The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1880-07-07


Till We have passed yon smoking space,
"Anl grappled them in wars embrace!
I'p goes the wild and furious cheer:
Onward we drive in full career,
Pouring our yolleys till they reel,
And following fnst with bay yonet steel.
They stand. The combat wakes hot
Cheer given for cheer. and shot for shot.
The air with heliSh din re>ounds:
Men fall to earth with ghasrly wounds.
The daylight sickens: horrors brood
And blacken DER the field Of blood.
And still, though failing with the heat
With weary hands and aching feet
We fight, till See how, one by Que,
The foe give back-they ,fai-they run!
Softly the shadows of night do fall,
Softly the darkness rests, like pail;
Silently glimmer the stars overhead,
Watching the wounded men and the deaG.
Silently many cold, glazed eye
Stares from the dank earth to the sky.
They have fought like men-they have fought
their best:
And living and dead are taking their rest \
Another scene Of hard and irkSomc life
Presents itself as parcel of this strife.
'Tis winter, cold and cruel winter, now.
The tents, the cabins are weighed down win
show.
The fierce winds rage, the heavens are all
cloud:
The earth is wrapped in natures funeral
shroud.
Hungry and chilled we pass the livelong day,
On guard, or drill, or resting as we may,
And when the gloomy day at length expires,
We crouch and seek for warmth by scanty
fires.
And when those fires expend their Pickering
light,
And gone is every sound and every sight,
We lay US down in sorrow and in night.
Nor rest we all. His solitary round
! The sentry walks upon the frozen ground,
Silent and sad amid the dark profound.
At drear outpost the lonely picket stands,
Graspng his rife in his aching hands.
He listens, and be strains his weary eye,
Till every bush becomes an enemy,
Till every wall of wind becomes cry.
Shivering and fainting at his post he stands.
Across the stream he hears the distant bands,
Making glad music to the prosperous foe
Music despite the winters wind and snow.
He hears the sound Of distant revelry:
He hears the laugh, the choral song grow
high,
While he is wretched, sick, and like to die,
| Benumbed with cold he drowscs In his
dreams
A bright room shines, blazing hearthstone
CLEANS.
| The clock ticks cheerily; the clear lamps
burn;
| Women and children welcome his return.
| He seats him joyous at the festive board
| Partakes the yiands Of the housewives hosrd;
| Qu2ffs strengthening wine, and all his heart
doth bound
AS merry talk, and song, and laugh go
And blesses heaven that rest at last is found.
He wakes with sudden shock and sharpest
pain.
The night-wind pierces all his soul again
His dream is fed the respite all in vain.
|
Behind the crumbling fortress wall
Confederate soldiers fight and fall.
! Mid air hefo1led and Se2thing hot,
| Mid screaming shell and crushing shot,
| Mid heaps of dead, mid groans Of dying,
They sternly stand, the dread work plying.
By day, by night, by land, by sea,
| A thousand guns relentlesSly
Rain down their bolts at every breath,
And hold the carnival Of death.
So days and weeks of torture pass.
| The fort becomes a shapeless mass
| Stones, timbers, cannon, earth, all piled
In mounds confused, in chaos wild.
All else gives way; all else goes down;
| The soldiers heart survives alone.
| No rest they seek, no quarter crave,
Resolved to fix there in the wave
| Fair freedoms home or freedoms grave!
The mind grows weary, and the heart grows
faint,
AS fancy seeks these wofGl scenes to paint
| UnCeGsins labor and unceasing care
| No freedom and no respite anywhere
Long, dreary marches, hunger, drought and
Ali pangs the pest-house yields or prisons
hold
| Watching and strife and danger without end,
| Millions against Us and no man our friend.
Our armies waste and languiSh, and st home
| Want, care, bereavement wrap the land in
gloom.
Our rulers pass the tune in vain dispute:
! The peoples hearts are still, their voices
mute:
Fresh thousands to the foeman's standard
swarm,
AS clouds pour forward to the gathering
storm.
All nature seems to shudder, and await
The last prodigious thunderbolt Of fate.
Vast navies grid and hover round the coast,
And hold the stream that cuts our land in
twain.
Forts, CITIES. states. SpccessiYely are lost
Al hopes deceive, all struggles seem in
vain.
They harry all the Tand with sword and
fame;
Their legions crowd from mountain to the
shore.
They gias their rage in every deed of shame:
Their path is marked with ashes and with
gore.
Two armies dare to face these thousand still
Weak, wasted, starving. worn with care
and strife,
But bearing yst th. Vneonquerable will
To bsttls'to the latest breath of life
They know their suferings and their dangers
well:
They see the trials and the terrors nigh:
They seem to hear the nations funeral knell:
An9 yet tAey sIorn to parlsy or to fly.
The pulse of spring that stirs all natures
frame,
Moves the beleaguering myriads day by
day:
They fill the air Tith lqp4 and hoarse &C.
claim; -
They spread abroad their glittering, stern
array.
They sweep along through hamlef aad
through town,
They bridge swift rivers, floor the deep
moraSs;
Abattis, breastwork, fortress all 90 down
Alike in rack and ruin as they n.ass:
The land is Aooded with living tide; ,.-
Great armies pour their thousands far and
neSr;
They Smite our feeble band on every side:
They storm with fury front and flank and
rear.
The dawn is ushered in with cannon's roar,
The daV drags on in tumult and in Sght,
The snn gees dGwuYnoI sees the conflict DER;
L ~