Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-09-12
. True ballad of the War.

A True ballad of the War.
ny MARGARET J. PRESTON.
,;nos OF hateful war were set
:, bat,le's grim array,
~ ron scless fell the shot aud shell
~; ;,hrouch all the CHASTITY day.
,:tber side the army stretched
,lanc the meadows green;
- hroal and white, from left to right,
AZ" Sl,e roadway wound between.
-,,s mir was blind with throbbing heat,
I'll as the sun rose higher.
M, summer blue OF heaven snone through
i. haze of tropic fire.
,r,o cpryins road was darked with gore,
md every upturned clod
vss stained with blood, whose liv1d food
soaked all the grassy sod.
-r,,e shr1eks and groans Of dying men
inna through the tumults roar,
r. IN one whose ear was forced to hear
Their cries could beer no more.
t7o rushed to where the General stood:
II crave your leave to bring,
17o, men who die in agony,
Water from yonder spring.
arbey moan and shrek with n,addening thirst,
They writhe in their despair,
While might take the draught, to slake
The torture that they bear"
aNsv Sergeant Kirkland, you will get
A bullet through your head,
And foolish lad, you will but add
Another to the dead"
Not so; I pray you let me so
Without a word OF chafe,
For God, who care is everywhere,
think, will keep me SAFE"
aWhv will you ask my leave to go
Where not a living man
Could meet the strife secure OF life,
But He may keep who CAM"
He sprang with fiery haste away,
But in r. moment moro,
The stalwart FORM all flushed and warm,
Was back within the door.
He flung a handk erchief abroad:
Have your leave to wave
This signal white, amid the fight,
AS sign como to save?'
"No, no I" the General shook his head
Betwixt a sigh and groan;
You choose to go, brave fellow, so
The risk must be your own"
The laundering guns still rent the air,
The battle ragged as hot,
And all around the sodden ground
Was plowed with kissing shot.
Yet straight between the belching lines,
Lenping the roadside wall
Right through the clang the Sergeant sprang
And dared to face 1t all.
In either steadfast hand he held
trimming water can,
Which through the the crash Of cannon fash
He bore from man to man.
With blessed draughts the fainting soul
He reused to life again,
And parting lips were soothed with sips
That dull the stress OF pain
he raised the dying to his knee
From off the weltering sod.
And with a word none other heard
Dismissed his soul to God.
1t mattered not as on he moved
Where dead and wounded lay,
Ii tried and true they wore the blue,
Or true and tried the gray.
And as to many gasping mouth
He held q full canteen,
His hurrying form amid the storm
OF raking shot was seen.
A gradual lull hushed down the roar,
Apause fell on the strife
As though it were foul wrong to dare
To touch 80 charmed life.
And slow and slower doomed the guns
Along each watching line,
As to and fro they saw him go
On errand go divine.
And when the sultry hours were passed,
And mid the wounded none
Had missed unquaffed the healing draught,
And Kirkland's work was done.
A shout that rent the very heavens
From either armv rang,
As DER the wall, alert and tall
The Sergeant lightly sprang.
And not a man among the ranks
Who saw the odds he braved,
In blue or gray, but seemed to say:
"Thank God, that he is saved!"
Good-By, Fredericksburg! = Bringing o