The National tribune., 1900-10-25
A REMINIsCgNCE OF SHILOH.
Read by the author at the Union Veteran
Encampment at Long Beach. Cal.
BY GEO. c. WILSON, Co. G, 5Sth III.


Encampment at Long Beach, Cal.
The firing Stacked little while, that fate
ful Shiloh day,
Their line fell back within the woods and
left us there at bay;
The smoke was slowly lifting, but the soil
was red and wet
Where, in the combat's deadly rage, our
lines had lately met.
Beyond our front upon the ground which
battles breath had famed,
Upraised and feebly beckoning, We saw a
single hand;
See! Sergeant" said a eomrade near,
that signal of Distress
With impulse born of sympathy and youth
full eagerness
| sprang out through the opening, and
swiftly reached the spot
Where lay one of the enemy, pierced by
a fatal shot.
"Water!' said he, plaintively, and quick
from my canteen
He cooled the thirsty agony which dying
made so keen.
God bless you, friend. There's danger
here-make hastel Be quick and go!
They'll soon come back-my regiment
they'll charge again. | know"
But yet his hand lay on my arm-once
more his fevered lips
Drank eagerly sweeter draught than
ser til undylnS sips:
Then, smiling, tried-but tried in vain
to say the word 'GOod-by''-
heard my comrades warning shouts and
left him there to die.
The rattle of the skirmish liue-the thick
and maddening roar
Swept swiftly DER the scene again more
deadly than before;
Scant time for human sympithy-scant
1fWrf hon
The frenzy of the fighting soon made de
mons out of men.
A kind of savage rapture through the sol
dier's bosom thrills
When carnage rules the spirit, and be
pities not. but kills.
Say not that men were braver in some far
off, by-gone age
Ny eyes saw deeds of valOr there would
shine on Homer's page.
All! / had many a comrade then whose
over-flaming ire
Relighted my own fickering torch with hi:
contagious fire;
For oft / felt my courage sink, but boil
stored it with pride,
And in those swelling moments / coulG
manfully have died.
In battles bloody ordeal-that fierce anG
Does not the fear that faces it deserve g
fairer name!
You all know well the history Of that dis
puted field
Before a fiery avalanche our left was
forced to yield,
And miles of dead at night lay in the SOM
Der Southern wood,
Where miles of wayering battle-lines by
day had swayed and stood.
And, oh! that night of agony-the wretch
edness and pain
Which made the wounded envious of those
who had been slain!
While through the age-long interval of
darkness and suspense
The portent of the morrow loomef above
the aching sense
AS if fiend of torture held each bare and
quivering nerve
'Twould shake the sullen savage, aye,
'twould make a stole swerve.
Will time e'er bring the fruitage Of the
hope now in the bud
That men will cease from laureling the
fame that feeds on blood?
yesterday
But BuelPs men had joined us and the foe
was now at bay;
Like flames in stubble newly spread,
afresh our spirits burned,
And ere the sun had quit the east their
columns backward turned.
Then loud and long our cheers rang out
more tame their answering yell
Their fierce but fitful firing yet more faint
and fainter fell,
Until the distant booming of the far-re-
treating gun
Proclaimed we were the victors,-the
CORY field was won!
The story Of that battlefield seems never
to grow old
Nay, it was only yesterday again 1 heard
it told;
Twas in a group Of veterans-a gray and
grizzly group,
Whose steps had lost their measured
spring, whose shoulders had stoop-
And when the rousing climax came that
oyerfiowed each breast,
l felt the rush of memories and shouted
with the rest.
But did no deed of valor there to honor
or to boast
He only does his duty well who only holds
his post;
And chaplets are not fashioned for the
common soldiers brow;
But there's one thought that warns my
heart and swells my bosom now.
When | recall the vision of that famous
battle-scene-
'Tis just that gift of water from my bat
tered old canteen.