the American man, the mineral development seems incredible. In what is known as the "Dyestone Belt" the immense layers of red hematite run without a break for one hundred and fifty miles, swelling, sometimes, to eight or ten feet in thickness, but never sinking below five. One hundred pounds of this stratified red-iron rock, soft and easily crushed, will yield seventy pounds of pure iron. It is the same ore which, out-cropping in Virginia, has for years supplied the splendid furnaces of Eastern Pennsylvania, and, extending through North-eastern Georgia into Alabama, is known as the "Red Mountain ore" of the latter State. And this grand belt lies at the very base of the coal measures! The East Tennessee Valley extends north-east and south-west about two hundred and eighty miles from Chattanooga to the Virginia line. North-west of it is the Cumberland table-land, which Andrew Jackson was wont to declare would one day be the garden of the United States; and one of the outlines of this plateau, extending from the vicinity of Chattanooga to Cumberland Gap, is known as "Walden's Ridge." This is the southeastern limit of the great Appalachian coal-field, which covers six thousand square miles-considerably more than the entire coal area of Great Britain. All the ridges in the "Valley" contain minerals; they are ribbed with iron ore of every variety. In some cases the veins of red fossiliferous ore extend under the coal-fields. The numerous rivers heading in the North Carolina and Western Virginia mountains drain north-west towards the Tennessee, and form natural highways upon which to bear the ore to the beds of coal. The stores of red and brown hematites in the Alleghany chain and the Cumberland range are absolutely inexhaustible. This grand mineral field is blessed with a delicious climate, which the high mountain walls render temperate in winter and cool and entirely free from malaria in summer. Before 1860, numbers of furnaces were worked in the "Dyestone Belt," and excellent ore was produced; but an especial impetus has been given to the production of that section since the war. Gen. John T. Wilder, of Ohio, while campaigning under Rosecrans, against Chattanooga, in 1863, at the head of a brigade of mounted infantry, became interested in the hills, from which might be blasted thousands of tons of ore in a day, in the great veins of hematites, sometimes covering hundreds of acres, and in that mighty stretch of two hundred miles along the now famous ridge, where coal and iron lie only half a mile apart, with massive limestone crust between them. When he laid by his sword, he continued the study of these mineral deposits, and after purchasing the site on which the village and furnaces of Rockwood now stand, associated with himself a company of capitalists, and in 1867 organized the Roane Iron Company, with a capital of $1,000,000. This company purchased the rail mill at Chattanooga, which had been built by the Federal Government; tunneled the Cumberland Mountain for coal; and in 1868 began to manufacture pig-iron cheaper than it has been made elsewhere in the country, and to supply it to the rollingmills, sending it down the Tennessee river in steamers and barges.* wood is now a brisk village of two thousand inhabitants, of whom about one half are workmen in the furnaces and the coal mines. It is situated seventy miles northeast of Chattanooga, in the heart of a rugged mountain region. The energetic Western men who have it in charge are confident that in a few years their city will rival Pittsburg in growth, for they claim that they can manufacture iron at least $10 or $12 per ton cheaper than it can be made anywhere else in the United States. It would certainly be remarkable if a mineral region so vast and well stocked as that of Northern Georgia, Northern Alabama and Eastern Tennessee, in the midst of which Chattanooga stands,— should not produce at least one city of a hundred thousand inhabitants within a few Rock * According to the census of 1870, there were then in Tennessee fourteen establishments manufacturing pig-iron, with twenty-three blast furnaces and $1,103,750 capital, producing 28,688 tons, worth $1,147,707. There were eighteen rollingmills, with a capital of $253,750, producing rolled iron worth $369,222, and thirty-three manufactories of cast iron, with a capital of $331,392, the products of which annually amounted to about half a million dollars. The number of establishments has much increased since that time. † Twenty-five thousand tons of ore are mined at Rock wood yearly, and about 12,000 tons of pig-iron are sent thence to Chattanooga, Atlanta, St. Louis and Louisville. The rolling-mill at Chattanooga produces about 15,000 tons of rails annually. The impetus given to the growth of Chat The tanooga by the establishment of this mill and the Vulcan Iron Works has been tremendous. The price paid the Government for the rolling-mill and 145 acres of land at Chattanooga, by the Roane Iron Company, was $225,000. patent puddling apparatus of an Englishman named Danks,-an apparatus which is expected to revolutionize iron manufacture, by an immense saving in cost, has been introduced into the works. The cost of ore at the Rockwood furnaces is about $2 per ton; that of coal, $1.40 per ton: limestone, eighty cents. It is not astonishing, in view of these prices, that the Company hope eventually to manufacture rails and deliver them in Pittsburg cheaper than they can be made there years. for furnaces and rolling mills in each of the three States, whose commercial center Chattanooga properly is, and hundreds of thousands of acres have recently been purchased by companies, who will, probably, develop them within the next five years. The new aspirant for the honors of ❘ Capital is fast finding