The weekly union record., 1865-03-11
The UNION RECORD.
Battle of Nashville, Dec. Is, 16, 1854

breath
Upon the crimson carnival Of Death
s. TIE NIGHT scExE.
But when the darkness swallowed up the day.
As if we entered the Elysian fields,
Through the eucircling clouds Of endless night,
We saw a glowing Paradise Of light.
A thousand camp-fires blossomed on the hills,
The fiame-leayed lilies OF the Field of Mars,
Minerva's bloody roses, passion flowers,
Planted by sooty Vulcan, whose red disc
Thrive best in crimson showers and gather strength
Famed by the means and sighs OF dying men.
Each tented hill pyramid Of fire
Flashed around the dark horizon, till it seemed
billowed sea Of many-twinkling lights,
Or burning girdle of Vesuvian erests
Whose surgiBg lava tTembe TO overlap
Their glowing craters, and engalf the plains.
Alas. for many harnessed warrior when
lon BattleTitian turns him in his den
THE PRELUDE.
Hearken In the murky morning.
Sounds the awful note of warning,
Winding down the river shore,
Trampe the veteran Sixteenth Corps,
Wilson's hugies charm the river,
With the signal of advance,
Twenty thousand guidons quiver
From the hOrsemans tapering lance;
Twenty thousand chargers feet
Hurry through the startled street.
Stretching ito the crack OF doom
Till they vanish in the gloom
OF the woods which fringe the West
Round Fort Zollicoffer's crest.
We hear along the Western shore
The sullen battles opening roar,
While aoft ip the clouds, ike the Angels OF Death
The whtewinged shells poured their sulphurous
breath.
Hateh's horsemen spur their steeds,
Croxtons sabres bright are glaneing,
johnson in the vanguard leads,
Still encifcling, still advancing,
Onward like torrents dashing
Spaulding carhine fire is flashing,
Like serpent line OF fire
Stewart reels before their ire.
Rolls the batte-tumult higher
The hero falls-the charger beeds,
The rebel line recoils /. recedes
Charge the batteries Ut is DONE
Stewards egions turn and fly
Swes the glad shout of Victory -
So the first days strife is won.
THE SECOND DAY.
The morning breaks
With battle thunder,
The city wakes
With fear and wonder,
See the glittering bayonets shine.
Along the front of Steedman's line.
The bagles call-the rolling drum
The mad shrek of the flying she'll
The rush-the soldiers frenzied yell,
The crash of the exploding bomb
Careering wildly through the air.
The distant batteries, vivid glare,
The cannon smoke with jets aloof,
The foaming chargers gathering hoof.
The musketry incessant shower,
Drifting lis lead round Acklin ; tower
The cannlster's consuming spray,
Where daun,less Steadman cleaycs his way;
Or fearless Woods heroic form
Stern as an oak conronts the storm,
Startle the eye and stun the ear
As sweeps the battles wild career.
There is dread and desperation,
There is wrath ahd trepdation
They grapple. they reel
In the sharp shock of steel,
They struggle, they bleed.
They rush, they recede
Deaths harvesters labor
With carbine and sabre.
In swaths the dead are falling and the MANNED and
bleeding wrihe
Before the steady swinging of the ponderOus battle
scythe.
THE CHIEF.
Serene and steady as the Polar Star
Whose light no clouds can quench nor pillows mar
But shines while tempests lash the deep below,
Thomas surveyed the turbid storm of war
Firm as Gibralter in the whrlwinds jar
And gazed and watched TO strike the final blow.
With god-like skill to reason and combine
The moment comes-'Now charge along the line
THE CHARG
Freemen of the stern Northwest,
Come with bayonets in rest,
Exles of East Tennessee
Strike and make the opresscr flee
Warriors once in fetters bound,
With liberty would You be crowned?
Now or never stand your ground.
Make your naughty masters feel
The vengeance of freeman,S STEEL
And trith or your shining shield
Rerurn in glory from the field.
Cenched lips turn pale, but they pale not with fear,
And the soldiers eye CLEANS like star ATS sphere
There's hush!
There's rnmhling and crush,
Like the breaking of the ice in a thawing rivers
flush,
The solid earth shakes with a universal rush.
The clouds OF battle break
She hills in terror quake,
While fire cnckes down their sides like red vol
canic lake
Beneath whose fiery surge that day full many bark
And many soul which morning woke from dreams
of high renown.
Face to face and sword tr sword
See the slave confront his lord:
Through the tumult the foamcovered charger Is
spurred,
And theshrieks ofthe wounded and dying are heart; ;
And mnsketS and carbines doubled and battered.
And sabres and bayonetS to atoms shattered
The command and the curse, and the groan and the
yell
Thunder up like the mad cauldron of hell.
Where is our chief His lips compressed,
Smother the tumult in his breast
Along the line his clear survey
Scans the Snre fortune Of the day.
Forward 10 the charge once moreiH
Then like the judgement thunder
Cleavinc the clouds asunder,
The shock OF cattle sweeps from shore 10 shore
And shakes the rock ribbed valley with its roar.
Like tropical tornado Death pours his crimson rain
In swirllng drifts Of slaughter along the trampled
plain.
Bleeding and torn, and shattered Hoods vanquished
legious fly,
And along the Union lines goes up the shout Of vic
tory.
Thus Nash,illes Two Days Battle by our noble
And opr hearts were filed with cladpess at the act