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POETRY AND INCIDENTS.

With decimated ranks, they come,

And through the crowded street
March to the beating of the drum
With firm though weary feet.

God bless the soldiers! cry the folk,
Whose cheers of welcome swell;

God bless the banners, black with smoke,
And torn by shot and shell!
They should be hung on sacred shrines,
Baptized with grateful tears,
And live embalmed in poets' lines
Through all succeeding years.

No grander trophies could be brought
By patriot sire to son,

Of glorious battles nobly fought,
Brave deeds sublimely done.

And so, to-day, I chanced with pride
And solemn joy to see

Those remnants from the bloody tide
Of victory!

OUR HERO-DEAD.

BY CHARLES BOYNTON HOWELL.

From their labors nobly done,
From their battles bravely won,
'Neath the earth's cold sod they lie
Resting calmly, silently.

Sleep their sacred patriot forms,
Where war's tempests and alarms
Cannot reach them-cannot smite
Them to earth in camp or fight.

Some passed from the realms of life
In the battle's sanguine strife,
Smitten down, in carnage, low
By the hand of dastard foe;
Who would pluck the beaming stars
From our flag, invoking Mars
To look on their deeds of blood
With the mien of gratitude.

Mourners, in whose every heart
There has entered sorrow's dart,
Sorrow for the loved ones gone
To the confines of the tomb-
Seek the graves of warriors slain
On the battle's gory plain,
Or sent to the realms of death
By disease's fatal breath.

Sacrificing self they fought
That the land, with treason fraught,
Might rise, phoenix-like, again
From her agonizing pain;

That the traitorous hordes that aim
At their country's name and fame,
Might be conquered in the fray,
And insure us triumph's day.

Alexander, brave and bold,
In the chivalrous days of old,
Did not nobler deeds perform
In the stirring battle-storm,
On Europa's bloody soil,
Than our hardy sons of toil,
Have, when so intrepidly
Battling for our liberty.

Nor did brave Leonidas-
When was stormed the bloody pass
At old-time Thermopyla-
Strike with nobler gallantry
With his dauntless Spartan band,
Fighting for their native land,
Than Columbia's sons of Mars,
Warring for the Stripes and Stars.

Honor to the hero-slain!
They who for their country's gain,
In the nation's gloomy night,
Left their homes and firesides bright,
So that this, our favored land,
May again take up her stand
In the van of nations, where
She e'er stood through peace and war.

When war's clarion blast shall cease
And the swift-winged bird of peace,
Soaring over hill and glen,
Bears the olive-branch again-
Will these slumbering warriors be,
In their country's memory,
Patriots true and heroes tried,
Who for freedom nobly died!

ANN ARBOR, January, 1864.

4

A SOLDIER'S LETTER.

BY MARY C. HOVEY.

69

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Give them grape, boys! Steady! Fire!
Now, boys, go to work with a will!
Sight that gun a little bit higher.
Right!-a gap that twenty can fill!

Give them lead, boys! give them lead!

Up with the infantry! Load, boys, load!
Where's Joe Lane? Poor fellow! he's dead;
Many of us must travel his road!
Give them lead, boys! On they come,

With columns massed in a fierce attack.
Think of your dear ones safe at home!

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!

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WHAT THE BIRDS SAID.

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The birds, against the April wind,
Flew Northward, singing as they flew ;
They sang:
"The land we leave behind
Has swords for corn-blades, blood for dew."

"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,
As, crowding freedom's ample gates,
The long-estranged and lost returned.

"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,
Till, drowning all the noise of war,
It sings the blessed songs of peace!"

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.

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INDEX.

EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS IN THE INDEX.

D. stands for Diary of Events; Doc. for Documents; and P. for Poetry, Rumors and Incidents.

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ADAMS, WILLIAM K., Lieut., First

North-Carolina,

D. 29

ADAMS, WIRT, Gen., raid on Gelser-
town, Miss.,

account of his expedition, Doc. 466
at the battle of Okalona, Miss., Doc. 494
noticed,
D. 6, 19, 24, 60
A dialogue on the merits of the war, P.
ADDISON, THOMAS. See Fort Pillow,
Doc. 13

