Bent County register., 1886-11-13
BENT co. REGISTER.
Issued Every saturday
BY THE REGISTER PUBLISHING co.
A THnIFrY FARMER SrEcuLArEs IN

The condition of the battle-ground
of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks is a
disgrace to the citizens of Virginia
and the nation at large. Bones of
those who died in that bloody con-
tlict are scattered thickly on the sur
face of the ground, and if the facts
were told, many of the stones which
stand in the National cemetery of
Seven Pines, within quarter of a
mile of where many men who wore
the blue and gray 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 af /
forwards the bones of the slain lie /
half hidden by leaves and brush by
the score, and yet such is the case.
The theatre of the great but unde-
cisive struggle at Seven Pines has |
been turned into place where 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 4
brave lads who are numbered with 4
the missing lie. 1t is difficult to es-
cape the guides, but it pays the visi-
tor to make his own way over the
field of battle. He does not follow
the beaten path in which those who
gain money by exhibiting the bones
of the boys who died amid the roar
of cannon and the rattle of musket-
ry take their victims, and he gains
for himself positive information of
the actual condition of things.
A Sunday News correspondent, in
company with w. IL. Barrett and
Michael Fogarity, of Philadelphia,
and NJ. c. Thorton, of Wisconsin,
slipped away from these guides and
were Mortified Al what they found.
Under the leaves and twigs and
amid the thick brush of oak and
pines, which has sprung up during
the last twenty years, the bones of
many brave men were found. They
had answered to the order to charg c
the batteries which stood on the
other side of the ploughed field and
had laid down their lives ere the
outer entreuchment was taken. As
night fell on the thirtieth day of 1
May, 1862, many of the boys failed
to answer the roll call and were
placed among the missing. 1t was
n partly cultivated field then. Now
pines twenty feet in height cover
the bloody ground and even stand
IL l. 1. L.. ]
which the rebel cannons 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, although the
flag which flies from the staff in the
Seven Pines cemetery is within
sight. Whether those bones were
clothed in the blue or the gray Is
unknown, but many men are ready
to testify that whoever was entrusted
with the duty of collecting those
bones has failed in his trust.
The reason for the failure is man
ifest, The fact that the bones still
lie there attracts many people to the
field of carnage, and every one that
falls into the clutches of the guides
must pay his toll a party of TWEEN
ty-one, which included several men
from Philadelphia and vicinity. had
to pay 1926 for walking behind
guide for an hour. This same guide
owns zoo acres of the land upon
which the battle was fought He
began by purchasing one acre, for
which he paid So The same prlce
was paid for the remainder of the
ground which he has bought and
every cent-of the money was extort-
ed from Northern visitors to the
battlefield. He was ordered by the
government to pick up all the bones
disinler the buried soldiers and see
that they were removed to the Gem
etery just across the road. Inst cad
of doing so be has placed skulls and
other bones of the dead in various
places and guides the visitors by
beaten paths to these spots. He
nevertakes them through the thicket.
Another dodge of this man Lynne
is to find battered musket ball on
the ground and sell it to the visitor
for fifty cents if he can, and for ten
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