Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/77



When tempest winnowed grain from bran;

And men were looking for a man,

Authority called you to the van,

McClellan:

Along the line the plaudit ran,

As later when Antietam's cheers began.

Through storm-cloud and eclipse must move

Each Cause and Man, dear to the stars and Jove;

Nor always can the wisest tell

Deferred fulfillment from the hopeless knell—

The struggler from the floundering ne'er-do-well.

A pall-cloth on the Seven Days fell,

Mcclellan—

Unprosperously heroical!

Who could Antietam's wreath foretell?