out the best locations rapid growth has made sterling progress. Cotton mills and car works are springing up beside the rolling mills and foundries; many fine mansions already grace the principal residence streets; and hundreds of mechanics are building neat cottages along the slopes on both sides of the Tennessee. Swiss capital is engaged in the manufacture of cotton, and English investors are carefully studying the iron and coal fields with a view to finally erecting large rolling mills in the city; banks, good hotels, well- | sade at a time when the broad plateau planned streets, and excellent schools and churches, have arisen like magic within seven years; and the constant stream of produce transferred from the river to the railroads gives an activity and feverishness to the aspect of the streets, at certain seasons, which is quite inspiring. Even within the "Crow's Nest" there is iron ore, in the north-west slopes of "Cameron Hill," a high bluff from which one can overlook the Tennessee and the busy town stretched along its banks, even to the base of "Lookout." In the Eastern, Dyestone, and Western iron belts of Tennessee there were more small furnaces before the war than at present; but it is doubtful if so much iron was manufactured then as now. Most persons in this country or in Europe who have heard of Lookout Mountain since "the war" have also been, told of the "battle above the clouds." It was my fortune to scale the remarkable pali which runs along its summit was literally enshrouded in formidable mists. The rain was falling in torrents as, with two companions, I galloped through the little town at the foot of the mountain; but, ere we had scaled the winding road, the shower was over, and a brisk wind began to stir the mists. We could see little but the ledges along whose sides the route ran, but as we arrived nearly at the summit, the mist curtain was lifted for an instant, and revealed to us a delicious expanse of valley, with sunlight smiles here and there chasing away the rain's tears. Then we were shrouded in again, and our horses, apparently inspired by the gloomy grandeur of the occasion, rattled furiously along the hard roads, over which the boughs hung uncomfortably near our heads. The red sandy clay nourishes enormous pines, whose roots have here and there been disturbed by the sandstone bowlders, and stretched out their fibers in a desperate grasp; along the pathways great blocks of stone, carved by the storms and polished by the winds, are scattered. We galloped nearly to the massive perpendicular wall which arises directly out of the valley, and disdainfully frowns down upon the Tennessee, spurned from its base fourteen hundred feet below; and tethering our horses, approached to the very edge. There we seemed shut off from all the world. Now and then a hum from the valley-the faint growl of a locomotive or the rolling of wheels-came faintly up; we heard the cow-bells and the bleating of the sheep on the hillsides behind us; and just as we were trying to imagine how "the battle" must have been, the wind came sweeping away the mist curtain, and we beheld the whole! From "Umbrella Rock" we saw "the Moccasin," that curious point of land made by the Tennessee's powerful turn; the streets and houses of Chattanooga seemed like toys, or little blocks of wood. Mission Ridge was an insignificant blue line. The Tennessee seems to turn in de VIEW IN ROCK CITY. ference to Chattanooga, for it might readily inundate it, and has once compelled the citizens to navigate their streets in boats. Beyond it, northward and westward, the eye encounters forests and ridges where the mountains seem to have been split assunder by some convulsion of nature-until, at last, on the east, the Cumberland range springs up, and forbids you to choose any other horizon. Southward, beyond broad and quiet vales, richly cultured, are the mountains of Georgia, and westward the tree-crested ridges in Alabama. We clambered down a flight of wooden steps to a secure point of the crags, and looked over the valley out of which Hooker hurried his troops on to the summit, when he broke the left of Bragg's formidable army. It was a wild struggle, a running and leaping fight among rocks and behind trees, when men carried their lives in their hands, and their swords in their teeth, as they wormed their way through the fastnesses, and then made their charge upon the foe so strongly intrenched above the very clouds, upon "Point Lookout." The old government hospital still stands on its picturesque bluff, deserted now save by curious visitors; here and there along the broad plateau are scattered comfortable houses, and log cabins; good roads lead into the northern counties of Georgia; near "Rock City,"-a gigantic series of galleries in disrupted stone pinnacles which rise amid the ragged brush and saplings, is another enormous uplift of limestone, from which one may see the whole of Chattanooga Valley, the Raccoon, and Lookout ranges, and the battle-field of Chickamauga. Descending, five or six miles from the point where the turnpike from the city reaches the summit, into the valley of Walker County, in Northern Georgia, one comes to a region of precipices and waterfalls, of tarns and caves, of landslides and bluffs. Near "Lake Seclusion," an apparently bottomless well, sunk a hundred feet below the surrounding rocks, the scenery is exquisite. In autumn the foliage on the cliffs bordering the stream which flows through this lake, and plunges farther on down a ravine in a blinding spray cloud, which the Indians named "Lulah Falls," is so rich in color that the whole country seems aflame. From one or two of the highest points the ragged ends of the Lookout plateau, and the pleasant expanse of valley beyond, may be