Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-04
THE FIELD OF FAIR OAKS.
A Thrifty Farmer Who Specuiates in
soldiera' Skulls and Relics.

On anu bSsst5s
The condition of the battle ground Of
Seven Pines aud Fair Oaks is a disgrace to
the citizens of Virginia and the nation at
large, says Richmond (Va.l correspondent
of the Philadelphia NewS. Bones of those
who died in that bloody conflict are
scattered thickly on the surface of the
ground, and if the facts were told many of
the stones which stand in the National
Cemetery of Seven Pines, within a quarter
of mile of where many men who wore
the blue and grey fell, mark almost empty
graves.
1t would be hard for any one who had
not gone over the ground of one of the
hottest battles ever fought to believe that
twenty-four years afterward the bones of
the slain lie half hidden by the leaves and
brush by the score, and vet such is the case.
The theater of the great but undecisive
struggle at Seven Pines has been turned
into a place where a few men can reap
financial profit by guiding visitors to the
spot where skulls protrude from the
ground, and where all that remains of
many brave lads who are numbered among
the missing lie. 1t is difficult to escape
the guides, but it pays the visitor to make
his own way over the field of battle He
does not follow the beaten path in which
bhOsO W A1C gam AlOlASl W OALlblllll3 lnC
bones of the boys who died amid the roar
of cannon and the rattle OF musketry take
their victims, and he gains for himself
positive information of the actual condition
of things.
A Sunday Ne,cS correspondent, in COM
pany with w. H. Barrett and Michael Fo-
garty, of Philadelphia, and NJ. C. Thorton.
OF Wisconsin, slipped away from these
guides, and were Mortified at what they
found. Under the leaves and twigs, and
amid the thick brush of oak and pines
which had sprung up during the last twenty
years, the bones of many brave men were
found. They had answered to the order to
charge the batteries which stood on the
other side of the plowed field, and had laid
down their lives ere the outer intreGch-
ment was taken. As night fell on the 30th
of May 1862 many of the boys failed to
answer the roll-call, and were placed
among the missing. 1t was partly cult
waited field then. Now pines twenty feet in
hight cover the bloody ground, and even
stand .on the breastworks from behind
which the rebel cannon belched forth
death, and where the marks of the wheels
of the artillery are still visible. The bones
of many of the fallen still lie there, al
though the flag which flies from the staff
in the Seven Pines cemetery is within
sight. Whether those bones were clothed
in the blue or gray is unknown, but many
men are ready to testify that whoever was
intrusted with the duty of collecting those
bones has failed in his trust.
The reason of the failure is manifest.
The fact that the bones still lie there attracts
many people 10 the field of carnage, and
every one that falls into the clutches of the
guides must pay his toll. A party of
twenty-one, which included several men
from Philadelphia and vicinity, had to
pay s. 60 for walking behind guide for
an hour This same guide owns 700 acres
of the land upon which the battle was
fought. He began by purchasing one acre,
for which he paid So. The same price was
paid for the remainder of the ground which
he bought, and every cent of the money
was extorted from Northern visitors to the
battlefield. He was ordered by the Gov
eminent to pick up all the bones, disinter
the buried soldiers and see that they were
removed to the cemetery just across the
road Instead of doing so he has placed
skulls and other bones of the dead in yari-
Gus places and guides the visitors by
beaten paths to these spots. He never
takes them through the thicket. Another
dodge of this man Lynne is TO find bat
tered musket ball on the ground and to sell
it to the visitor for 80 cents if he can, and
for 10 cents if he can get no more. The
balls are dropped by him when the visitor
is not looking and picked up when he is
looking. 1t bothers the man, however,
when the party he is guiding is large, and
when he dropped the ball last Sunday
afternoon the action was seen, and relic
selling for that day was at a very log ebb.