in 1860 looked beautiful and full of life were now much overgrown with bushes and briers, and, of course, looked desolate to the spectator who viewed them before the Rebellion. The fencing was much decayed, torn down, and in many places had been burned up by passing armies.

As soon as the civil law was declared in force lawsuits began between citizens for property taken, and for other damages done, during the war. These suits lasted only a few years, and are now nearly forgotten, as they should be, by citizens living in the same county, and working for their own good, and desiring the happiness and the friendship of others around them.

NATIONAL CEMETERY.

On the bluff at Pittsburg Landing is now the beautiful cemetery, within whose walls sweetly rest the bodies of the Federal slain. The first thing that attracts the eye of the visitor on entering this city of the dead is the beautiful little grave, the last resting-place of Henry Burk, of whom we have already spoken.

The following lines, written by a gentleman who

visited this spot several years ago, are very well addressed to the many who go every year to gaze on this silent city:

"Tread softly o'er those sacred streets,
Pausing once to place a flower

O'er one whose life and all its sweets
Yielded to battle's power.
Sweetly reposing here lies one,
And beside him rests another;
This, a fond mother's only son,

That, a tender sister's brother."

Those who fell in defense of the Union lie here properly honored, but how is it with those who fell on the opposite side? Out yonder beneath the forest's shade lie the moldering bodies of two thousand brave men without a tombstone to mark their last resting-place. Their graves, like the cause they fought to sustain, are lost, lost!

We will now close our history of that war whose horrors were so great that "no tongue can tell, no pen describe them as they were."

PART THIRD.

Physical Geography.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE COUNTY IN GENERAL-ANCIENT
EARTHWORKS.

ARDIN COUNTY'S physical features will
be noticed in this chapter.

The length of the county from north to south is about thirty miles, and its greatest width, from east to west, about twenty-one. It is bounded on the east by Wayne; on the north by Decatur and Henderson; on the west by Chester and McNairy; and on the south by Tishamingo County, in Mississippi, and Lauderdale County, in Alabama. It will thus be seen that no less than seven different counties touch the borders of Hardin. No county in the State is bounded by so many.

By reference to a geological map of Tennessee,

you will find that Hardin County lies mostly in the sixth natural division of the State, known as

the Western Valley, or the Valley of the Tennessee River. The depth of this valley below the highlands that bound it on the east is about five hundred feet, and below the highlands on the west it is about three hundred feet. The highwater level at IIamburg is three hundred and ninety-two feet above the sea.

Hardin contains six hundred and ten square miles, and is divided into sixteen civil districts, and these into seventy-five public school districts. By reference to the map you will see that some districts are much cut up by creeks, while others are nearly destitute of any streams. It will thus

be seen that no less than five creeks cross the Tirteenth District, while the Fifteenth has but one running through its north-west corner.

From the Tennessee River many wide valleys run out and extend beyond the limits of the county. Those of Indian and Hardin's Creeks on the east and White Oak Creek on the west are the longest. The valleys of Indian, Har

The

din's, and Horse Creeks are the richest in the county. The land within them is generally occupied, and is in a good state of cultivation. creek valleys on the west side of the river are not so fertile as those on the east, being too much of a clayey nature too low and wet for nice farming. The valley of White Oak Creek is very large, and has some good farming land in it, but the farmers are often much troubled in the spring and fall by the backwater from the river, which sometimes runs up the creek beyond the limits of the county.

The Tennessee River enters the county on the south and runs a winding course, curving toward the west, until it reaches Cerro Gordo; from there its general course is north to Point Pleasant; from here it runs for several miles in a north-east direction, forming the line between Hardin and Decatur.

The most noted bluffs on the river are Pyburn's, in the southern part of the county, named after the man who first settled there; Coffee Bluff, near Coffee Landing, named from the coffee sand, of which it is principally composed; and Swallow Bluff, below Point Pleasant, on the Decatur side,