Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1865-03-08
Aurtb-Cluuliuu 5tullhar1
:. For the Standard.
A FATHERS DREAM OF HIS SOLDIER SON.
BY ".

dreamed that he came from the red field OF ngne.
His blue eyes were cleaning with unnatural ilgh1
And the GROW that in childhood SO Oft nao seen
prest
With mothers fond love to mothers soft breast,
Was black with the smoke of the terrible STRIFE
Where Death had Just reaped rich harvest of Life.
His garments were tattered, and wildly'his hair
Was floating disordered on the sulphurous air;
In his right hand he lifted high over his head
His smoke blackened cap, with its trimmings of red
But saw through the atmosphere's murky eclipse,
\ proud smile was wreathing his battleparcheo
lips, 49,
Andas he rushed forward he exultingly cried:
Father we've slain them the battles black tide
Game on US with all its proud banners unfurled,
But backward in death and confusion was hurled
they came like ooud-a cloud of dark blue
But MANLY was there, and his manly boys too.
Father, the heavens and the earth may be shaken,
But tell you-those guns They can meoer be
Come see for yourself the dread havoc we've made,
And the piles we have left for the grave disgers
spade ~
lila hal the mad fools with what rashness they
camel
Along their whole line STEAMED wild sheet of
They came with a rush and hideous yell.
But see where by scores and By hundreds they fell
That they to the charge like brave men is true
But we met them with grape and with canister too
Ay twice they rolled on, like blue wave of ocean
ust born of the storm in its fercest commotion,
And like that mad wave, when dashed gainst a
rock! -, ';>--'
They in fragments recoied from the terrible shock.
Iney never, no never, can capture. those guns
While defended by y ORTIZ Cardinals brave sons:
Those guns are our pets by them we will stand
No foeman shall ever upon them lay hardW
lie paused and the veins on his powder burnt brow
That had sweled with the hot bloods tumulilous
Shrank back by degrees to their smoothness again,
End bis visage assumed an expression Of pain:
Reflection and reason were returning once more
lrow the field that had drowned them in streams of
redgore -
In The swift shifting scenes of ms~-panorama,
Stood where was acted wars horrible drama:
stood at the front, and looked CIT DER the plain
That was covered with heaps of the manged and
slain. ...> - 80
On his hand for moment my son leaned his head,
Then raised it and calmly, but mournfullg said:
Father, while ragged the fierce tempest of strife,
WAS reckless of death, and regardless OF life
] exulted the fall of the foemen to see,
And l shouted aloud, like child in its glee,
but father, it comes to my memory nov .,.-
That mothers warm bosom has posed each
brow,
That yondsr lies cold in deaths icy embrace,
10 be laid by rude hands ia its last resting place
l think of the far distant homes of the dead
Of the gloom that around those Logged homes will
be spread,
OF the anguish mothers fond bosom will rend,
And fathers proud head that in sorrow will bend
think of the brothers and sisters who there,
70 Heaven have waited the incense of prayer,
That each in the battles wild rage might be spared,
To gladden. the homes they together had shared
Perhaps some in childhood, whose young hearts
will feel
Their first wound of grief which time can never
heal
To my mind these reflections all mournfully come
For know how 'twould be with my loved ones ut
home,
How my mother would grieve"- -
But no more could he speak,
And big tear was rolling down each blackened
cheek.
a strange, dizzy darkness came over my eyes,
And obscured the apparently receding Blue skies,
And bsckness and blood, with unwelcome Intrusion,
We're surging around me in widest confusion;
The black wing Of chaos seemed over me spread
And my bosom was filled with a'deep, nameless
dread;
My Thoughts wildly flowed, like turbulent stream,
., And 1 awoke from my half sad, my half pleasing
dream