3-003-835 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Civil War in America: Munson's Hill, with the earthwork thrown up by the Confederates in front of the Union lines, Virginia, from a sketch by our special artist, 1861. 'This is the point in Virginia at which the Unionists and Confederates are nearest to each other, and whilst our Artist was making his sketch, crouched beneath the shelter of the foliage...a continual spattering of bullets fell round the spot. More than halfway up the road towards the hill is a barricade, from behind which a Secessionist sharpshooter is having some pot shots, and, screened by the hedges in the cornfields, others are doing the same. In the foreground are the Union advanced pickets, furnished by the Michigan Regiment, one of whom is...firing at two or three men beyond the barricade. A Michigan soldier just shot lies in the road. The Confederates have some rifled cannon on the earthwork, and whenever they see a number of Federalists together they send in a dose of shells...Munson's-hill is probably the highest eminence within ten miles of the Potomac, immediately opposite Washington...At present an immense Confederate flag - the red, white, and blue stripes in which are at least five feet wide each - is the most prominent object upon the top of the eminence'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.