The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-11-24
9Mistellatleot1s.
The Battle Fields of Seven Pines and
Fair Oaks---The Cemetery.

dill Odkb~-s Lie cemetery
The following letter from Richmond to the
New York Times, will be read with interest by
hundreds of families whose hopes lie buried in
the localities which it describes
Two days ago, with the gladstone beams of
the October sun dancing among the pines, and
The lazy dreaminess of an October day about us
party Of tour made tour Of the battle-fields of
Seven Pines and Fair Oaks. At respective dis
tances OF seven and nine miles from the city,
these battle-feds are more frequently visited by
the visitors to Richmond than any other OF the
numerous scenes of by-gone deadly strife that en-
compass the city, because more accessible So
lar as Seven Pines and Fair Oaks are concerned
the tourist finds little to reward him for his jolt
ing over the horrible roads leading from the city
TO the fields, which the armies reduced TO moth
ing more than q series of rcts, and which have
never been repaired. Gong out on what is call
ed the Nine-mile road, at about six miles from
the city the outer line of the defences Of Rich
mond is reached, and here the sight-seer had
best make his longest pause for here the hand
OF war has been laid so heavily upon the earth
that the impress of the stroak will last for years
This defensive line is probably the longest and
most elaborate ever constructed for field defence
Beginning on the James River, it sweeps around
the city at an average distance of six miles from
it, until it touches the North Anna far to the
northward. Up and down the hillocks run the
great trenches clasping between them on every
summit Fashioned fort, whose huge sides of
yellow earth are landmarks for miles in their
'front.' There is newneSs of appearance about
these works that is remarkable, when the fact is
considered that the rains ola quartette of years
have beaten upon them. But the fact is partly ex-
planned by considering the care and skill with
which they were originally constructed, and by
remembering that they never felt the shock of
battle for they have all been built since that
disastrous Spring, when, from the marshes of the
Chickahominy, Mcclellan was endeavorng to
reach out his hand 10 take Richmond by the
throat But, though unstained by blood, there
they stand to-day, most impressive memorials of
the gigantic dimensions our civil war assumed,
and OF the skill, fortitude and energy with which
it was waged
Standing at the fort on this line, which
ro"ns grimly upon the approaches to the Nine
mile road down in the 'front.' mile away,
group OF isolated oaks, trenching upon the edge
OF a pine woods can be observed. These are the
Fair Oaks, and they are passing fair to the eyes
in that wilderness Of pines and dwarf growth -
Between these oaks and pines and the line of
works where Lees lines then were, is open
ground-once cultivated fields, now abandoned
wastes save here and there a patch of corn-feld.
In the pine forest to the right of the Oaks Casey
was encamped that terrible day when the enemy
bounced upon him. and converted the pinery in
to shamble. There are few traces of the strug-
gle visible now. Scrutenize closely, and the
trees can be seen to be marked with bullets, here
and there one shattered with cannon ball at
intervals open graves, from which the dead have
been removed to other sepulchers and these are
ALL I have seen battle-ields while the battle
ragged, have traversed them as soon as it ceased
and must say that if then they were exciting,
at four years after that battle they are more
agreeable places Of resort. OF the torn and man
gled forms of men and beasts, and the hardly
less sorrowful suggestive debris of armies that
then Away cumbers and affrights mother EARTH
there is here at Fair Oaks not a trace. The dead
have been buried or have mouldered out ofsight
the wounded have been carried away to get we'll
or die the broken muskets, the blankets, can
teens and other articles that fall from the nerve
less soldier the bullet strikes him. have all been
carried off by tourists or utilized by the people of
the surrounding country Fair Oaks is to-day
then, nothing but solitude holding yet be-
meath its bosom the Wondering bones of many
of its victims, but bearing on its face hardly
scar of the terrible strife that so hacked and
mangled it four years ago.
Soulhwardly and eastwardly two miles from
the grove of oaks touching the edge Of that
horrible corduroy road, called in irony the Will
liamsburg pike, at precisely seven miles from
Richmond is the beginning of a heavy pine for
est hence the names Of Seven Pines, suggested
by the distance from the city and not descriptive
ofihe number of trees, for they are almost as
sands on the sea-shore, sweeping over great
breadth of ground down to the Chickahominy
and over the barren hills beyond. The ground
known as Seven pines bears no impress Of the
terrible scenes once enacted upon it than does
Fair Oaks, and the two fields are so contiguous
as 10 be blended in one as the battles were 30
coincdent in time that only the pen OF critical
history can draw the line between them. Our
accounts, indeed, if | remember rightly, class
them as one, under the name of Seven Pines
but the Confederates seem to consider them two
separate and distinct actions and have christened
them Fair Oaks and Seven Pines.
ItmatterS little whether one or two there lies
the ground to-day seven miles away from this
populous city, and it is wilderness and soli-
tude know not whether before the war it
bore the same aspect or not but as it looks now
it does not require lively imagination to con-
slider the curse of the shedder of blood is upon.-
On very few acres of the entire breadth has the
plow followed in the track of havoc, and where
it has, the vegetation is stunted and has sickly
appearance. The pines seem murmuring an
everlasting requium the few of human kind
ever to be seen about the place were detested
look, in short, the whole scene brings wildly
to mind that painting of desolation, Hoods
g Haunted House, se.a4
Not the least sorrowful of the inspirations Of
Seven Pines is one Of those cemeteries with which
the Government is diffusing might almost say
Decorating, all the battle-delds Of the war
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