lution, entwining into the story of the estate another strand of the best fabric of Virginian society. Arlington immediately became the home of this officer, and when the Civil War came, and Colonel Lee went out of the Union with his State, his greatest personal sacrifice, no doubt, was the thought of leaving Arlington. Indeed, so little did he foresee that he was going to be the leader of a four-years' struggle, that he took away none of the furniture, and very few even of the great number of relics of Washington, many of intrinsic as well as historic value, which the house contained. Federal troops at once took possession of the estate, and everything of historical value was seized by the Government, so that most of the collection, with other relics, is now to be seen at the National Museum. Arlington could not be confiscated, because entailed; but the non-payment of taxes made a pretext for its sale, when it was bought in for $23,000, by the United States Government, which established the military cemetery here in 1864. When, several years after the war, G. W. Custis Lee inherited the estate, he successfully disputed, in the Supreme Court, the legality of the tax-sale, but at once transferred his restored rights to the Government for $150,000, which was paid him in 1884.

The return from Arlington is easily and pleasantly made by walking down to one of the gates and taking the cars of the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon Railway for Washington, by way of the Long Bridge. Three hours will suffice to make this trip satisfactorily. The grounds remain open until sunset.

A visit to Fort Meyer may well be combined with this excursion. Fort Meyer occupies a large area of the old estate adjoining the cemetery on the north, but separated from it by a ravine up which the tramway makes its way

from the aqueduct bridge. This is a cavalry post of the army, capable Fort Meyer. of accommodating a whole regiment. The officers' quarters are on the bluff overlooking the Potomac and the city; behind them are various offices, the post hospital, etc., and farther back the commodious brick barracks, large stables, and great drill shed. The evening parades, in fine weather, and the weekly band concerts are picturesque and delightful; and it is highly interesting to sit in the public gallery of the drill hall and watch the feats of horsemanship to which the cavalry men are trained. The great rolling field, west of the cemetery and south of the post parade ground, is devoted to troop, squadron, and regimental

drilling, and is a favorite place for polo. This fine military post occupies the site of Fort Whipple, one of the strongest defenses of Washington during the Civil War.

After the disaster at Bull Run a system of defenses was projected and partly completed to cover every approach to the city. "Every prominent point," wrote General Cullom, "at intervals of 800 or 1,000 yards, was occupied by an inclosed field-fort; every important approach or depression of ground, Defenses of unseen from the forts, was swept by a battery of field guns, and the Washington. whole connected by rifle-trenches, which were, in fact, lines of infantry parapet, furnishing emplacement for two ranks of men, and affording covered communication along the line; while roads were opened wherever necessary, so that troops and artillery could be moved rapidly from one point of the immense periphery to another, or under cover from point to point."

In this circle of defenses Fort Whipple held a very important position, and was a star-shaped earthwork, scientifically built and heavily armed and garrisoned. It has been completely swept away, but south of the drill plain, at the eastern corner of the cemetery, Fort Tillinghast is still standing and looks, at a distance, as if time had

of the main line of this road, some eight miles east of Georgetown. The road thither passes through a hilly region, rapidly undergoing suburban improvement, and Falls Church itself is a pleasant old-time village, which was the scene of one of the first fights of the Civil War.

3. To the Soldiers' Home, Rock Creek Church, Fort Stevens, Battle and National Cemeteries, the Catholic University, and Brookland.

The Soldiers' Home stands in the midst of a noble park, with a wide outlook from high grounds directly north of the Capitol, from which it is distant four miles in a straight line. It is a favorite terminus for driving and bicycling, beautiful roads leading thither from the head of Connecticut Avenue or Fourteenth Street, and less desirable ones returning through the northeastern quarter of the city. Two lines of

Route.

street cars approach the Soldiers' Home, giving the tourist an alternate route going and coming; and he should devote the better part of a day to this excursion. The direct route out is by the cars north on Seventh Street, connecting with the Brightwood line from the boundary to the Eagle or western gate of the Soldiers' Home grounds. A short distance beyond the boundary, at the right of the road, are seen the tall brick buildings of Howard University-a collegiate institution founded soon after the war, as an outgrowth of the Freedmen's Bureau, for the education of colored youths of both sexes. Its first president was Maj.-Gen. O. O. Howard (who had resigned from the army temporarily to undertake this work), and it has maintained itself as a flourishing institution, having some three hundred students annually.

Howard
University.

The new Distributing Reservoir, to which the famous and incomplete "Lydecker Tunnel" was intended to carry water from the Potomac conduit, occupies the high ground north of the university.

Country
Roads.

