Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/521

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HENRY LYNDEN FLASH

STONEWALL JACKSON (PAGE 261)

In connection with the battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, General Jackson with a small escort advanced in front of his lines, between eight and nine o clock in the evening, to reconnoiter. As he was returning his party was mistaken for Federal soldiers and was fired upon by the Confederates. Jackson was so severely wounded in the left arm and the right hand that on the following day his left arm was amputated. He seemed in a fair way to recover, but pneumonia set in, from which he died. May 10. 1863.

QUESTION. What is the underlying thought of the poem?

THADDEUS OLIVER

ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC TO-NIGHT (PAGE 262)

The authorship of this poem has been generally ascribed to Ethel Lynn Beers, a New England writer. But recent evidence for a different view seems conclusive. Professor C. Alphonso Smith presents the evidence for Thaddeus Oliver s authorship as follows: This poem was first published unsigned on October 21, 1861. "in a Northern newspaper." In Harper s Weekly, of November 3Oth, 1861, it reappeared with Mrs. Beers initials attached. Mr. Oliver, however, wrote the poem in August, 1861, and read it to several friends in camp with him in Virginia. In a letter dated "Camp 2d Ga. Regt. near Centreville. Va.. October 3rd, i86i, v Mr. John D. Ashton, of Georgia, writing to his wife says: Upon my arrival at home, should I be so fortunate as to obtain the hoped-for furlough, I will read you the touching and beautiful poem mentioned in my letter of last week, All Quiet along the Potomac To-night, written by my girlishly modest friend, Thaddeus Oliver, of the Buena Vista Guards." For further evidence see Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. VIII, pages 255-260.

QUESTIONS, i. Show that the poem gives a vivid picture of a grim

reality. 2. In what way does the incident make a human appeal?

MARIE RAVEXEL DE LA COSTE

SOMEBODY S DARLING (PAGE 264)

This poem was one of the best-loved Confederate poems and for many years was to be found in every scrapbook and heard on every school stage.