Part 11
Monterey is the capital of the Mexican State Nuevo Leon. The famous battle was fought on September 21, 22, and 23, 1846. The place was defended by ten thousand men under General Ampudia. The American force is estimated to have been about six thousand five hundred.
16. THE DEFENSE OF LAWRENCE. By Richard Realf.
Richard Realf was born in Framfield, Sussex, England, June 14, 1834. He emigrated to America in 1855, and was connected with John Brown and his men in Kansas and Iowa during the two years following. He served with the 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry throughout the Civil War, and then became a newspaper writer and lecturer. Unfortunate domestic relations led to his suicide in San Francisco, October 28, 1878. The lyric “Indirection” is usually regarded as Realf’s finest poem.
“The Defense of Lawrence” commemorates “the resistance made, in September, 1856, to the last pro-slavery attack on Lawrence, Kansas, when a small number of Free State men successfully held the place against twenty-four hundred armed Missourians, and drove back their advance of three hundred men.”
=Stanza 6.= =Gideon.= See Judges, chapters 6, 7, and 8.
=Stanza 7.= The river referred to in the last line of the stanza is the Wakarusa.
17. BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER. By Wallace Rice.
Wallace Rice, a Chicago critic and poet, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, November 10, 1859, of American parents temporarily resident there.
“The treaty obtained from China by the English in 1858 was to be returned, by its terms, to the Chinese capital for final ratification by June 26, 1859. The British forces assembled at the mouth of Pei-Ho River, on the direct road to Pekin, for that purpose, June 25, 1859. Their heavier vessels were kept in the gulf by a bar, but the lighter gunboats went on up the stream until their progress was stopped by the obstructions placed at the fort. The U. S. S. _Powhatan_, Flag Officer Tattnall, bore John E. Wade and his suite, who were to represent the United States at similar negotiations then pending. The size of the _Powhatan_ did not permit her entry upon the river, so Tattnall secured the small unarmed merchant steamer _Toey-Wan_ to take the representative of our government to Pekin. The rest of the story is told substantially as it occurred, the British loss being 89 killed and 345 wounded, out of 1,100 engaged. But for the _Toey-Wan_ and Tattnall’s interference--wholly unwarranted by all considerations save those which he himself brought forward--there can be no doubt that England’s entire force would have been killed or captured.” W. R.
Josiah Tattnall, the hero of the “Blood is Thicker than Water” episode, was the son of a Georgia soldier and statesman, and was born in Bonaventure, Georgia, November 9, 1795. He entered the navy at seventeen, and served in the War of 1812, in the war with Algiers, and in the Mexican War. Soon after the outbreak of the Rebellion he offered his services to the Confederates. It was he who, in March, 1862, succeeded Franklin Buchanan in command of the _Merrimac_, and it was he who destroyed that noted vessel to prevent her capture. He died in Savannah, Georgia, June 14, 1871.
Stephen Decatur Trenchard, who was wounded at the Pei-Ho engagement, entered the navy in 1834, and served until 1880, when he was retired, being at the time a rear-admiral. He was a lieutenant when he fought with Tattnall.
The Gulf of Pechi-Li is a land-locked extension of the Yellow Sea between the base of the Corean peninsula and the Chinese province of Shan-Tung.
The Pei-Ho is a Chinese river that rises near the borders of Mongolia, and flows northeast and southeast past Pekin and Tientsin into the Gulf of Pechi-Li.
=Stanza 3.= =Hope= (Admiral Sir James, 1808-1881). He was twice severely wounded in the Pei-Ho action, but remained personally in command throughout the fight. The year following, he led an expedition which successfully attacked the forts, and opened the river for navigation.
=Stanza 4.= =Rason= and =McKenna=, officers in Hope’s fleet, the one a lieutenant-commander, the other a captain.
18. BETHEL. By Augustine Joseph Hickey Duganne.
Augustine Joseph Hickey Duganne was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1823. He was a colonel of New York volunteers during the Civil War. He was afterward employed upon the staff of the New York _Tribune_. He died in New York City, October 20, 1884.
