The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1870-12-31
The Burial of the Dead.
BIZ COL. THEODORE o HARA, OF KENTUCKY.

By COL. THEODORE o HARA, OF KENTUCKY.
The author of the following lines was Col.
Theodore o Hara, one of Kentueky's most
gifted sons-eqnally brilliant as a soldier
and poet. He served with distinction i'll
the Confederate army. and was with Gen.
Albert Sidney johnson when that distin-
g,Iished leader was killed on the battlefield
Of Shiloh in 1862. Gel OIiara served with
the Kentucky troops IN the Mexican war,
and the removal Of the remains Of the Ken
tHckians who fell at Buepa Vista flor rein
tefment at Frankfort. Ky..) was the occasion
which caifeS forth this thrilling expression
of "a soldiers love for the fallen brave. Every
Confederate soldier will read these lines with
tender feeling now since the brave aud gem
erOus @ Hara, too, has gone to join his long
lost comrGde.
The muffled drums sad roll has beat
The soldiers last tattoo;
No more on life's parade shall meet
The brave and daring few.
On flames eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead
No answer to the foes advance
! Now swells upon the wind
No troubled thought at midnight hsunts
| Of loved ones left behind
No vision of the morrow's strife
The warriors dream alarms
No braying horn and screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.
Theirshivered swords are red with rust,
! Their plnlned heads arc bowed,
Their naughty banner trailed in dust,
Is now their martial shroud
And plenteOus funeral tears have washed
The red stains from each brow,
And their proud forms i'll battle gashed,
Are free from anguish now.
The neighing steed, the flashing blade,
The trumpet's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout are past;
And wars wild note, nor glory peal
Shall ill with fierce delight,
Those breasts that never more shall feel
The rapture of fight.
Like the dread northern hurricane
That sweeps his broad plateau,
Flushed with the triumph yet to gain,
Came down the serted foe;
Our heroes felt the shock, and leapt
To meet them on the plain
And long the plying sky hath wept
Above the gallant slain.
Ye must not linger there,
Where strangers steps and tongue resound
Along the needless air;
, Your own proud lands heroic soil
Shall be your filter grave;
She claims from war her rightest spoil
The ashes of her brave.
So meath their pitying turf they rest,
Far from the CORY field;
Borne to Spartan Mothers breast,
On many bloody shield;
4 The sunshine of their native sky
Smiles sadly on them here,
: And kindred hearts and eyes watch by
The hero's sepulchre.
. Rest on embalmcd and sainted dead
Dear as the blood We gave;
No impious footsteps here shall tread
The heritage of your grave;
3 Nor shall your glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps,
: Or Honor points the hailOwed spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps.
Your marble minstrel's voiceless tone
In deathless songs shall tell,
When many a vanquished age hath flown,
: The story how he fell;
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winters blight
\ Nor time rcmorseless doom,
Shall dim one ray of hight
p That gllds your glorious tomb.
1 1T is curious fact that at Ariingtt
Heights, 1.-THE property of Mrs. Gen LIE
= taken by the Goyernment,) and the Soldier
Home, near Washington, and on Gencr
I Hayes monument in the cemetery at Pitt
burg, the lines of this verse are inscribed {
4 the monuments erected in honor of the Fe
eral soldiers killed i'll the late war.