CHAPTER X.

UPTON'S HILL AND ITS SURROUNDINGS-FALL'S CHURCH AND ITS INTER

ESTING ASSOCIATIONS-WASHINGTON, LEE, FAIRFAX-A MEMORIAL TABLET-THE GRAVEYARD BECOMES THE RESTING-PLACE OF SOME MEM

BERS OF THE TWENTIETH-THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY AN OLD CHURCH EDIFICE-A REGIMENTAL SCRUBBING PARTY-MAGNIFICENT WEATHER -LOCALITY IN POSSESSION OF REBELS-THEY FALL BACK BEFORE FEDERALS BARRICADED ROADS-REBEL POSITION DURING AUTUMN AND WINTER OF 1861-2-HOW THE REGIMENT WAS EMPLOYED-MURDER ALONG THE PICKET LINE-"THE PICKET GUARD "-FORAGING-CAPTURE OF A PARTY-DIVISION DRILL AND AN ALARM FROM THE FRONT -THE TWENTIETH SENT FORWARD-GRAND REVIEWS-ARE WE NOW TO MARCH-STILL STATIONARY-DEATHS-WADSWORTH'S BRIGADE— QUEER NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION-A DINNER PARTY-NEW GUNS—A FLAG OF TRUCE AND WHAT WAS SAID OF IT-HANGING AS A CURE FOR TREASON-ALARM ON THE PICKET LINE-WELCOME VISITORS-A SWORD PRESENTATION-HALLELUJAH! THE ARMY MOVES-MUSIC AND BANNERS AND MARCHING TROOPS CENTREVILLE AND WOODEN GUNS.

THERE are two rugged ascents between the Potomac and the crown of Upton's Hill. The first occurs immediately after crossing the river, and is short but steep; then, having ascended it, a broad plain stretches out toward the west, four or five miles, broken here and there by gentle undulations, until it reaches the range of hills heretofore spoken of. The general course of this range is north and south, but Upton's Hill is thrown considerably to the front of Hall's and is slightly in advance of Munson's; Hall's is northeast of Upton's, and Munson's is about south. Between these hills the country falls to nearly the level of the plain above the Potomac, but the intervals are narrow, and a cannon posted on Upton's could send a shot to the summit of either of its neighbors. From the top of Munson's Hill the dome of the Capitol may be seen, and from this "coign of vantage" the rebels unfurled their flag after the first

Battle of Bull Run, and thousands gazed upon the disloyal emblem from the Capitol dome, and many trembled lest it should be borne into the very streets of Washington.

Along the westerly rim of Upton's Hill was a freshly constructed earth-work, called Fort Upton. It was a substantial cover for men and guns in case of an attack, and was one of that class of works which the experience of the war proved to be the best that could be constructed. The work itself was protected by a line of well-set abattis, very difficult for an assaulting party to pass, and between that and the fort was a wide and deep moat. Within the work a few guns were mounted, to sweep the approaches from the direction of Fairfax or Vienna. General Wadsworth's head quarters were in the Upton mansion, just behind the fort, and the encampment of the Twentieth extended to within a few feet of the base of the fort and the general's house. Three miles in our rear, toward Washington, was "Ball's X Roads, " and about an equal distance to the south, towards Alexandria, was the more celebrated "Bailey's X Roads"-Alexandria itself lying five miles farther to the southward.

The rebels had occupied the entire country above mentioned soon after the first battle of Bull Run, and continued to hold it until the latter part of September, 1861. They had had a battery planted on Upton's Hill, and had undisputed possession of the surrounding country. When the Union troops began to advance, the rebels gradually fell back, without fighting, but they burned some of the houses in the neighborhood upon suspicion that their owners were Union men.

As the rebels retired, they effectually barricaded the roads leading to Fairfax Court House, which thereafter became their advanced post, with their picket line along the woods on the westerly side of the ridge heretofore mentioned, some two miles beyond Fall's Church.

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Fairfax C. H. was but eight miles from Fall's Church, and Vienna, where the enemy had a strong force posted, was only six miles northwest of Upton's Hill. The reb el picket line extended from the Potomac river, two miles above the Great Falls, in a due south course, to the Occuquan river, which empties into the Potomac, at High Point, ten miles below Mount Vernon. A reference to the map of Virginia will show that this line intersected every road leading from Washington or Alexandria into Virginia, and that no advance could be made by the Union troops, occupying the cul de sac, formed by the bend of the Potomac, without striking this picket line within ten miles of Washington.

