The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-10-24
WARTIME POETRY.
Stirring Airs to Which Ameri=
cans Marched to Battle.
BY B. NJ. COBB, co. I, 18TH ILL.


that before that time had remained IL
obscurity.
The poetry developed by the civil wal
was of like character, yet it echoed the
sentiment of the hour. Perhaps the hrs'
that was properly of that period was
written Just when South Carolina mac
adopted the Ordinance of Secession, and
was by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Inc
commencement Is:
"She has gonc-she has left Us in passion
and pride;
Our stormy proved sister so long at oul
side.
She has torn her own star from our
ornaments glow
And turned on her brother the face of a
foe.
40. Caroline, Caroline! Child of the Sun.
We can never forget that our hearts
have been one;
Our foreheads both sprlnkled IN LlDer-
tvs name
From the Fountain of Blood with the
finger of fame"
There is one verse prophetic:
40. Caroline! Caroline, Child of the SUM-
There are battles with fate that can
never be won;
The star Towering banner must never
be furled,
For its blossoms of light are the hope
of the world"
Next came an appeal to the loyalty of
the l-orth and West. 1t had been dream
of the South that there was a natural an
tagonism between the East and the West
of the North, and that perhaps division
somewhere near the Alleghenles would
take place.
That this was never the real sentiment
in the West is amply proved by later
events. The poem commences:
Men of the North and West,
Wake in your might
Prepare. as the rebels have done,
For the fight.
You cannot shrink from the test
Rise. men of the North and West"
William Cullen Bryant perhaps sent
forth as finely-fnished poem as any pro-
duced, yet one that, perhaps, few have
heard or remember. 1t was entitled: Our
Country's Call"
"Lay down the ak, fling by the spade;
Leave in its track the toiling pillow,
The rifle and the bayonet blade,
For arms like yours were filter now,
And let the hands that ply the pen
Quit the light task, and learn to WELD
The horseman's crooked brand and rein
The charge on the battlefield.
"Our country calls. away, away!
To. where the blood-stream blOts the
green.
Strike TO defend the gentlest sway
That Time in all his course has seen.
See, from thousand coverts-see.
Spring the armed foes that haunt her
track;
They rush to smite her down-and we
Must beat the banded traitors back
Later, but early in the struggle, came
the Banner of the Stars" by Henry
Raymond. l quote only the last verse:
SThen cursed be he who would strike our
starry flag
May the God of Hosts be with US, as we
smite the traitor down.
And cursed be he who would hesitate or
lag
Till the dear flag, the fair fag-we
crown"
In May, 1861, T. Buchanan reproduced
'"The Flag of the Constellation" We
quote only the last verse:
"Peace, peace to the world, is our motto
unfurled,
Tho we shun not field that is CORY;
At home or abroad fearing none but our
God,
We will carve on our pathway to Glory
Then hail to the true-'The Red, White
and Blue
The Flag of the Constellation;
1t sails as it sailed by our forefathers
hailed
For the battles that made us Nation"
1.-THE Stars and Stripes" by James It.
Fields, was considered up to the stand
ard, but time forbids quotation.
Also. 1.-THE Stripes and the Stars" by
Edna Dean Proctor. We can repeat the
refrain only:
"Here's welcome to wounding, and com
bat, and scars,
And the glory of death-for the Stripes
and the Stars"
About this time was published the poem
the first two lines of which are:
"Rifemen, shoot me a fancy shot,
Straight at the heart Of yon proving
yidette."
This is so familiar that further quota
tion would be superfuous.
A poem by Robert Lowell, on THE Bal
timore Attack on the 9th Mass. at Bal
timore" This, undoubtedly, expressed
some Of the current sentiment of that
State.
In speaking of Massachusetts, he says:
"Give her the post right next to the foe,
Be sure that you may trust her."
"The Battle of Big Bethel'' was also
remembered in verse by Al. II. Duganne:
1--WE mustered at midnight, in darkness
we formed,
And the whisper went round of q fort
TO be stormed;
But no drum-beat had called US. no
trumpet we heard,
And no voice of command but the
Colonel's low word
Column-forward'
1.-THE Charge at the Ford" by Thomas
Dunn English, is very good poetry:
eighty and nine with their Captain
Rode on the enemys track;
Rode in the gray of the morning,
Nine Of the ninety came back"
"On the Hills Before Centervile' was
more for the East than the West, but is
finished poem, by George H Boxer; but
1t is too long for even quotation.
In the West we all regretted the death
of Gen. Lyon:
40 cursed for aye that traitors hand.
And cursed that aim so deadly
Which smOte the bravest Of the land
And dyed his bosom redly.
Serene he lay, while past him pressed
The battles furious billow;
As calmly as q babe may rest
Upon its mothers pillow"
So died hero, and who would not
l,.t.a 20 Isns