The Press., 1885-05-28
The Bivouac of The Dead.

The auLnOf or IHe IollOWluS pOem, Ooi Theodore O'Hara, was widely known as $ poet, especially in the southern states where he ranked high among the best jour nalists On the breaking out of hostilltles with Mexico in 1S46, he joiued the army and crossed the Rio Grande to uphold the honor of the stars and str1pes, gaining { brilliant record, and when at the close O the war, the state of Kentucky honored it fallen by gathering their remains for ina interment in Frankfort cemetery, where she had erected monument to perpetuat' their memory, he wrote for the occasio, this poem.
 Scattered along the drives in Arlington national cemetery near Washington ar' iron tablets bearing in raised letters stan gas from this immortal poem, some O them repeated in different places, also be ing lettered over different gateways to tn grounds The mufaed drilms sad roll has beat
 The soldiers last tattoo;
 No more on life's parade shall meet
 That brave and fallen few.
 On Fame's eternal camping ground
 Their silent tents are spred,
 And Glory guards with solemn round
 The bivouac of the dead.
 No rumor of the foes advance
 Now swells upon the wind,
 Nor troubled thought at midnight hannts
 Of loved ones left behind.
 No vision of the morrow's strife,
 The warriors dream alarms. No praying horn, no screaming fife
 At dawn shall call to arms.
 Their shivered swords are red with rust,
 Their plumed heads are bowed, Their naughty banner trailed in dust,
 Is now their martial shroud- And plenteous funeral tears have washed
 The red stains from each brow. And the proud forms by battle gashed
 Are free from anguish now. The neighing troop, the flashing blades,
 The bugle's stirring blast,
 The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
 The din and shout are past Nor wars wild notes, nor glory's peal.
 Shall thrill with fierce delight Those breasts that nevermore may feel The rapture of the fight.
 Like the fierce northern hurricane
 That sweeps his great plateau, Flushed with the triumph yet to gain
 Come down the serried foe.
 Who heard the thunder of the fray Break OCT the field beneath, Knew well the watchword of that day. i. Was ''yictory or death."
 Full many mothers breath has swept
 Der Angostura's plain,
 And long the pitying sky has wept,
 Above it's moldered slain.
 The raven's scream or eagles flight
 Or shepherds pensive lay,
 Alone now wake each solemn height
 That frowned Der that dread fray. Sons of the dark and bloody ground,
 Ye must not slumber there,
 Where stranger steps and tongues resound
 Along the needless air.
 Your own proud lands heroic soil
 Shall be your filter grave;
 She claims from war it's richest spoil
 The ashes of her brave.
 Thus heath their parent turf they rest.
 Far from the gory field
 Borne to Spartan mothers breast s On many bloody shield.
 The sunshine of their native sky
 Smiles sadly on them here;
 And kindred eyes and hearts watch by
 The hero's sepulcher. Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead
 Dear is the blood you gave No impious footsteps here shall tread The herbage of your grave;
 Nor shall your glory be forgot
 While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot
 Where Valor proudly sleeps. Ton marble minstrers voice'ess stone.
 In -deathless song shall tell, When many vanished year hath flown,
 The story how you fell:
 Nor wreck, nor change, nor winters blight Nor Tme's remorseless doom, Can dim one ray of holy light
 That gilds your glorious tomb. Senator Platt There is growing tend ency to make May Both holiday, a Vanit, Fair, a Fourth of July. It is day SC apart for tender "reminiscences of the deat heroes who fell that freedom might live Independence day may be fittingly usher ed in with the boom of cannon, but le decoration day be observed with becoming solemnity. It is right that memories o the nations sacrifice should be perpetu ated by religiously reviying them in sucl gatherings as these. Let the thoughts o the grass-grown mounds on southern hill sides restrain every tendency to mak, decoration day time of rejoicing. PoTAsKA promptly relieves sore throats and colds.