Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/52

 Some of the wounded in the wood

Were cared for by the foe last night,

Though he could do them little needed good,

Himself being all in shivering plight.

The rebel is wrong, but human yet;

He's got a heart, and thrusts a bayonet.

He gives us battle with wondrous will—

The bluff's a perverted Bunker Hill.

The stillness stealing through the throng

The silent thought and dismal fear revealed;

They turned and went,

Musing on right and wrong

And mysteries dimly sealed—

Breasting the storm in daring discontent;

The storm, whose black flag showed in heaven,

As if to say no quarter there was given

To wounded men in wood,

Or true hearts yearning for the good—

All fatherless seemed the human soul.

But next day brought a bitterer bowl—

On the bulletin-board this stood;

Saturday morning at 3 A.M.

A stir within the Fort betrayed

That the rebels were getting under arms;

Some plot these early birds had laid.