Haymount and the Arsenal
Another section of Fayetteville is clearly recognizable in The House Behind the
Cedars. When George Tryon, from Clamence, South Carolina, visits Dr. Green in
Patesville, he is taken on the following route.
The drive by which Dr. Green took Tryon to his own house led up Front Street about a
mile, to the most aristocratic portion of town. situated on the hill known as
Haymount,
or, more briefly. "The Hill." (120)
The "Hill" serves in the novel as a geographic reminder of the divisions
between social classes in Patesville. Visiting Dr. Green on the Hill, Tryon meets those
who remember the "old order," and who resent the recent changes in southern
society.
Chesnutt probably had one of the houses in Haymount in mind when he wrote this passage in "Uncle Wellington's Wives."
He fell asleep and dreamed that he lived in a two-story brick house, with a spacious
flower garden in front, the whole inclosed by a high-iron fence; that he kept a carriage
and servants, and never did a stroke of work. This was the highest style of living in
Patesville, and he could conceive of nothing finer. (208)
At the top of Haymount hill Tryon views a site
that is well known to the people of Fayetteville -- the Arsenal -- and Chesnutt
provides an accurate account of this moment of Fayetteville history.
... stretched ruined walls, dismantled towers, and crumbling earthworks -- footprints
of the god of war, one of whose temples had crowned this height. For many years before the
rebellion a Federal arsenal had been located at Patesville. Seized by state troops upon
the secession of North Carolina. It had been held by the Confederates until the approach
of Sherman's victorious army, whereupon it was evacuated and partially destroyed. The work
of destruction begun by the retreated garrison was completed by the conquerors, and now
only ruined walls and broken cannon remained of what had once been the chief ornament and
pride of Patesville.
Click
here for photo of what remains of Arsenal today.
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