The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-05-22
VOL. LXV.
HOLLYWOOD DAY.
TIE MEMORIAL oBsERVANcES.
Refinement OF Bodies from Seven Pines
Military Display Address by Rev. Mr..
Inndrum-Incidenix.

tion OF the people as they see friend after
friend drop from the ranks Of busy life,
disappear from the streets, and join the
great multitude who there rest under the
shade Of the trees.
Never did the cemetery look sweeter
than yesterday. Recent rains had dissi-
pated the dust and made bright and fresh
all growing things. Hollies, oaks, magno-
lias, elms, poplars, pines-all were in the
royalest livery OF spring-while the roses
and honeysuckles periumed the breeZes
from the river. and the grassy carpet gave
elasticity to the step OF him who wandered
where the unmounded and unmarked
graves Of soldiers were thickest. Over
all was great calm, great peace, broken
only by the notes OF the red bird, the chirp
OF the sparrow, or the roar OF the river,
beating its way over the rocks to find obh-
won in the sea.
BLOODY FRUIT OF BATTLE.
To think OF it-more than $4,000 per-
sons-nearly half of them soldiers and
young men, here in their mortal parts
await the general resurro&tion. Here we
all have loved ones; here are faces that it
would be worth millions to see IN life; here.
stilled voices, the sound OF which would
be enhancing music. Here lie Confederate
soldiers not in companies only. but in bat
talions, in regiments, and in brigadeS. Here
are the bloody fruits Of Williamsburg,
Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill,
Cold Uarbor, Savage's Station, FraZier's
Farm, Malvern Hill, Shmpsburg, Gettys-
burg, Fort Harrison, Yellow Tavern, and
many other fields where Confederate yalor
illumined the pages OF history.
WARS RUDE FOOTSTEPS.
Looking over the ground you can see
the war mapped out.
The earliest dead were buried in the Gem
etery proper. Here is the bed OF South
Carolina boy OF sixteen. He came with
the first troops to Virginia. Disease laid
its hand upon him, and he was re-
moved from camp into the house Of some
city friend. No doubt his mother was
sent for, and maybe he died in her arms.
He was buried by loving hands. He had
funeral honors. The earth was mounded
over his coffin. A marble stone bears an
sflectiOnate inscription. Roses bloom about
his grave
He died before the war had really COM
menced, and OF such graves there are seye-
ral dozen.
FILLING THE FIELD.
After Seven Pines-that bloody fight
which laid low 10000 men and taught the
Confederate Government what war was
they filed up all the space and crossed
over the fence (now removed, and began
10 bury in - the soldiers section"
This was still in the early days OF the
war (June, 1862, and there are many
head-pieces, some of marble, some Of
wood, saying, "Died Of wounds received
at Seven Pines" Hundreds OF these
breathed their last in Richmond houses.
The Confederacy had previously not known
what war was. The hospital accommoda-
tions were insignificant, and were soon
oyercrowded, and then the wounded lay
| in the streets until citizens would take
them to their houses.
| In those days nearly every residence be-
came hospital; every lady nurse.
THE EARLY DEAD.
These heroic soldiers died ere their uni
| forms had become soiled with weary
months spent in trenches; they died be-
| fore rations had come to be so desperately
short; they died when the hopes Of the
| Confederacy were high and ere their loyal
young hearts had been chilled by the sight
OF Grants ineXOrable circle closing in
upon the defenders of Richmond and Pc
| terSburg.
Further on in the grounds come the
| thicky-strewn graves, tenanted by those
who were fatally wounded in the Seven
DAYS Battles, and here and there head
pieces tell the mournful story. The war
was not vet old. There was still marble
TO be had still workmen TO cut it.
TIE MANY DEAD.
But as time went on the graves thick
ened in the fields by Hollywood. The vast
hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers
had been put on ChimbOrazo Hill Il: at
Howard's Grove in the eastern part OF the
city, and at camps Winder and Jackson in
the western. Deaths were sadly numer-
Gus. Oakwood received 10000 bodies;
HOLLYWOOD 10000. No fife, or drum, or
funeral squad followed the poor pine cof-
fin. A covered wagon took the body from
the hospital; laborers consigned 1t TO the
earth. No head-board was put up.
All! those were sad times. Our army
was opposing overwhelming resources"
No longer could we deliver such fierce
blows as swept the army Of Mcclellan from
the front of Richmond. Deaths were
steady; recruits were few. Where we
gained one man we lost ten.
Everybody became hardened to suffering.
SPECTRE OF STARVATION.
Earlier in the war a wounded or sick
man could be furloughed and sent home,
but the reyersCs of the COnfederacy had
cut thousands OF the soldiers OFF from their
places OF residence. So they had to stay
here and receive such attention as the hos
pitals OF this beleaguered city could pro-
vide.
Many ladies visited and nursed the men
in hospitals; but others who would have
cheerfully done so were chained down at
home fighting the spectre OF starvation,
which more and more plainly appeared as
State after State was lost to the Coincide
racy. as raiders cut railroads, as devas-
fotinr armies sowed with wreck and ruin
valleys from which should have come our
bread and meat.
THE BEGINNING AND THE END.
Uanpiest were the soldiers who fell
eorIiest. They were carefully nursed and
heartily mourned. They perished amid
tbe glory of war. When the war was
direSt their sick and wounded Fellows
those buried in the long rows al Holly
wood and Oakwood-bad little 10 COM
fort them. They were tended as Wen
as circumstances permitted; Dut thelr
lines had not fallen in pleasant places.
They were hurried with little cere-
mony into humble graves in what
was then but barren fields. Their graves
were after the war marked by the Holly
wood Memorial Association. Trees, shrubs.
and climbing vines were planted. A re,
lister OF the names OF the dead was printed
and the graves numbered to correspond
with n The monument was raised to their
the dead from Gettysburg, Sharps, /
hurg. Fort Harrison, Seven Pines, ana
other fields were gathered up and brought
o'"~| - -. ao,o.otion-doy custom inStl- |