seen. Riding day by day along the broad tables of the Cumberland, in the nooks on the banks of the Tennessee, and up and over the ridges near the scene of Chickamauga, it was pleasant to hear anew the story of the great fight around Chattanooga from the lips of those who had been participants. But it was all unreal, dreamlike. When we stood with our feet in halffilled rifle pits, or among the shattered and cannon-scotched tree trunks on the field of combat, it was still remote, indefinite. I fancy even the natives of the country round about only remember the whole struggle vaguely now and then; although a Chattanooga man once said to a new comer from the West that when he wanted some paper which the invading army had burned up for him, or remembered the losses of property he had suffered, he "hated the whole Yankee nation for a minute or two;" but, he added, "it's only for a minute or two, and those minutes don't come as often as they did." Chattanooga's possession by the Union army cost many thousands of lives; but it opened the way to Atlanta and the sea. The line which stretched from Lookout's northern crag to Mission Ridge, on the night of November 24th, 1863, might have been quadrupled in strength if the dead warriors from Murfreesboro' and Chickamauga could have been marshalled into it. There was an especial bitterness in the contention of this rocky gate-way. After the staggering blows which both armies had received in that terrible fight by Stone River, Bragg and Rosecrans were both willing enough to rest for a little; but when Bragg had withdrawn, and it was evident that his formidable campaign, which had carried terror even to the gates of Louisville and Cincinnati, was at an end, then the Union standards led the way to Chattanooga. There, strongly intrenched, Bragg defied his old antagonist. On the morning of August 21st, 1863, General Wilder, commanding the advance of Rosecrans's army, began shelling the city which he now makes his home, from the hills at the north side of the river. Meantime day by day the Federal forces were investing Chattanooga, having crossed the Tennessee at Bridgeport, at Battle Creek, and at Shell Mound. On the 4th of September Burnside occupied Knoxville. Bragg moved the Confederate forces away toward Dalton, and Rosecrans entered the town, and followed the enemy, who turned fiercely, and stood at bay on Chickamauga. Longstreet's Virginians and Bragg's hardy army fought with the energy of desperation, and if on that memorable 19th of September, when the combatants waded in blood, Longstreet had had another than Thomas to encounter, he might have carried the Federal left which he so furiously attacked. Thomas drove Longstreet back a mile or two, but, as the center failed to keep pace with his advance, he was compelled to halt. Then Bragg fell upon the forces under command of McCook and Crittenden, and the waves of battles flowed to and fro until night, when the Federal army still held its own ground. Early in the morning Thomas had the enemy once more hurled at him, but repulsed him as before. The Union right and center were driven back: McCook was confused and demoralized: Thomas alone stood like a rock, and kept the enemy at arm's length until night, when he fell back to Rossville, to be attacked again, and to once more repulse his foes the next day. Fifteen thousand men had been lost to the Union army, in killed, wounded and missing, in these two days; and the Confederates had lost eighteen thousand. The field of Chickamauga was piled with the dead, and the rivulets | side and the army of the Ohio. Longstreet literally ran blood. The flushed and defiant enemy now stood ready to again fall upon Chattanooga. They had struck some terrible blows. Rosecrans, McCook, and Crittenden, were removed from command. The Confederate forces occupied Lookout Mountain and controlled the valley, cutting off rail and river communication. Provisions were hauled over the rough hill-roads and through the narrow passes on the north side of the river, for seventy miles, by animals worn to skeletons, and by men who were half starved; and so, on mountain and in forest, along the valleys and the rivers, the vigilant combatants stood, patiently awaiting the next move, when there came upon the scene a man named Grant. had twenty thousand splendid soldiers, and Burnside far less; it might fare hardly with him, but it was one of the moves on Grant's chessboard, and there was nothing to be said. It resulted in checkmating Bragg at Mission Ridge. Twenty thousand men having been taken from the line which the Confederates had stretched along the Lookout plateau, eastwardly across Chattanooga Valley to Mission Ridge, at or near Rossville Gap, and thence northwardly on the Ridge towards Chickamauga Creek, by the departure of Longstreet that line was attacked. The plan was to assault the wings, to cause Bragg to throw large forces to their protection, and then to break the center. Hooker and Sherman began working in As soon as General Grant had taken earnest. The twenty-fourth of November command of the military division of the saw the left of the enemy driven from Mississippi, communication, both by river Lookout, and the right forced out of its poand rail, was gradually re-established, and sition. Next day the wave of war swept Chattanooga was unlocked. Sherman reup Mission Ridge, up over the charming inforced the army there in mid-November. slopes where now the great National Grant's next move was to allow Longstreet cemetery is situated, up to the summit, to do what he had several times unsuccessand at sunset Gen. Grant moved his fully tried, pass the Federal army to the east headquarters from Wood's Redoubt to the of Chattanooga and march against Burn-Ridge, which in the morning had been |