Camp On James River--its Surroundings image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
July
Year
1862
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Dircctly opposito " the old ITanison , Mansión" lives, or did live, Edinund i Kuflin, ji, son of the old Iluffin who ■ " fired the first gun" at Fort Sumlcr. - Ruffin junior had a beautiful place when I was there some years ap-o, surroundod by a belt of furost trees upon the bluff, which is eighty or a hundred feet above the river, which is here ibout a mile wide. The view from the top of the house was a beautiful oue, overlooking the river and the old Harrison plantation and sovaral othurs. From the same spot there must now be a panoramic view of Gen McClellan's camp; and if the rebels are ulluwed tho opportunity to ereet batteries on Euffia's farin- eutirely masküd as they would be- shells could be easily dropped upon the lower grouud on tho east side, The liuffin farm is a very large one, having sume 7U0 acres in cultivation. - The wheat erop, when I knew the place, avèraged 230 acres a year, and produced from 10 to 20 bushels an aere. Thecrops ranged from 2,500 to ,4,700 bushels a yeur; eorn from 1,500 to 5,000. buhéis, There wero 60 slaves on the place, whose labor and the application of marl had raisod the pkco from its condition of an old wornout cotton plantation to tliis condition of fruitfulness. If ita stores of eorn aud wheat, meat, vegetables, and fruit ure applied to tho uses of our urmy, one rebel will have to pay a fair proportion of his " war tax." Tliere aro many other large farms aloDg tho west s'ide of the James river, from City Point, tbough geuorally bidden froni tho river by high bluffs and forest, which will unduubtedly be iafeited by guerrillas who can annoy ves suld as they did last year on lüe Potomac, Thirtj miles below City point there are immense jlantatious, owuod by tho Harrison fumily, for more tliau two hundred yeara. 1 rode six or seven miles througb cultivatcd ficlda all in ouo iuclüsure. Below tho Ilarriaon plantations lies tho " Orgain estáte," iuheritcd somo years ago by Wiu. Allen, wbo Uien _ be came the greateet landowner in Virginia, There were 14,000 acres in the home farm, and 26,000 acres beside, inelud tig James Island and "olJ J;tinestovn,J and "Bakloy," the General Harrison place, where the arniy.is novv encamped. Hetookwith the land souio Keven or e' glit hundrüd slavcs, but as they _ could pot work a ijaurter of the land it has grown up tn forest. The object of bis anoestor was to drive off all white populatiou; to aceomplish whlch ha bought all tho sraall farma surroundin him, and made a desevt of theni. That is real slaveholding policy. Republican policy wuuld be houtsstlj upplicd in using the cr'ops of this place io present noeds, i'.nd in röiohvèrting tin land to the uso of mea, iustcad cf wili beasis. ijirectly opposite iffa i].e great " gandy Pqin.t egtate," formerly owned by flobert 15. Bolling of Petersburg- a vury wculthy, intelligent, goodman. He sold it to Richard Baylor. a very large slaveholder on the KappahaunocK, below Frcaèricksburg. The Saudy Poiut plantatioo embraces the poiut between the James and ( hickahominy, and contains 7,000 acres, and when owned by Mr Bolling had 2,700 acres under cultivation, of whioh L,000 acres vvere annually in wheat, about 550 in corrï, 50 in oáts, and the remainder in dover, and thcru w ere 180 slaves on the Dlaco. We venturo to sa.y that these people did not rejoice at the change of ownership, nor will tliey weep to stc their present master's great cropa devoted to the use of the Unioa arniy. this place was the home of the " Lightfoot fainily" in the ancient days of Virgiuia splendor, and it has cight miles of iïavigable shore liue, and would bo a better location for á largo camp than the gi-ound now oecupiad by the army. It is 70 miles by vater bclow Richmocd and -15 by land. Ten miles toward Richmond, nearly all the way through thick woods of pino and o;ik, along a narrow uuworked road, t carne to the mausioa of President Tyler, a long irregular woodeu house, standing on high grouud, a mile and a half back from the