Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/230

 224 Southern Histo7'ical Society Papers.

How oft we drove the horsemen blue

In Summer bright or winter frore ! How oft before the Southern charge

Thro' field and wood the bluebirds tore !

I'm " harmonized " to-day, but think I'd like to charge once more.

Oh, yes! we're all " fraternal " now, ■

Purged of our sins we're clean and pure, '

Congress will " reconstruct " us soon — But no gray people on i/ia^ floor! I'm harmonized— "so called "—but long To see those times once more !

Gay days ! the sun was brighter then,

And we were happy, though so poor ! That past comes back as I behold

My shattered friend upon the floor,

My splintered, useless, ruined mug. From which I'll drink no more.

How many lips I'll love for aye,

While heart and memory endure, Have touched this broken cup and laughed —

How they did laugh! — in days of yore!

Those days we'd call "a beauteous dream If they had been no more ! "

Dear comrades, dead this many a day,

I saw you weltering in your gore After those days, amid the pines

On the Rappahannock shore !

When the joy of life was much to me. But your warm hearts were more !

Yours was the grand heroic nerve

That laughs amid the storm of war — Souls that " loved much " your native land,

Who fought and died therefor!

You gave your youth, your brains, your arms, Your blood — you had no more!

You lived and died true to your flag!

And now your wounds are healed, but sore

Are many hearts that think of you Where you have "gone before." Peace, comrade ! God bound up those forms — They are " whole " forevermore !