The battle of Big Bethel, near Fortress Monroe, Virginia, was the first action of the Civil War, and was fought June 10, 1861. The Union forces were under the command of a militia brigadier from Massachusetts, General E. W. Pierce, to whose incapacity and inexperience the Confederate success was largely due. Winthrop (Major Theodore, the author of “John Brent” and “Cecil Dreeme”) led an assault upon the rebel works, and was shot dead while standing upon a log, cheering his men to the charge. Says Horace Greeley of him in “The American Conflict,”--“His courage and conduct throughout the fight rendered him conspicuous to, and excited the admiration of, his enemies.” The Duryea mentioned in the poem (Colonel Abram) was in command of a regiment of New York volunteers. Later, he was made a brigadier-general, participated in several important battles, and at the close of the war was breveted major-general.
19. THE CHARGE BY THE FORD. By Thomas Dunn English.
Thomas Dunn English. See note on “Arnold at Stillwater.”
An incident that occurred in 1861, in the Gauley River region, West Virginia.
20. THE LITTLE DRUMMER. By Richard Henry Stoddard.
Richard Henry Stoddard, one of our three most distinguished living poets, (see note on “Kearny at Seven Pines,” by Edmund Clarence Stedman) was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, July 2, 1825. Mr. Stoddard’s long devotion to literature (although he was for some years connected with the New York custom-house and dock department) is too well known to call for extended chronicle. Not only as a poet, but also as an editor and critic, has he won a high place in American letters.
Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon, a native of Connecticut (1818), a graduate of West Point, and a veteran of the Seminole and Mexican wars, was killed while rallying his troops at the battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861.
21. THE CUMBERLAND. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. See note on “Paul Revere.”
The battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia, during which the _Cumberland_ was sunk by the Confederate ram _Merrimac_, was fought March 9, 1862. Morris (George Upham, 1830-1875), who was temporarily commanding the _Cumberland_, entered the navy early in life as a midshipman, and served until the year before his death. He took part in a number of engagements during the Rebellion, and was wounded at Fort Darling. An incident of the _Cumberland-Merrimac_ battle is described by George H. Boker (see “The Black Regiment”) in a poem entitled
THE SWORD-BEARER
Brave Morris saw the day was lost: For nothing now remained Of the wrecked and sinking _Cumberland_ But to save the flag unstained.
So he swore an oath in the sight of heaven-- (If he kept it the world can tell!) “Before I strike to a rebel flag, I’ll sink to the gates of hell!
“Here, take my sword; ’tis in my way; I shall trip o’er the useless steel; For I’ll meet the lot that falls to all, With my shoulder at the wheel,”
So the little negro took the sword, And oh, with what reverent care! Following his master step by step, He bore it here and there.
A thought had crept through his sluggish brain, And shone in his dusky face, That somehow--he could not tell just how-- ’Twas the sword of his trampled race.
And as Morris, great with his lion heart, Rushed onward from gun to gun, The little negro slid after him Like a shadow in the sun.
But something of pomp and of curious pride The sable creature wore, Which at any time but a time like that Would have made the ship’s crew roar.
Over the wounded, dying, and dead, Like an usher of the rod, The black page, full of his mighty trust, With dainty caution trod.
No heed he gave to the flying ball, No heed to the bursting shell; His duty was something more than life, And he strove to do it well.
Down with our starry flag apeak, In the whirling sea we sank; And captain and crew and the sword-bearer Were washed from the bloody plank.
They picked us up from the hungry waves-- Alas, not all! And where, Where is the faithful negro lad? “Back oars! avast! look there!”
We looked, and as heaven may save my soul, I pledge you a sailor’s word, There, fathoms deep in the sea he lay, Still grasping his master’s sword.
We drew him out; and many an hour We wrought with his rigid form Ere the almost smothered spark of life By slow degrees grew warm.
The first dull glance that his eyeballs rolled Was down toward his shrunken hand; And he smiled, and closed his eyes again, As they fell on the rescued brand.
And no one touched the sacred sword, Till at length, when Morris came, The little negro stretched it out With his eager eyes aflame.
And if Morris wrung the poor boy’s hand, And his words seemed hard to speak, And tears ran down his manly cheeks, What tongue shall call him weak?
