Classic Poem

At eventide Lee stood and viewed his fate,
Struck with strange rigors by confounded host.
And through the night, calm midst a wild despair,
While every Union cannon roared and blazed,
He waited for the morning, — storming arms
And swarming blue-hued victors pitiless.

Feeling the day's adventures close at hand,
Full-uniformed, wearing his priceless sword,
Arrayed as for a hero's dress parade,
Bearing a triumph spirit midst retreat,
The Southern Chieftain watched advancing foe
As with the early light it surged across
His outer works. Then mounting Traveler,
Scarcely escaping the unresting fire,
He spurred his horse back to the inner lines
Before the cheerings of his soldiery —
The flush of cheek, the flash of eye, his wont
In crucial moments at his spirit's height,
Betokening imperious defiance.

As night closed round the City of Petersburg,
The prison city of a terrible year,
Towards which were rolling now Blue waves of doom,
In silence Lee rode forth leading his troops,
A long procession of Gray desperates,
Into the dark, along the road that stretched
On to Amelia Court House. Suddenly
A little distance out, he stopped his horse,
Dismounted, and there stood, the bridle rein
Taut in his hand, and gazed upon his men
As in the gloaming they strode ruefully
Forth from the city 'neath the shades of death,
Beginning flight forlorn across the open.

The time that Lee withdrew his shattered ranks
From Petersburg through all that April night —
That Sabbath night of great historic grief,
His bulwarks captured and his lines forspent,
Behind him ruin irretrievable —
The Federal Army slowly entered in,
And marshalled in review before the eyes,
The prideful eyes of their commanding Chiefs,
With triumph's joyance in their every move,
And fury reaching forth towards fleeing foe.
The Union legions crossed the captured town
To follow Lee in quick and hot pursuit.