D. 36

54

"A. D. Vance,' run ashore at Fort
Caswell, N. C.,

66 After the Fight," a poem,

"Agate." See Whitelaw Reid,

Alabama, extraordinary feat of the

D. 35
P. 42
D. 54

First loyal cavalry of,

P. 6

Seventh cavalry of,

D. 58

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See R. R. Livingston,

ANDREW, JOHN A., Gov.,
Anglo-Saxon Whittling Song,
"Annie Thompson," account of the
capture of,
Doc.
Annus Mirabilis, The, of the South, D.
"A patriotic father," anecdote of, P.
"A Premium Uniform,"
Aranzas Pass, Texas, captured, D.
A rebel acrostic,
P. 6
Arkansas, Gen. Steele's address to the
people of,
D. 48
Gov. Murphy's address to the peo-
ple of,
Doc. 594
reorganization in; Pres. Lincoln's
instructions to Gen. Steele, Doc. 389
restoration of,
Doc. 324
D. 26

tween Generals Longstreet and
Foster,
Doc. 296
D. 56, Doc. 460
Mr. Coffey's letter on the, Doc. 383
debates on, in the rebel Congress, D. 21
debate on, in the Virginia House of
Delegates,
ANDERSON,, Capt. Fifty-first Indi-
ana cavalry,
D. 22
ANDERSON, C. D., Col., rebel. See
Fort Powell, Ala.,
Doc. 100
ANDERSON, RANSOM. See Fort Pillow,
Doc. 19
P. 16
P. 14

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

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356

30
24

Doc. 120
Bachelor's Creek, N. C., battle at, D. 40
accounts of the fight at,
Doc. 358
BACON, G. M., Capt., Twenty-fourth
Ohio,

Doc. 605

BAILEY,

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Lieut.-Col. See Red
River Expedition,
BAILEY, THEODORUS, Rear-Admiral, Re-
ports of operations in Florida, Doc. 280
Report on the capture of the salt-
works in St. Andrew's Bay, Fla.,
Doc. 345
Report of the destruction of rebel
salt-works in East and West-Bay,
Fla.,

Doc. 529

Doc. 384

Report of the destruction of salt-
works at St. Mark's, Fla.,

Doc. 419

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BAIN, GEORGE M., Rev.,

Doc. 455

corps in,

Doc. 356

See Fred. Steele,

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the Legislature of, votes to give the

See Sterling Price.

carpets to the soldiers,

D. 27

Unionism in,

Doc. 357

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BAKER, EDWARD. See Mobile,
BAKER, R. H.,

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
of the, in Jan. and Feb., 18 4.
Gen. Thomas's Report,

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BALDWIN, W. H., Lieut.-Col., Report

Doc. 305

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Col. Long's Report,

Doc. 30

Albany Army Relief Bazaar, noticed,

P. 20

"Albemarle," rebel ram at Plymouth,
N. C.,

Lieut. Col. Porter's Report. Doc. 809
Army of the Potomac, corps in,reduced
to three,

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D. 56

D. 69

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ALDEN, JAMES, Capt. See Mobile, Ala.
Report of operations near Mobile,

ALDRICH, MILLY. See Sanitary Com-
mission,

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Doc. 318
BANGS, ELI A. See Fort Pillow, Doc. 57
Bank of Ashland, Ky., robbed by guer-
rillas,

D. 60

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Doc. 115

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BANKS, N. P., Major-Gen., expedition
to Texas,
Doc. 146

P. 25

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ALEXANDER, FRANCIS A.,
ALEXANDER, G. W., Capt., relieved, D.
Alexandria, La., captured by Admiral
Porter,
Doc. 518, D. 53
Gen. Banks's army returns to, D. 72
ALLAN, PATTERSON, Mrs., arrest of,
D. 24, Doc. 584
ALLEN, T. S., Col. Fifth Wisconsin,
Doc. 162

Doc. 26
24

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Doc. 545
A "Soldier's Letter," by Mary C.
Hovey,
P. 69
A song, by Fitz-Greene Halleck,
P.
15
Athens, Alabama, rebel attack on, D. 86
ATKINSON,, Major, killed at Saline
River, Ark,
D. 72
AVERILL, WM. W., Brig.-Gen., Report of
the fight at Mill Point and Droop
Mountain, Va.,
Doc. 155
Reports of his expedition to cut the
Va, and Tenn. Railroad, Doc. 281
rebel accounts of his expedition,
Doc. 285, 286
D. 8

captures Corpus Christi and Aran-
zas Pass,

D. 9

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D.

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