22. JOHNSTON AT SHILOH. By Fleming James.
Albert Sydney Johnston, who commanded the Confederate forces at the battle of Shiloh, was a Kentuckian by birth (1803), and was one of the most able of the Southern leaders. He had had a wide experience in military affairs, being a West Point graduate, and having served in Mexico and upon the plains. The battle of Shiloh was fought on the 6th of April, 1862.
23. THE RIVER FIGHT. By Henry Howard Brownell.
Henry Howard Brownell, called “the laureate of the Civil War,” was born in Providence, Rhode Island, February 6, 1820. His early manhood was devoted to literary work. He served on the _Hartford_ under Farragut during a part of the Rebellion, and at the close of the war accompanied that officer upon a cruise to various European ports. He died in Hartford, Connecticut, October 31, 1872. Thomas Bailey Aldrich has paid a beautiful tribute to his memory in a sonnet beginning--
“They never crowned him, never knew his worth, But let him go unlaureled to the grave.”
The conflict commemorated in this poem, resulting in the opening of the lower Mississippi, took place on the 24th of April, 1862. The introductory portion of the poem is omitted, and a few additional stanzas that retard, rather than accelerate, the forward movement.
=Stanza 1.= “Up the River of Death Sailed the great Admiral.”
David Glasgow Farragut, generally conceded to be the greatest American seaman, was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801. His most famous victories were those of the “River Fight” and of Mobile Bay, which Brownell celebrated in a poem entitled “The Bay Fight,” perhaps his best-known effort, the length of which precludes its use in this volume. (See poem, “Farragut,” by William T. Meredith). He died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 14, 1870.
=Stanza 4.= =Porter= (David Dixon, 1813-1891), the naval officer who succeeded Farragut as vice-admiral and admiral. He had command of the mortar flotilla in the “River Fight.”
=Last Stanza.= The church-pennant is made of white bunting in the form of an isosceles triangle, on each side of which is sewed blue bunting in shape of a cross resting horizontally on the white. This pennant is used only when religious service is being held, and is then hoisted above the national ensign.
24. KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES. By Edmund Clarence Stedman.
Edmund Clarence Stedman, our most distinguished critic, and one of the three most distinguished of our living poets (the others being Richard Henry Stoddard and Thomas Bailey Aldrich), was born in Hartford, Connecticut, October 8, 1833. He entered journalism after leaving college, and was a war correspondent during the early years of the Civil War. Later he purchased a seat in the New York stock exchange, and became a broker, devoting his leisure to literature. He has for many years been one of the most prominent figures in literary New York.
The battle of Seven Pines was fought on the 31st of May, 1862.
Philip Kearny was born in New York City, June 2, 1815. Entering the army in 1837, he was sent to Europe two years later to observe the tactics of the French cavalry. Enlisting in the French service, he performed many daring exploits in Algiers. He was in the Mexican War, and was the first American to enter the city of Mexico. He won the cross of the Legion of Honor in the Franco-Austrian war of 1859, and his service to the Union cause in the Rebellion before his death was conspicuous. General Scott once referred to him as the bravest and most perfect soldier he ever knew. The battle of Chantilly, where General Kearny lost his life, took place September 1, 1862. The general became separated from his men in the dusk and driving rain, and rode by mistake into the Confederate line. Encountering some skirmishers, he perceived his blunder, wheeled his horse, and endeavored to escape, but a volley rang out and he fell. It was in Kearny’s memory that George H. Boker wrote his most tender lyric:
DIRGE FOR A SOLDIER
Close his eyes; his work is done! What to him is friend or foeman, Rise of moon, or set of sun, Hand of man, or kiss of woman? Lay him low, lay him low, In the clover or the snow! What cares he? he cannot know: Lay him low!
As man may, he fought his fight, Proved his truth by his endeavor; Let him sleep in solemn night, Sleep forever and forever. Lay him low, lay him low In the clover or the snow! What cares he? he cannot know: Lay him low!
Fold him in his country’s stars, Roll the drum and fire the volley; What to him are all our wars, What but Death bemocking Folly? Lay him low, lay him low, In the clover or the snow! What cares he? he cannot know: Lay him low!
