Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/231



In order due the Major rode—

Chaplain and Surgeon on either hand;

A riderless horse a negro led;

In a wagon the blanketed sleeper went;

Then the ambulance with the bleeding band;

And, an emptied oat-bag on each head,

Went Mosby's men, and marked the dead.

What gloomed them? what so cast them down,

And changed the cheer that late they took,

As double-guarded now they rode

Between the files of moody men?

Some sudden consciousness they brook,

Or dread the sequel. That night's blood

Disturbed even Mosby's brotherhood.

The flagging horses stumbled at roots,

Floundered in mires, or clinked the stones;

No rider spake except aside;

But the wounded cramped in the ambulance,

It was horror to hear their groans—

Jerked along in the woodland ride,

While Mosby's clan their revery hide.