The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1881-11-05

And now their ranks all complete.
Weird music fills the air,
While silently the marching feet
File past the marble stair
Beneath the Capitol's high dome
Whereon their goddess stands,
To overlook her chosen home,
And view their phantom bands.
The ghostly pageant moves along
Beneath the midnight sky,
While DER the silent marching throng
The flags and banners fly
Which once were borne through smoke and flame
OF battles fierce assail.
And on whose folds the marks of fame
Were graved by leaden hail.
In tattered uniforms that tell
Of hardships long endured
Ere they on fields of honor fell
And thus discharge secured
From further toll, the ghostly forms
Move on; each bony hand
Yet graspng weapon which through storms
1t bore for Freedoms land.
The phantom horses paw the ground,
Uneasy at restraint;
And clank of rusty sabres sound
Upon the air, but faint;
While into line the cannon wheel
Each gunner in his seat
And meath their guidons tipped with steel
Roll rumbling down the street.
Look, as the column passesi There
Ride chieftains worthy of the name
OF heroes, and whose very air
Bespeaks them soldiers known to fame.
And yonder all the heroes come
Who fought upon the rolling sea.
With springy step, at tap of drum
They march on fearless, bold, and free.
There's Mitche-he who read the stars
Mcpherson, tried and true;
There's Kearney, with his many scars,
And Craven, with his crew,
Who sank beneath the rushing wave
Mid foes in iron shells,
But fought them till he found grave
How WELL the record tells.
There's Wadsworth, who gave up mis- life,
By gray haired Bakers side;
And Birney-he who dreamed of strife
When fevers fiercest tide
Surged through his veins-who eheered his
AS when in days gone by
He led them on through tangled fen
Beneath southern sky.
And with them, Reno on the right,
Come Mansfield and the grand,
Heroic Sumner, bold in fight,
Beloved by his command
Then follow Sedgwick, Stevens, all
Who Won their rank we'll
Who fought beneath the battles pail,
And, bravey fighting, fell.
The hand grows weary that would write
Upon Fame's lasting scroll
The names of all whose courage bright
Makes glad the patriot soul;
For marching on in serried rank,
With solemn step and slow.
Come all who by Potomac's bank
Or Rappahannocks flow
Fell bravely fighting-all who stood
On Lookout's lofty height
Amid the clouds, or in the wood
Where Grant let in the light
With wars red axe,-all who in cot
Or prison pinned away,
Or fell in some lone silent spot
Or in the fierce affray
And shock of battle-all are there;
Some from the salt sea foam
The seaweed clinging to their hair
While others from home
Where loving hands their stricken forms
Laid quietly at rest
To sleep unconscious, cen though storms
Should surge above their breast.
Some chevrons wear; some straps of gold;
And others, only scars
To mark the rank of right they hold;
But whether stars, or bars,
Or gold or silver leaf, stripe
Or anchor matters not;
They proved themselves of courage ripe
And shall not be forgot.
IT'S thus they pass in Grand Review
The army of our Dead
Above them bends earths sky of blue,
And twinkling stars DER head
Look calmly down upon the scene,
While from her lofty throne
The pageant Liberty's fair Queen
BeholdS, but not alone;
For close beside, on either hand
AS they the scene survey,
Great Washington and Lincoln stand
And mid the bright array
OF other noble chiefs whose eyes
Look downward by their side
Are those who saw their great emprise
Successful ere they died.
And spirits from the misty past
Stand breathless to admire
The glorious visions while they last
Ere yet the hour expire.
The city bathed in slumber lies.
Time passes on. The bell
Tolls one; and quick each phantom flies
Back to its narrow cell.
The talk of using dogs as sentinels recalls
fact that it has already been done in the Turk
army, where trained dog went along the sen
lines and awoke any sleeping sentinel. a
named Moustache went over the st. Bernard "
Napoleon /, signalled the midnight approach
the enemy at Alessandria, took part i'll the ba
of MarengO at Austerlitz, on the fall of
it to Marshal Lannes. and fell by bullet at
siege of Badajoz on March II, 1911.