Leave him to God’s watching eye, Trust him to the hand that made him. Mortal love weeps idly by: God alone has power to aid him. Lay him low, lay him low, In the clover or the snow! What cares he? he cannot know: Lay him low!
=Stanza 1.= =Jameson= (Charles Davis), a brigadier-general of volunteers who died in the service.
=Berry= (Hiram George), a major-general of volunteers, killed in the battle of Chancellorsville. See “Keenan’s Charge.”
=Birney= (David Bell), a major-general of volunteers, who succeeded General Berry after the fall of the latter at Chancellorsville. He died in the service.
25. AN UNKNOWN HERO. By William Gordon McCabe.
William Gordon McCabe was born in Richmond, Virginia, August 4, 1841. He served in various capacities in the Confederate army throughout the Civil War, since the close of which he has been active as an educator and as a writer upon educational and general topics.
“After the battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia (July 1, 1862), a soldier was found dead fifty yards in advance of any officer or man, his musket firmly grasped in his rigid fingers,--name unknown,--simply ‘2 La.’ (Second Louisiana) on his cap.” Malvern Hill lies near the James River, about fifteen miles southeast of Richmond.
26. BARBARA FRIETCHIE. By John Greenleaf Whittier.
John Greenleaf Whittier, “the Quaker laureate of Puritan New England,” and by some considered the most distinctively American poet, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, December 17, 1807. Whittier was prominent among the anti-slavery agitators, and during his early manhood gave much of his time and strength to the interests of the cause. He took up his permanent residence at Amesbury, Massachusetts, in 1840, and lived there, and at “Oak Knoll,” in Danvers, during the remainder of his life. “Of all our poets,” says Mr. Stedman, “he is the most natural balladist.” He is seen at his best in such ballads as “Cassandra Southwick,” “Mary Garvin,” and “The Wreck of Rivermouth,” and in the New England pastoral, “Snowbound.” He died at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, September 7, 1892.
It was during the march of “Stonewall” Jackson’s command through Frederick City, Maryland, just before the battle of South Mountain, in September, 1862, that the incidents which inspired this poem are said to have occurred. Their truth having been questioned, Mr. Francis F. Browne appealed to Mr. Whittier, and in November, 1885, received from the poet the subjoined statement:--“Of the substantial truth of the heroism of Barbara Frietchie I can have no doubt. Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, the novelist, of Washington, sent me a slip from a newspaper stating the circumstance as it is given in the poem, and assured me of its substantial correctness. Dorothea L. Dix, the philanthropic worker in Union hospitals, confirmed it. From half a dozen other sources I had the account, and all agree in the main facts. Barbara Frietchie was the boldest and most outspoken Unionist in Frederick, and manifested it to the rebel army in an unmistakable manner.” In spite of Mr. Whittier’s belief in the truth of the incident, its authenticity has been seriously questioned in later years.
“Stonewall” Jackson (Thomas Jonathan), one of the most brilliant generals on either side in the Civil War, was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, January 21, 1824. He graduated at West Point, and was twice breveted in the war with Mexico. At the beginning of the Rebellion he took command of the Confederate troops at Harper’s Ferry. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Bull Run, where he gained the sobriquet “Stonewall” on account of the firm stand he made. After a series of brilliant victories, he was mortally wounded by some of his own men when returning from a reconnaissance after the battle of Chancellorsville. He died on the 10th of May, 1863.
=Line 10.= =Lee=, Robert Edward, the Commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces during the Civil War, was born at Stratford House in Virginia, the home of the Lees, on January 19, 1807. Like Jackson he was a West Point graduate, and like him served with distinguished bravery in the war with Mexico. At the close of the Rebellion, he was chosen president of Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia. His death occurred on October 12, 1870.
27. THE EAGLE OF CORINTH. By Henry Howard Brownell.
Henry Howard Brownell. See note on “The River Fight.”
