The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1879-05-09
LEE TO THE REAR.
AN INDIDENT OF THE AMERICAN WAR.

Dawn of a pleasant morning in May,
Broke through the Wilderness, cool and
gray,
! While, perched in the tree-tops, the birds
Were csrolling Mendelssohn's Songs
! without words"
| Far, from the haunts of men remote,
The brook brawled on with liquid note
And nature, all tranquil and lovely, wore
The smile OF the spring as in Eden, OF yoce
Ittlc by little, as daylight increased,
And deepened the fOseatc flush in the east
Little by little, did morning reveal
Two long, glittering lines of stee
Where two hundred thousand bayonets
CLEAN,
Tipped with the light Of the earliest beam,
And the faces are sullen and grim to see,
In the hostile armies of Grant and Lee.
All of a sudden, ere rose the sun,
Pealed OH the silence, the opening gun
A little white puff of smoke there came,
Aud anon the valley was wreathed in flame.
Down on the left of the Rebel lines,
Where breastwork stands in copse of
pines,
Before the Rebels their ranks can form,
The Yankees have carried the place by
storm.
Stars and Stripes DER the salient wave,
Where many hero has found a grave,
And the gallant Confederates strive in vain,
The ground they have drenched with their
blood to regain!
Yet louder the thunder of battle roared--
Yet deadlier fire on their columns
poured
Slaughter, internal, rode with despair,
Furies twain, through the smoky air.
Not far off, in the saddle there sat,
A grey bearded man, with black slouch
hat;
Not much moved by the fire was he,
Calm and resolute Robert Lee.
Quick and watchful, he kept his eye,
On two bold Rebel brigades close by
Reserves, that were standing (and dyihg)
at ease,
Where the tempest of wrath toppled over
the trees.
For still with their loud, deep, bulldog
bay.
The Yankee batteries blazed away,
And with every murderous second that
sped
A dozen brave fellows, alas! fell dead.
The grand old grey-beard rode to the space,
Where Death and his victims stood face to
face,
And silently waved his old slouch hat
A world of meaning there was in that
q Follow me! Steady! Wen save the dayp'
This was what he seemed to say;
And to the light of his glorious eye
The bold brgades thus made reply
% Well go forward, but you must go
back w
And they moved not an inch in the peril
GUS track;
g Go to the rear, and we'll send them to
h--w
Then the sound of the battle was lost in
their yell.
Turning his bride, Robert Lee
Rode to the rear. Like the waves of the
sea,
Bursting the dykes in their overflow,
Madly his veterans dashed on the foe.
And backward in terror that foe was
driven,
Their banners rent and their columns riven,
Wherever the tide of battle rolled,
Over the Wilderness, wood and void.
Sunset out of crimson sky,
steamed DER field of a ruddier dye,
And the brook ran on with purple stain,
From the blood of ten thousands foemen
slain.
seasons have passed since that day and
year
again DER its pebbles the brook runs clear,
And the 6eld in a richer green is drest
" here the dead Of the terrible conflict rest.
flushed is the roll of the Rebel drum,
The sabres are sheathcd, and the cannon
are dumb,
And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furled
The flag that once challenged the gaze of
the world;
But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides,
md down into history grandly rides,
Jalm and unmoved. as in battle he sat,
The Grey bearded Man, in the black slouch
hat.
-Cresoent Monthly.
The Stalwarts Own Him.
Times.
1t has for some time been suS-