Classic Poem

FOUR-DEEP they stood, those fighters of the South,
Laying in piles and cross-piles at their front
The Union dead as each assault was made,
While redder grew the spreading butchery.
Unsheltered and beneath relentless fire
They strode, those Union men, — the while they strode
Falling through waste and ruin upon death.

All through those hours of raging holocausts
Lee stood among his gunners on the hills.
He watched the increasing tides of carnage roll
Down to the river's brink, their crimson sweep
Into the sallow waters. Eyes and heart
Beheld the foe o'erwhelmed on corse-strewn plain.
And all the raging thunders of his guns,
And all the furious shoutings of his men,
And all the clarion voices of his soul
Were whirlwind, tempest, crying in his ears —
" Victor of Fredericksburg! " A gathering awe
Engulfed his face and form; a vatic light
Loomed up in flashing eyes as though he saw
The morning stars of victory and heard
The music of the trumpets of his dreams.