The battle of Corinth was fought October 3d and 4th, 1862. The famous war-eagle of the poem was taken from a nest in Chippeway County, Wisconsin, by a Chippeway Indian, in July, 1861, and given by him to a farmer living near. A citizen of Eau Claire purchased the bird, and presented him to Company C, of the Eighth Wisconsin, with which he remained until the regiment was mustered out of active service. He was present at all of the battles in which the troops were engaged, and would fly over the enemy during the hottest of the fight, returning after a time to his perch upon a pole borne by one especially appointed for that duty. Whenever there was any cheering his wings were instantly outspread. At the battle of Corinth, the rebel general Price gave orders to capture or kill the eagle, saying that he was worth more than the whole brigade. The name by which the bird was universally known, “Old Abe,” was given him by Captain Wolf, of Company C, of the Eighth Wisconsin.
=Stanza 1. Price= (Stirling, 1809-1867), a Virginian who served the Confederate cause in the West and Southwest throughout the Civil War.
=Van Dorn= (=Earl=, 1820-1863), a Mississippian who rose to the rank of major-general in the Confederate service. He was shot and killed by a physician named Peters on account of some private grievance.
=Stanza 5.= =Robinett=, a fort erected by the Federal forces at Corinth.
28. READY. By Phœbe Cary.
Phœbe Cary, the younger of the Cary sisters, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, September 4, 1824, and died in Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1873. Her best-known lyric is entitled “Nearer Home.”
The incident described in this poem probably occurred some time during the first week in April, 1863, when there were several actions at Rodman’s Point. This point is a strip of land projecting into the Pimlico River about a mile and a half below Washington, North Carolina.
29. THE BATTLE OF CHARLESTON HARBOR. By Paul Hamilton Hayne.
Paul Hamilton Hayne, a nephew of the noted Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, was born in Charleston, January 1, 1830. Most of his life was devoted to literature, his best work being lyrics descriptive of Southern scenery. He died at Copse Hill, Georgia, July 6, 1886.
The attack by the Union fleet upon the defenses of Charleston harbor occurred April 7, 1863.
The fort referred to in the fifth stanza is Moultrie.
30. KEENAN’S CHARGE. By George Parsons Lathrop.
George Parsons Lathrop, perhaps best known as a novelist, was born in Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, August 25, 1851, and died in New York City, April 19, 1898.
During the second day of the battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, General Pleasanton was endeavoring to get twenty-two guns into a vital position as “Stonewall” Jackson made a sudden advance. Every instant’s delay was precious, at whatever cost it was purchased, so Pleasanton ordered Major Keenan, commanding the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry (four hundred strong), to charge the advancing ten thousand of the enemy.
General Alfred Pleasanton was born in Washington, D. C., June 7, 1824. He was a West Point graduate, and served in the Mexican War and in several Indian wars. He was the commander of the Union cavalry at the battle of Gettysburg.
Major Peter Keenan was born in York, New York, November 9, 1834. He was a resident of Philadelphia when the Civil War broke out, and assisted in recruiting the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, in which he was made a captain. Having attained the rank of major, he was in command of his regiment at the battle of Chancellorsville, as above stated.
=Stanza 1.= “‘Stonewall’s’ Corps.” See “Barbara Frietchie.”
31. THE HERO OF THE GUN. By Margaret Junkin Preston.
Margaret Junkin Preston, a poet and prose writer who, though a native of the North (born in Philadelphia, in 1825), has always been identified with the South. She wrote many fine ballads. She died in Baltimore, Maryland, March 28, 1897.
An incident of the Civil War which, though probably true, the son of the author is not able to identify.
32. AN INCIDENT OF WAR. By Maurice Thompson.
Maurice Thompson, poet, novelist, and journalist (brother of Will Henry Thompson,--see “High Tide at Gettysburg” and “The Bond of Blood”), was born in Fairfield, Indiana, September 9, 1844. His boyhood was passed in Kentucky and Georgia, and he served in the Confederate army throughout the Civil War, later engaging in the practice of law at Crawfordsville, Indiana, his present home. He was at one time the state geologist of Indiana. Mr. Thompson is a nature-intimate, and his lyrics of “wild life” have a rare freshness and charm.
Of “An Incident of War” the author says: “The poem has no exact model of fact; I got it out of my composite impression of war as I experienced it.”
33. THE BLACK REGIMENT. By George Henry Boker.