From where I was (and this was a whirlwind tour so I couldn't really get out to explore) I saw a large round, stone chimney of sorts. This was the only thing visible but the pictures that I have seen of the furnace shows how large of a complex it really was. It appears to have taken up quite a few acres of ground. There had to have been at least 10 buildings on the property all making up the grounds of the Furnace.
I've been reading up on the Furnace and the one thing that I haven't been able to locate is how the Furnace got its name. At the time of the Battle of Chancellorsville, it was owned by a gentleman by the name of Charles Wellford. Was Catherine his wife? I don't know.
I did find a rather interesting blurb in the memoirs of Bradford Ripley Alden Scott, a nine year old who wrote down what he did and saw in the Civil War. In this part, he explains why he was at Chancellorsville to begin with:
"I was on a visit to friends down in Hanover County towards Richmond early in May 1863 when the news came of Chancellorsville and the fatal wounding of General Stonewall Jackson that offest all rejoicing over that victory. It was felt all over the country to be an irretrievable loss to the Southern case, as it certainly proved immediately afterward at Gettysburg, where General Lee is said to have felt this loss most severely. He has been quoted as saying that if he had had Jackson at Gettysburg he would have won that battle and no one doubts it.
About ten days after the battle of Chancellorsville my father and I went with my brother Alfred over the route of the Florida Brigade (with which Alfred served on the staff) in that battle in the direct assault of Anderson's Division on the works in front of Chancellorsville house, in concert with Jackson's Corps on the flank under Jeb Stuart the second day, May 3, all under the eye and personal direction of General Lee himself."
Later, he goes on to discribe just what he saw at Catherine Furnace:
"The first signs of fighting I noticed were dark greasy bloodstains in the grass all over the plateau at the Catherine Furnace, where Jackson's flanking column the first day had come in sight of the Federal front, and the road turned away at right angles a short distance as if in retreat. Whence Hooker's report to Washington that the enemy were on the run and he pushed out a brigade or so to hurry them up. jackson simply threw a segment of Georgia infantry back at them as a tub to the whale and hurried on for Hooker's right flank and rear, while this gallant Georgia regiment covered his movement singlehanded with the loss of most of their number. It was the good red blood of these game Georgians killed and wounded there, as my brother explained to me, that showed this plain marking of the field even after the usual rain following a battle."
When I stop and look at or think about those ruins, I don't realize just what really took place there (or anywhere for that matter). We hear about the death and destruction but to hear the words from someone who either saw the death and destruction or the aftermath of it, I never really understand just what these men did, saw, and experienced. I like to read civilian accounts...for any battle or just what they experienced AWAY from the war itself. Reading this has been and will continue to be a large part of my education of the war.
No comments:
Post a Comment