The National tribune., 1888-12-13
THE CHARGE AT STONE RIVER.
b - BRowNLEE sHERwoop.

Written for the Reunion of the 2lst Ohio, Sep
TENDER, 1885, commemorative OF the charge of
Miller's Brgate at the battle of Stone River.l
Were you at Stone River3 Were you at the fore
With Negley's Division, of Rosscrans's Corps?
"old Rosey," who fought the Stone River cam
paign
With a spIendor that scarcely was equaled again
In the center was Thomas. bToCooS on the right,
With the laundering batteries massius their might,
Our Colonel, like mad. riding on at the head
give them hell by the half acre. that's what he
said.
Were you at Stone River when Bfillers Brigade
That furious charge upon Breckenridge made?
When we cut down Braggs men like field of red
clover,
The mowers of death sweep uuswervingly overg
With the war parson. Moody, and Neibliug ahead,
And half of our men lying over there dead
And the terrors of Winter, the hunger and cold
With their fangs at our threats like the wolves on
the fold2
We held the reserve there we lay since the night
The New Year was born in the throes Of the fight /;
By our campfres we eagerly baked our scant cakes,
For the half-Fation issue keen appetite makes,
When an order rang out ike the horn in the hunt:
Attention. Fall in! Doube-quick to the 'front.' ="
In the turmoil and tumut Of sullen retreat,
Van Cleye sought the rear we sprang to our feet
a halt at the river; on Breckenridge came
Like the shrek of the tempest, with thunder and
flame,
The musketry flash and the battery roar
Bore down from the right and beat hard at the FORE
His front strikes the ford; they are coming right
on
VIII he push up the hightss If we doubt we are
gone;
Now up. boys, and at themIn A thunderboIs we,
Aay doe
To the elbow. the armpit. yet spIashing we go,
Our guns firing high and Bragg's guns firing low;
But the maxim is good when the danger is nigh,
In God be your trust, but your powder keep dry
Our clothes they ice, but our hearts they are
fire,
And courage grows strong as the carnage grows
Charge that battery, charged" Not an instant
we stay,
And we take all the guns that are captured that
day
As the swift swirling storm when the foOd-tide
comes in
Leaps wild on the rocks with its drift aud its din,
The earth reels with terror, the rocking wrecks
fall,
And the wide wings of chaos are clapping Ger all
Then the ebb tide rolls out and the undertow walls,
And shrouds its pale dead in the shTeds Of their
sails;
So the foe beat US back and we beat back the foe,
And the meanings of grief hush the clang Of the
blow.
We were men, we were patriots, three years and
more
We chung to our colors and fought at The fore;
From that daring Eanawha fxed-bayOnes on
sIaught
| When old smoothbore muskets we found
worse than naught,
| To that vast ClIickamauga volcano of flame,
That Tapped up two armies cliuehing they came.
Ia the siege of Atlanta. the march to the sea,
| Through the twin Carolnas, where Sherman
! seourged Lee.
| And yet do you know that for genius to fight,
| Cold, hunger and danger by day and by night,
That Stone River campaign stands unique and
alone.
And the heroes it hewed are eternal as stone.
| There were Harker and Hazen and Sandy McCook,
| And Thomas and Stanley aud Beatty! and. look,
| IT'S the hero of Winchester gaHoping down,
| Phil Sheridan earning his Five Forks renowu.
Were you at Stone River? think you will say
| That we earned ali the laurels won that day
The right to stand first in the contests that came
/ The prestige of proves. the peans OF fame.
/ In the pales of the prison. the daIes of the dead
! Our hosts have gone down, but the Unions ahead
| Were you at Stone River? Do you ever recall
/ The mad havoc of war; That old flags worth il
ALL