The record-union., 1896-02-15
(F'or the Record Union]
THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF SAN
FRANCISCO, IN AUGUST, 1885.

That an army Is seen approaching
By south, and east and ocean,
And its Serried ranks encroaching
Have kindled a wild commotion-
For this army is invincible
And has never yet turned back;
1t has scaled the nights of history
With straight, unbroken track
It has shook the dust from it's banners,
And after twenty years,
1t follows the course of empire"
And now at our gates appears.
In vain has time with his sickle
Invaded its stately ranks,
It's front been scattered with ashes
And fire beat at its TANKS.
1t stands as in the sixties,
And every place is filled
The dead are only immortalS,
Not one of them was killed.
To-day their shades cast shadows,
As they rise at the bugle call;
They jostle the arms OF the living,
AS into the ranks they fall
We think we see but a remnant,
When we look al the empty sleeves,
And our heads are bent with compassion,
And the spirit within US grieves.
But above the tattered standards,
And over the many graves,
The stars of another banner
In mystic glory waves.
Balls Bluff gives up her Baker,
Lone Mountain yields her dead,
And a mighty host salutes the coast
L IOIu WllGIG luG COIlllCI SpIGdQ.
We open the gates to the army
SO thinned and SCARED with years,
And we cry, Come in and possess US!
We welcome you with tears!
Our hearts are filled with your story
Too grand to ever be told;
We burn with the breath of your glory
AS We open our gates of gold.
Come, heroes of Donelson; welcome!
Come Vicksburg's army well!
Come Farragut's mighty heroes,
That passed through the gates of he'll
To the walls of the Crescent City,
And through the fire to Mobile,
Where shell and shot and missile
WoYe the ribboned race of steel.
RAISE Gettysburg's banner against us,
And the stars saluting the sky,
Where kearney, MacPhearson and Rey-
Taught their countrymen to- lie
Come, cut the swath with Sherman
IN the mighty march to the sea;
And with Sheridan clean the valley
Sound the dusky jubilee
That followed the wake of the army,
When the slave became man,
And the Winnows We're shook by heaven
As Jehovah held he fan.
Across the bridge of twenty years,
Great Lincoln comes serene,
And bends with sad benignant eyes
Upon the hallowed scene;
And from his tomb at Riverside
The mighy Captain comes;
Our eyes have hardly yet been dried,
Nor stilled our muffled drums.
McClellan's star of Antietam
Looks down upon the host;
While from the hills of Gettysburg
Brave Hancock greets the coast
Fresh from the field of Franklin
And Chickamauga's plain
Pap" Thomas leads his troopers
TO battle once again.
Mcdowell, Burnside. Hooker.
with memories ever green:
And Meade's clear head above the dead
Is reverently seen.
Not all We're called in battle,
But all have gone before
And we drink the toast to this silent host
AS we open wide the door
TO thousands of brave companions
Mustered out upon the field
Too many graves are marked Unknown
our palms to them we yield:
They gave their lives, their names and all.
The measure more than filled,
Flows over through the centuries,
0, never such are killedi
Ihey struck too close to heaven
Gods angels wrote them down,
And ever the unknown hero
Shall claim the brightest crown.
So we welcome the dead with the living.
And the living with the dead;
We hold their palms together,
At our alters they are wed
We welcome the living army
With shouts, and greetings, and cheers,
But our reverent hosannas
Shall mellow through the years.
At the march of the silent army
- whose banners have been furled
To the sight of our twilight vision
on this under side of the world.
The snow of our mountains is white,
AND our fields more heavy with wheat,
Our orange blossoms are brighter
When we hear the tramp of your feet.
Ihe pIumeS of our forest more stately
Yosemite's s walls more grand,
Our orchards more heavy with fruitage-
come IN and possess the landl
For yours is a peaceful CONQUEST.
You have won our hearts of old:
We gave our best for the conflict
And furnished our sinews of gold.
Though we felt not the breath of the
cannon,
Nor the terrible turmoil of war.
Yet our pulses were fevered and seething.
AS we viewed the field from afar.
There We're enemies here to confront us,
That needed a vigilant hand
And our sentfnels waited each football
And challenged the stranger to "standp'
For the key of the mighty Pacific
Was ours to hold and keep
And the close, throbbing stars are our wit
ness
That our sentries We're never asleep.
We are one by the family affairs
That hallowed our cradles at birth.
BY the sinews of steel that unite us
Across half of the earth.
We are one by our cedar and pine
we grasp the warm hand of the "sixties',
With the grip Of our "forty-nine."
We are proud of our hard-won laurels
In the fading twenty years:
But we raise no boast as we call the toast
For our worthy pioneers
They fought with stubborn courage
With flood, and famine and fire.
hlle the tickle god of fortune
Enkindled their desire:
They chased her to the wilderness
Were lay her treasures old,
They Wooed, as never lovers wooed
And won her gifts of gold:
And they laid the firm foundations
OF our most transcendent State.
And the star of empire sank to rest
in the surf of the Golden Gate.
They claim no mighty conquest
Their ears unused to praise
nave asked no herald to elamor
The fight of those early days,
But comrades, look around yollI
Behold the work they wrought
II you seek Tor thelr monuments, find them
In the palace and the cot
nat strike the chords of history
With sweeter cadence than Roma
In the hamlet, city and household.
Ihae set the jewels of home
AS we gather at the campfire.
II ne North, and West and East.
No vacant chair shall haunt us
For the South is at our feast
she sent her choicest garlands
10 Geek our chieftain's grave
| Our piumes Of pine salute the brine.
mere the rich magnolias wave;
ana with one song we gather
AND under one flag we stand.
As again we kindle our altars
10 God and our native land
-HlRAM HOYT RICHMOND.