Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/216

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Southern Historical Society Papers.

is still standing at the junction of the Furnace and Plank roads, out in the country, en the way to Chancellorsville. The road down which Jackson rode toward his command winds in and out among the pines, and was examined with interest by the party. In the meantime, however, some earthworks had been passed. "There was where Lee waited for Hooker," said some one in the party.

The Chancellor house is not far from the pine tree already mentioned. It is not wholly the wartime house, which was burned a good many years ago, but the western end is nearly intact. The present porch is not the one upon which General Hooker was standing when he was struck by a piece of shell, but the broad steps of stone are the remnants of the old structure. In the olden days of stage-coach traveling the Chancellor tavern was a half-way house, and every morning and evening the stage coaches stopped there, no less than thirty-six relays of horses being kept in the spacious stables. In wartime here was a great deal of open field in front of the house, but of late years this has been covered with a growth of stubby pines, so that the appearance of the landscape is somewhat changed. It would take too long to rehearse the whole story of the Chancellorsville fight. It is sufficient to say that when the field becomes a part of the National Park and is dotted with monuments to mark the positions of the various forces it will be fully as interesting as Gettysburg. There still remain many of the earthworks thrown up by the armies, and the sites of graves are still visible in the woods. The party drove along a road which followed the trenches dug by men of the Twelfth Corps, over to Hazel Grove, which was a conspicuous point during the battle. It is not a settlement, as its name implies, but a solitary farm house on a hill, which was the position of a battery. The magnificent spring which was so useful to the army still remains, giving forth a splendid flow of delicious water.

THE STORY OF KEENAN's DEATH.

It was very near this farm house that Keenan's Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry was stationed. The story of the charge of this regiment and Keenan's death is known to every reader of the Chancellorsville campaign, and as generally related is intensely