POETRY AND INCIDENTS. With decimated ranks, they come, And through the crowded street God bless the soldiers! cry the folk, God bless the banners, black with smoke, No grander trophies could be brought Of glorious battles nobly fought, And so, to-day, I chanced with pride Those remnants from the bloody tide OUR HERO-DEAD. BY CHARLES BOYNTON HOWELL. From their labors nobly done, Sleep their sacred patriot forms, Some passed from the realms of life Mourners, in whose every heart Sacrificing self they fought That the traitorous hordes that aim Alexander, brave and bold, Nor did brave Leonidas- Honor to the hero-slain! When war's clarion blast shall cease ANN ARBOR, January, 1864. 4 A SOLDIER'S LETTER. BY MARY C. HOVEY. 69 Give them grape, boys! Steady! Fire! Give them lead, boys! give them lead! Up with the infantry! Load, boys, load! With columns massed in a fierce attack. Stand by your guns, boys! Drive them back! Give them steel, boys! give them steel! They fight like devils! At them again! Their charge is broken! they pause, they reel! After them, boys, with might and main ! Give them steel, boys! See how they run! I'm hit-just here--but never mind me. Lay me down by the side of that gun, And after the rest with a three times three! WHAT THE BIRDS SAID. BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. The birds, against the April wind, "O wild-birds! flying from the South, What saw and heard ye, gazing down ?" "We saw the mortar's upturned mouth, The sickened camp, the blazing town "Beneath the bivouac's starry lamps, We saw your march-worn children die; In shrouds of moss, in cypress swamps, We saw your dead uncoffined lie. "We heard the starving prisoner's sighs; And saw, from line and trench, your sons Follow our flight with home-sick eyes Beyond the battery's smoking guns." "And heard and saw ye only wrong And pain," I cried, "O wing-worn flocks?" "We heard," they sang, "the freedman's song, The crash of slavery's broken locks! "We saw from new, uprising States The treason-nursing mischief spurned, "O'er dusky faces, seamed and old, And hands horn-hard with unpaid toil, With hope in every rustling fold, We saw your star-dropt flag uncoil. "And, struggling up through sounds accursed, A grateful murmur clomb the air, A whisper scarcely heard at first, It filled the listening heavens with prayer. "And sweet and far, as from a star, Replied a voice which shall not cease, So to me, in a doubtful day Of chill and slowly greening spring, Low stooping from the cloudy gray, The wild-birds sang or seemed to sing. They vanished in the misty air, The song went with them in their flight; But lo! they left the sunset fair, And in the evening there was light. DOWN BY THE RAPIDAN. How, like a dream of childhood, the sweet May-day goes by! A golden brightness gilds the air, a rose-flush paints the sky; And the southern winds come bearing in their freights of rare perfume From the far-off country valleys, where the spring flowers are in bloom. INDEX. EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS IN THE INDEX. D. stands for Diary of Events; Doc. for Documents; and P. for Poetry, Rumors and Incidents. ADAMS, WILLIAM K., Lieut., First North-Carolina, D. 29 ADAMS, WIRT, Gen., raid on Gelser- account of his expedition, Doc. 466 D. 36 54 "A. D. Vance,' run ashore at Fort 66 After the Fight," a poem, "Agate." See Whitelaw Reid, Alabama, extraordinary feat of the D. 35 First loyal cavalry of, P. 6 Seventh cavalry of, D. 58 See R. R. Livingston, ANDREW, JOHN A., Gov., tween Generals Longstreet and AVERILL, WM.W., Brig.-Gen.,at Spring- field, Va., D. 41 expedition of, D. 24 prisoners captured by, D. 9 A War Study, by U. S. N. P. 64 D. 24 356 30 Doc. 120 Doc. 605 BAILEY, Lieut.-Col. See Red Doc. 529 Doc. 384 Report of the destruction of salt- Doc. 419 BAIN, GEORGE M., Rev., Doc. 455 corps in, Doc. 356 See Fred. Steele, the Legislature of, votes to give the See Sterling Price. carpets to the soldiers, D. 27 Unionism in, Doc. 357 BAKER, EDWARD. See Mobile, Doc. 126 Doc. 455 Baker's Creek, Miss., skirmish near, D. 36 Doc. 475 2 "Alabama" captures the "Amanda" and "Winged Racer," D. 3 Army of the Cumberland, operations BALDWIN, W. H., Lieut.-Col., Report Doc. 305 Col. Long's Report, Doc. 30 Albany Army Relief Bazaar, noticed, P. 20 "Albemarle," rebel ram at Plymouth, Lieut. Col. Porter's Report. Doc. 809 D. 56 D. 69 ALDEN, JAMES, Capt. See Mobile, Ala. ALDRICH, MILLY. See Sanitary Com- Doc. 318 D. 60 Doc. 115 BANKS, N. P., Major-Gen., expedition P. 25 ALEXANDER, FRANCIS A., Doc. 26 Doc. 545 captures Corpus Christi and Aran- D. 9 D. |