Classic Poem

Oh 'twas a mighty march that bright May day,
When six and twenty thousand Southern braves
Struck westward on their arduous emprise,
The spirit of Stonewall Jackson in each man,
And Lee's behind them. As an urging wind
Spreads a ship's sails and drives her at full speed
Unto the destined port, so did those powers
Of faith and expectation force them on
Till tramping feet seemed winged. Onward they strode,
Strode steadily those fifteen miles and paused,
If pause it were, so furious was the assault
That ushered in the setting of the sun.

Into the circle of the Union lines, —
Their muskets stacked, the men at evening meal, —
The forest open flung its shadowy gates;
Nature in tumult billowed out her depths;
In wild bewilderment the denizens
Of woods and thickets issued suddenly —
Beasts, birds, and creeping things innumerous
Foundering and fluttering and writhing forth,
Their haunts invaded by the feet of flame,
Their creature life caught in a swirl of fire
And driven into the open by fright and pain.
Behind them followed shouts and trumpetings
And yells demoniac. Sheets of leaden hail
Crashed through the trees, and blazing musketry
Reddened the forest gloaming. On they charged,
Those men of Stonewall Jackson from the woods,
Those fierce battalions from the tangled woods,
Bursting like bolts of doom into the open.

Alas those Union soldiers! Chaos fell
Upon them, wild confusion stained with blood.
'Twas terror stumbling headlong over wreck;
'Twas panic raging round the feet of death.
No power could stay their flight, — not Howard even,
Waving his empty sleeve as 'twere his sword,
And shouting cheer, could turn those fugitives.
With right wing routed, over thick-strewn dead,
Flinging away their knapsacks and their weapons,
The stricken soldiers rushed to Chancellorsville.
Jackson behind them irresistible.