river, which is hidden by forest which abounds in all this part of the State in its primitivo coodition. The scil here on the upland is stiff clay, and traveling in a wet tiino is not dor.e for pleasure. President Tyler had a good wbeat farm of 1,100 aeres- 650 cleared- but it was íq a wilderness, without a ucar neigbbor except overseers, and " poer wlnte trasli." The roud toward Richniond, in those daye, wasslmply horrible ; and the county soat at Charles City County, iivo milos uorthvvard, where the ex-President did his court business, was like many of the capitals of Virginia - a capital without houses It had but one. Befare parting frora the dead lion I will give bim oue kiek. by copying and applying to himseU an epitiph whioh I found upon the monument erectedto the memory ot his faithful horse: " Hei-e lies the bonos of my faitiftd oltl horso, (eneral, aged 25 years, who in all his long t 'blraiJorod but once. - Would that his master could say tho samo." " Borkty," tle place where tho army is now encamped, ia about a dozen miles from the Tyier placo. Títere are soine good farms in the country back from the river, but the groat bulk of the land is forest, tho country between thcro and tho Chickahomiuy is comparaiivdy level. clayeysoil, with bad rosds, and iuhabited bv a miserable loiiking people. The chureh which served as a place o worship for the first Harrison fainüy stil serves tho geatry DÍ that uoihhorhood It is a most woe-begone Icoking edifice outside and in, oi was ben I atteudee it a few daya ago. If it has improvec nny RÍce 'ít lias dono moro thau I ever lioiud of any other old ehurch in ginia. TIiü next plan'ation above " Bevldy" iseailed " Westover." All planUitioiis r.ro oaiDed, and are as wcil kuown by U towns at the Nortb. """"Westover" wrts the rnsidonce of a Col. Byrd, whose to i;b is in the {rsirden. Ji' built an exponfive house of English I brick, moro thafl 130 years ago. Thero was ono mantlepiecc that cost $2,500. - The house wns bcautifully locntcd upoi) the bank of the river, whioh was walled with brick, and the lawn incloscd with a brick wall, entered by roasBÍvo ron The Byrd estáte was extensive, bat j after being redacod to tn arca of 1,900 j of woodland and ÓOO ficrci of arable - nd that. run dowu to atarvution point - it passet] from the heirs into the hands of John Soldon, ono of the most iraproving farmers upon James River, who renovated the land, and made it productivo and beautiful. If be still owus it, I shall regret lus fote as that of a personal fricad. It secmed Tiardly possible for suoh a man to be a " Secesh Rebel.11 Between Berkly and Westover, there is an extensive tnarbh, which Mr. Belden tried to reclaim by dyking nut the tide and ditehing, but unsuccessfully. That will be a linu of defonse upon that flauk, gainst all enemies but musketoes, which t will produce by the ship load. " Weatover" is uansed a tho second plautution settled in Virginia. I fouuü ïero tho tomb of " Gapt. Win. Pörry," a companion of Capt. John Sinith. Eight miles above is auother of the " old plaQes!' - soats of formar opulenoe and grandeur- called " Shirley,11 built by a man by the name of HOI, whose tomb records bil death in 1700. "When X was there it was owned by Hill Carter, oue of the branches of the original stock. _ Tbc buildings here are very extensive, also built of English bliek, consistiog of four largo houscs, beaidea Btorehousea and burn and negro bolinea. Thtrc wero 900 acres in cultivatiou in wheut and eorn, and 6,000 bushels of' coru a year for ale was oomtnoo, bcsidcs the wheat erop. The land is clayey loatu, with a surface gêntly uudulatmg, and withroads to Ilichiuoud, nbout 23 uiile, Mwh as I uever wish to travel ftgain, jusl at the coimnencejnent of Winter. Such are sumo of the surrouudlngs of sent location of the anny of Gen. MeCleikn. It wlll be a heakly ono until nbout the first of September. It wül bu beverely aiekly Uien till frosty nigbts. It s surrenuded by a country capable Of aÓording a good deal oí" food for man and béart, if its eonraiander diea uot eoBside Rebel propert-T too sacred

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus