Eastward from the Blue Ridge the extended line of the Piedmont Branch
of the Southern Railway parallels the base of the range on its route
from Washington southwest to Atlanta. The railroad from Asheville
southeast to Columbia and Charleston crosses it at Spartansburg in
South Carolina. This is a prosperous little town in a region of iron
and gold-mines, with also a development of mineral springs, attractive
as a summer resort to the people of Charleston and residents of the
South Carolina lowlands. Ten miles northeast of Spartansburg is the
Revolutionary battlefield of the Cowpens, getting its name from the
adjacent cow-pasture in the olden time. Here on a hill-range called
the Thickety Mountain, January 17, 1781, the British under Tarleton
were signally defeated. The railway passes through a rolling country,
and thirty-three miles farther northeast is King's Mountain, where the
previous battle was fought, October 7, 1780, in which the British
under Colonel Ferguson were also defeated and a large part of their
forces captured. Beyond, the boundary is crossed from South to North
Carolina and Charlotte is reached, having cotton factories and gold
mines and twelve thousand people, the county-seat of Mecklenburg,
where the famous resolutions were passed, May 20, 1775, demanding
independence. Farther northeast is Salisbury, where was located one
of the chief Confederate prisons during the Civil War, and the
National Cemetery now contains the graves of over twelve thousand
soldiers who died there in captivity. Beyond this, the Yadkin River is
crossed, and the route enters the tobacco district. Here is
Greensboro', and near it the Revolutionary battle of Guilford Court
House was fought March 15, 1781, when Lord Cornwallis defeated General
Greene. To the eastward is Chapel Hill, the seat of the University of
North Carolina, with three hundred students. Farther east is the great
tobacco town of Durham, with large factories and six thousand people
supported by this industry, whose education is cared for by Trinity
College, which has been munificently endowed by the tobacco princes
Colonels Duke and Carr. Twenty-five miles still farther east is
Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, a city of fifteen thousand
inhabitants, built on high ground near the Neuse River. It has a
central Union Square from which fine streets diverge, and here is
located the impressive State House, modelled after the Parthenon.
Raleigh has various public institutions, and large cemeteries where
the dead of both armies who fell in the Civil War are buried.
The Congaree River, flowing southeast out of the Blue Ridge,
intersects the extensive Pine Barrens of South Carolina, and here on
the railway route from Asheville via Spartansburg to Charleston is the
South Carolina State capital, Columbia. It is built on the bluffs
along the river, a few miles below its falls, and in a charming
location, the view of the valley from the grounds of the Executive
Mansion and Arsenal Hill being very fine. The South Carolina State
House is a magnificent building on which a large sum has been
expended, and in the grounds is a monument to the Palmetto Regiment of
South Carolinians who served with distinction in the war with Mexico.
It was here that the Nullification Ordinance was passed in 1832, and
the Secession Ordinance in December, 1860. General Sherman, on his
march from Atlanta to the sea in February, 1865, occupied Columbia,
when, unfortunately, the city was set fire and a large portion
destroyed. The Pine Barrens and sand hills of South Carolina stretch
southwestward from the Congaree to the Savannah River, and in this
region is the popular winter resort of Aiken, surrounded by vast
forests of fragrant pines growing in a soil of white sand, the town
being a gem in the way of gardens and shrubbery which, with the balmy
atmosphere, make it additionally attractive. While Aiken does not have
a large population, yet it has very wide streets to accommodate them,
the main avenue being two hundred and five feet and the cross streets
one hundred and fifty feet wide. Its attractiveness of climate is
condensed into the statement that the Aiken winter is "four months of
June." A few miles westward is the Savannah River, and here at the
head of navigation is Augusta, Georgia, on the western bank, a great
cotton mart and seat of textile factories, which have attracted a
population of thirty-five thousand, the city being known as the
"Lowell of the South." The Sibley Cotton Mill is regarded as being
architecturally the handsomest factory in the world. The whole
surrounding district is an almost universal cotton-field, thus
furnishing the raw materials for this industry. Near this mill stands
the tall chimney of the Confederate Powder Works, left as a grim
memorial of the Civil War. The various mills are served by canals
bringing the water for power from the Savannah River at a higher level
above the city, with an ample fall. Augusta is regarded as one of the
most beautiful of the Southern cities, having wide tree-embowered
streets and many ornate buildings, and it fortunately escaped injury
during the Civil War. It was laid out by General Oglethorpe, the
Georgia founder, on the same artistic plan as Savannah, and he named
it after the English princess, Augusta. The Savannah River, the
largest of Georgia, and forming the boundary with South Carolina,
rises in the Blue Ridge in close proximity to the headwaters of the
Tennessee and the Chattahoochee. Its initial streams, the Tugaloo and
Kiowee, unite in the Piedmont district to form the Savannah, which
then flows four hundred and fifty miles past Augusta and Savannah to
the sea.