The ride out to the end of this road, at the District limits, is a very pleasant one all the way; and if one is fond of walking, he can do well by going on through the suburban villages of Potworth and Brightwood to Silver Springs and Takoma - the latter a station on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad almost at the extreme northern corner of the District. It is then a very pleasant walk back to the Soldiers' Home, along the Blair and Rock Creek Church roads, near the railroad, which are bordered by luxuriant hedges of osage orange. This is a fair country road for bicycles. Extensions of electric lines are progressing, one line now reaching to Forest Glen, Maryland.

Near Brightwood, in plain view off at the left as you go out upon the cars, are the crumbling parapets of Fort Stevens, which was one of the agencies in protecting the city against Confederate attack in 1864, when fighting occurred all through these woods and fields.

Early's Raid, in July, 1864, was the only serious war scare Washington had, but it was enough. Panic-stricken people from the Maryland villages came flocking in along this road, bringing such of their household goods as they could

carry. For two or three days the city was cut off from communication Early's Raid. with the outside world, except by way of the Potomac River. The dis

trict militia was reinforced by every able-bodied man who could be swept up. Department clerks were mustered into companies and sent to the trenches, with any odds and ends of fighting material that could be gathered. There was an immense commotion, but the capital was never so demoralized as was alleged of it at the time. Within forty-eight hours, from one source and another, 60,000 men had been gathered. Meanwhile the stubborn resistance made some miles up the river, by Gen. Lew Wallace, whose wide reputation as the author of " Ben Hur," "The Fair God," etc., was still to come, who delayed the invading host against frightful odds until the fortifications were well manned, had saved the city from being sacked and the President from capture. It is not too much to say that Wallace's prompt and courageous action did this thing. Wallace was forced back, of course, but when Early got him out of the way and reached the defenses north of the city, he found the old Sixth Corps there, and, contenting himself with a brisk skirmish in the fields in front of Fort Stevens, he fled, carrying away the plunder of hundreds of desolated Maryland farmhouses. The President was not only intensely anxious but eagerly interested. Noah Brooks, in his "Washington in Lincoln's Time," says of him: "He went out to Fort Stevens during the skirmish. on July 12, and repeatedly exposed himself in the coolest manner to the fire of the rebel sharpshooters. He had once said to me that he lacked physical courage, although he had a fair share of the moral quality of that virtue; but his calm unconsciousness of danger, while the bullets were flying thick and fast about him, was ample proof that he would not have dropped his musket and run, as he believed he certainly would, at the first sign of physical danger."

Those killed in this affair were buried in the little cemetery by the Methodist Church, now called Battle Cemetery.

Battle Cemetery.

The Soldiers' Home is the forerunner and type of those which were erected in various parts of the country after the Civil War, but it is not in the same class. It is an institution established in 1851 by the efforts of Gen. Winfield Scott, and out of certain funds received from Mexico, as a retreat for veterans of the Mexican War, and for men of the regular army who have been disabled or who, by twenty years of

honorable service and a payment of 12 cents a month, have acquired the right of residence there the remainder of their lives. This gives the veterans a pleasing sense of self-support, in addition to which many are able to earn money by working about the buildings and grounds and in various ways. There are ordinarily about five hundred men there, who live under a mild form of military discipline and routine, wear the uniform of the army, and are governed by veteran officers. The affairs of the Home, which has now a fund of over $1,000,000 and a considerable independent income, are administered by a board composed of the general of the army and his principal assistants at the War Department.

History of
Soldiers'
Home.

"The main building is of white marble, three stories in height, and is fashioned after the Norman order of architecture. On the grounds are several elegant marble cottages occupied by the officials, a pretty church of Seneca stone, a capacious hospital building with wide piazzas, from which charming views of Washington and the Potomac can be had, a fine library building, well stocked with books and periodicals, and numerous other structures. On the brow of one of the hills stands a bronze statue of General Scott, by Launt Thompson, erected by the Home in 1874, at a cost of $18,000. The entire estate is inclosed by a stone wall, surmounted by a small iron fence of handsome design. Fifty acres are under cultivation, and fine crops of fruits and vegetables are raised.

"Near the main building is a large cottage often used by the Presidents of the United States as a summer residence. It is surrounded by noble trees, and has a very attractive appearance. Pierce was the first President to pass the summer here, and Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson, Hayes, and Arthur have preferred its quiet comfort to the statelier life in the White House."

In the rear of the Home, on the wooded slope beyond Harewood Road, lies one of the national military cemeteries, entered by an arch upon whose pillars are inscribed the names of great Union commanders in the Civil

Cemetery.

War. Here rest the remains of about 5,500 Federal and 271 Confederate soldiers, less than 300 of whom are unknown. The grounds contain a pretty stone chapel, in which lies the body of Gen. John A. Logan.

Rock Creek Church and its beautiful cemetery, northeast of the Soldiers' Home, and separated from it by the fine Rock Creek Church Road, are worth examination.