Three miles in front of Upton's Hill is a continuous and uniform ridge, of about the height of Upton's Hill, running nearly north and south, wooded on the easterly side, and which constituted, during the fall and winter of 1861-2, the picket ground of the Union army.

Nestling among trees and shrubbery, in the plain between Upton's Hill and the ridge beyond, is the little hamlet of Fall's Church, the only thing of interest about which is the Protestant Episcopal Church; and not simply because it is a church, but because it is evidently a very ancient one; and the sexton told us George Washington used sometimes to worship there, and pointed out the pew which belonged to him.

The village contained one tavern, three churches (Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian), two blacksmiths', one carriage and one paint shop, two stores, one grocery, and about twenty dwelling houses. The place derived its name from the Episcopal church, which is built of bricks imported from England, and is said to have been erected in 1760. It is a plain, square building, with two tiers of windows on each side; the upper ones surmounted by semi-circular fan lights. It had doubtless been designed to construct a gallery, but the wants of the community have never required it,

and the effect of this arrangement of windows is rather grotesque. The chancel is slightly raised above the main floor, at the east end of the building, and is surrounded by a modest railing. The rector's desk is a very plain inclosure, and the entire structure is in primitive simplicity. In one of the walls are three tablets, one containing the Creed, one the Lord's Prayer, and the other the Ten Commandments. At the right of the desk is another tablet, erected to the memory of one of the patrons of the church, and bearing this inscription :

" HENRY FAIRFAX,

AN ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN-AN UPRIGHT MAGISTRATE-A SINCERE

CHRISTIAN.

DIED IN COMMAND OF THE

FAIRFAX VOLUNTEERS,

AT SALTILLO, MEXICO.

ON THE 14TH DAY OF AUGUST, 1847.

But for his munificence this church might still have been a ruin. "

There is, to the minds of most people, a sanctity about an ancient church edifice that begets a feeling of veneration and respect, which involuntarily induces them to tread lightly on its time-worn floor, and treat with reverence its venerable shrine. For a hundred years devout men and women have gathered within its mouldy walls, as Sunday after Sunday have dawned upon their quiet hamlet, and offered up to the Christian's God, the prayers and thanksgiving of a God-fearing people. Here have the marriages of their children, for generations, been solemnized, by the beautiful form of the Protestant Episcopal Church; here have the infants been baptized; and here have been pronounced the solemn services of the Church over the hundreds of forms now mouldering in the adjacent graveyard. Infancy, youth, maturity, old age-marriage, life, death -the highest joys and the keenest griefs, have been

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THE GRAVEYARD.

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experienced within the walls of this old edifice. It is the treasury of a thousand precious recollections. It is the gate-way through which men and women for ages have first approached the mercy-seat and learned the way to life everlasting. And when added to these associations, which are common to every old church, was the additional circumstance, that "The Father of his Country" had worshipped here a hundred years ago, the quaint and moss-grown edifice was very precious in the esteem of most of us. But some of our men, not having their feelings touched by such considerations, and probably ignorant of the history of the old building, defaced its walls by writing their names and company and regiment upon them, while doing picket duty in the vicinity. It was evidently not done with a bad motive, or a design to commit an act of desecration, else they would not have furnished evidence to convict themselves, as they did, by writing their own names. The colonel soon learned what had been done, and he ordered the guilty parties to provide themselves with scrubbing brushes, and soap and water, and to repair to the church and expunge the evidences of their ability to write. They did it effectually and neatly, and when the Twentieth bade farewell to Upton's Hill, the old church looked as solemn and decorous as it had any time during the last hundred years. May it survive until the trumpet of the archangel shall arouse the sleepers who repose in the ground around its foundations!

In the adjacent graveyard were the graves of nineteen rebel soldiers, killed in sundry skirmishes hereabout. To these were added many graves of Union soldiers, during the time the army occupied that neighborhood. The Twentieth made its first interment there on the 9th of December, 1861, the deceased being private William Cator, of G Company. He was not more than 19 years old, and came from Roxbury, Delaware