The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1914-03-12
GETTYSBURG.
A Poem by Jack Crawford, the Veteran
Scout. Topography of the Battlefield.

To THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL. The
following lines were composed by JACK
Crawford, the veteran scout and poet,
after his return last July from Gertys-
burg, and seem to fully express the
thoughts of the old veterans while stand
ing on that historic field. From week to
week will give little history of my
own experiences while there. A. 8.
Well, wife I'm back from Gettysburg, could
mt check the tears
As memory drifted back ~ half century Of
years
To those three days in 81 when hell broke
loose around
The rocky hills and level fields on that blood
spattered ground.
l tell you, wife. there was wild music In the
air,
So awfuiy wild 'twould almost raise mum
A sort Of double chorus with the singers face
The muskets singing tenor and the cannon
singing base.
l tracked the same field over we had tracked
when fighting there
And felt thrill start from my feet and rise
up to my hair,
Just as if those feet had memory and knew
when they
Were toting me among the dead on that hot
second day.
lay down on the very spot, as near as l could
tell,
laid working my old gun in that hot, fiery
hell,
When we repulsed the Pickets charge the last
day of the fight,
And sent the Gray: boys rolling back democrat
lied in fight.
When night had come and l was laying in the
camp,
These legs that have borne me 10 years just
aching from the tramp
Around the battlefield, there seemed tumult
in my brain
Forbidding sleep. my thought were with those
bloody days again.
l seemed to hear the cannon roar defiance
from their throats,
The ring of desperate anger in their wild I'M
earthly notes,
The shells bursting all around and screaming
over head.
And saw the upturned faces of my comrades
lying dead.
Again smelt the battle smoke, the smoke
of fiery hell,
So awfuly wild it seemed no earthly power
could quell,
And heard the groans of wounded comrades
who all around me lay,
Their faces set in agony as the life blood
flowed away,
Again heard the rebel yell resembling in my
ears,
AS they would come charging, and our wild
triumphant cheers
To see the gray line waver in confusion. then
retreat,
failing in TASK they were not anxious to
repeat,
And, wife. my thoughts went back again as
thew did to YOU,
The girl left behind me, when l donned the
Union blue.
l read your letters over, saying you were wait
ing for
Your soldier boy to claim you when he gets
back from the war.
And all through those years when the fife ano
drum would play
The girl left behind me, how my thoughts
would wing away,
And cluster around a country lass that was not
And kiss me right afore the crowd the day we
said good-by.
We're nearing the grave and my dear we've
travelled hand in hand
For nearly half century toward the promised
land,
And reckon you're not sorry that you waited
those long years.
Your soul at times aght with hope, then dark
with fears.
that stood
AS pillar to support me all through those
years of blood.
Pm glad went to Gettysburg, for there I'saw
unfold
Those newly wakened memories that shine as
FURNISHED gold.
But, wife, dear, the grandest sight saw was
yesterday
When was helping organize the Vets. in blue
and gray
Into grander army still, and Vets. with many
scar,
Are pledged to build monument to women of
the war.
And how the dear old Johnnies yelled when
Gen. Tarbell Carr
From Durham, North Carolina said, 81 see the
gates ajar,
And looking down from Heaven above me-
thinks see
The approving faces of Abe Lincoln, Grant
and Lee