The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1876-07-26
GETTYsBURG.


Upon q weather-beaten ledge
There stood soms cedar trees,
And wavering across the edge
Flew butterflies and b.es;
White clover spreads along marge
That lead to busy mills
The leaping waters caught at large
Upon the quiet hills:
The orchard yonder lifts to view,
Each bough with blossom rife,
Where spring with patient hand snew
Had wrought its work Of life;
And schoolboys sought with eager face
The ,hieket's deepest shade,
To mark afresh the cherished place
Where tiny eggs were laid;
Across the field together Jared,
. Contented so to stay,
A lad and lass whose cheeks declared,
What lips had done to-day;
And cattle loiter down the lane
Or In the sedges wait,
While cariess miikmaids call in vain
And gossip by the gate;
The sun sank low upon the sky
And lower yet, until
He tipped with light the tombs that lie
On Cemetery Hill.
Do the winds that wander there alone
Grayvapors wrap about e ach stone.
Or rise those shades to mighty tread
OF armies thronging overhead
From trailing clouds Of dust emerge
Long files Of stalwart men,
And steadily their way they urge
Through meadow and through glen.
There down the mountains in the west
March veterans in gray,
Whose feet the enyied sod had pressed
Where Susquehanna lay;
Here out Of eastern valleys stream
The volunteers In blue.
Who would those evil days redeem,
The Rappahannock knew Z.
The empty cannon rattle by,
Brigade and troop have gone,
With crowded wagons hooded high
In canvass closely drawn,
BY day the narrow roads they fill
And country side control,
Where woods prolong the bugle trill
For that Of oriole,
And fearful children uidc the HHlic
Behind the cottage door,
As women view with frown or smile
The soldiers forward pour
So dearer through each ardent noon
Thy noisy columns close,
And nearer meath sober moon
Their silent ranks repose,
While sentries watch the ancient vain
IA
Or start to hear q jealous snake
Go rustling through some tangled brake.
The winds of morning slowly strsaK
Green forests with the breath
OF angry rifles, as they speak
Their messages of death;
And wounded horsemen, reelling, tall
Beside the frightened steed,
As squadrons wheel at trumpet call
Where starry guidons lead.
The wind Of morning gayly Plays
About a smiling slope, ~
From which invading thousands gaze
Irradiate with hope.
The steep beyond, where grimly frowned
fropt OF men and rock,
The Union colors now have crowned,
Nor dread the threatened shock.
But o. er Northern hearts their nies
What Southern hands should spare
The flag that famed upon her skies
When Pakenham was there;
The flag that shook to Moultrie's cheer.
With British. ships abreast
The flag her yalor helped to rear
Meath 0rizaba's crest.
The sod below the orchard boughs
A blush OF deeper dye
Shall wear when those no hate can ron-e
Beside each other lie.
And II the spot should nameless be.
Some reaper may hereafter see
The bearded wheat with strange increase
And breathe for all a wish of peace.
The winds of morning hurry DER
The batteries below,
Nor stay to gather up the roar
From hostile slopes aglow
With bounding shot and riven she'll,
Amid whose fiery tide,
With musket ready to repel,
The infantry abide.
Thecannondid what cannon could.
Their thunder cease; and then
From out the shelter Of the wood
Came Pickett and his men.
Unfiinchingly they onward press
Asa'i'' 'ne 'A'"e. "'
ihe i"ins ever sio"ns
Along the ghastly trail.
They mount the ridge, its brow they claim.
No men can further go;
Thax sfnE lgla veai. viii the flame
''A "Ne ise'' "','' -"
sAies VI ".'1n'" inv,
anu '"en ..'e .a' . SO''N' " 'P''"
npAr'i"i' i's pan
noo'e 'i'' uN'ea,sts usau
anu i''u'h a"Ae i'' "i'
Ane u'"s ues0e.u'ns o'' 'h' eiAS'
"'VeA '''
D,s'oh'Oia'e renis'"
oi n,'ns Ne"i'n' soAV 'os so1''
sem ior'h Ut can VI oa'''eio
"'
vi 0o"'"eu '''p'' A''- i"''eu ''"''
Against the level shafts of lIght
That ON the summit shine
Gray mIs,s climb up the craggy hight
And hang bv oak sndpine:
But backward relied, together cling.
In dripring shadow hide.
Jntil the sunbeams downward spring,
tmsli, away, di.sOlrins slow,
As,ess of xI,as,ness - lawn.
And wider yet unfold. the plain,
In radiance newborn,
OF waving fields Of amber grain
And parple,,plIsa ',',. corn. .-,...,
Tso p1oUs ~.sS,sa ~ alVas .hasI0r So cOa,.
And then, from mossy lodges tossed,
Is caught in crystal pools,
Where lovers timidly escape
From pesIins eyes s.s, aial. .,s.... 49,.
40 "Alea .s,sa.,-, '"s -, 49,.