Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/103

Rh "Well, then, your camps—come, tell the names"

Freely he leveled his finger then:

"Yonder—see—are our Georgians; on the crest,

The Carolinians; lower, past the glen,

Virginians—Alabamians—Mississippians—Kentuckians

(Follow my finger)—Tennesseeans; and the ten

Camps there—ask your grave-pits; they'll tell.

Halloa! I see the picket-hut, the den

Where I last night lay." "Where's Lee"

"In the hearts and bayonets of all yon men!"

The tribes swarm up to war

As in ages long ago,

Ere the palm of promise leaved

And the lily of Christ did blow.

Their mounted pickets for miles are spied

Dotting the lowland plain,

The nearer ones in their veteran-rags—

Loutish they loll in lazy disdain.

But ours in perilous places bide

With rifles ready and eyes that strain

Deep through the dim suspected wood

Where the Rapidan rolls amain.