The Mitchell Capital

Millions of Exploded Shells.

On the way back from Appomattox we came from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and somewhere on the route passed a place where an immense amount of ammunition had been destroyed at some former time. I did not learn any particulars, but it looked as if all the artillery wagons, and caissons, and ammunition chests had been parked in a big park and set on fire. The spokes of some of the wheels had been cut and then fired, the fire communicating to the fixed ammunition and exploding it and blowing everything up. It seemed as if millions of shells were there, some exploded, others not, but everything blackened with burned powder. Every conceivable kind of ammunition was there, and some few pieces of disabled ordnance. In some places the ammunition would be two or three feet deep, in others none. As I recollect it, it seemed as if there must be two or three acres in extent. One thing that appeared very strange was that some of the shells were too large for field artillery. Some, in fact, must have been designed for use on gun boats, as it could only have been available for the heaviest kind of ordnance. I never saw any account of it anywhere, nor have I any idea to which army it had belonged. "Trefoil" in Buffalo News.