The National tribune., 1881-10-22
KEENAN'S CHARGE.
BY GEORGE PARSONS LATBRoP.

The sun had set;
The leaves with dew were wet:
Down fell bloody dusk
On the woods, that second of May,
Where Stonewals corps, like oeast Oh prey
Tore through, with angry tusk
They've trapped us, boysi"
Rose from flank voice.
With a rush of steel and smoke
On came the Rebels straight,
Eager as love and wild as hate:
And our line reeled and broke:
Broke and fled.
No one stayed but the dead
With curses shrieks, and cries,
Horses and wagons and men
Tumbed back through the shuddering glen,
And above the fading skies.
There's one hope, still
Those batteries parked on the hill!
Battery WHEEL" Cmid the roar
"Pass pieces; fix proongs to fire
Retiring. Trot!" In the panic dire
A bugle rings "Trot"-and no more.
The horses plunged,
The cannon lurched and lunged,
To join the hopeless rout.
But suddenly rode a form
Calmly in front of the human storm,
With stern commanding shout:
align those guns!"
we knew it was Peasontons)
The cannoneers bent to obey,
And worked with will at his word;
And the black guns moved as if they had heard.
But all the dread delay!
ITO wait is crime;
o God for ten minutes time!"
The general looked around:
There keenan, sat, like stone,
With his three hundred horse alone
Less shaken than the ground.
Major your men,
H'Are soldiers, General " Then,
Charge, Major Do your best
Hold the enemy back, at all cost,
Till my guns placed else the army Is lost
You die to save the rest
By the shrouded CLEAN of the western skies,
Brave keenan, looked on Pleasantons eyes
For an instant-clear and cool and still
Then with a smile, he said I" l will
Cavalry, charge." Not a man of them shrank,
Their sharp, full cheer, from rank on rank,
Rose joyOusly, with a willing breath
Rose like greeting hail to death.
Then forward they sprang, and spurred and clashed
Shouted the officers, crimson-sashed;
Rode well the men, each brave as his fellow;
In their faded coats of the blue and yellow;
And above in the air, with an instinct true,
Like bird of war their pennon flew.
With a clank of scabbards and thunder of steeds
And blades that shine like sunlit reeds
And strong brown faces bravely pale
For fear their proud attempts should fail,
Three hundred Pennsylvanians close
On twice ten thousand foes.
Line after line the troopers came
To the edge of the wood that rnged with flame
Rode in and sabred and shot and fell;
Nor came one back his wounds to tell.
And full in the midst keenan,, tall
In the gloom like martyr awaiting his fall,
While the circe-stroke of his sabre, swung
Line after line; ay, whole platoons,
Struck dead in their saddles, of brave dragons
By the maddened horses onward borne
And into the vortex flung, trampled and torn;
As Keenan, fought with his men, side by side.
So they rode till there more to ride.
But over them, lying there, shattered and mute
What deep echo rolls Ills a death salute
From the cannon in place; for, heroes you braved
Your fate not in vain; the army saved!
Over them now-year following year
Over their graves the pine-cones fall,
And the whip-poor-will chants his spectre call;
But they stir not again they raise cheer;
They have ceased But their glory shall cease,
Nor their light be quenched in the light of peace
The rush of their charge is resounding still
That saved the army at Charlottesville.
-Scrbner.