Part 12
George Henry Boker, poet and diplomat, and perhaps best known as the author of the play, “Francesca da Rimini,” was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 6, 1823. He was successively United States Minister to Russia and Turkey. He died in Philadelphia, January 2, 1890.
“The Black Regiment” commemorates the charge of the First and Third Louisiana Native Guards at Port Hudson, May 27, 1863. Of the bearing of the negro soldiers in that action General Banks spoke in the highest terms in reporting to General Halleck. “Their conduct,” he wrote, “was heroic. No troops could be more determined or more daring. They made, during the day, three charges upon the batteries of the enemy, suffering very heavy losses, and holding their position at nightfall with the other troops on the right of our line. The highest commendation is bestowed upon them by all the officers in command on the right.”
In her “Camp-Fire and Memorial Poems,” Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood (see note on “Thomas at Chickamauga”) has paid an eloquent tribute to the valor of the “Black Regiment.”
34. GREENCASTLE JENNY. By Helen Gray Cone.
Helen Gray Cone, one of the most gifted of our women poets of to-day, was born in New York City, March 8, 1859. She is a member of the faculty of the Normal College of New York City.
The story of “Greencastle Jenny” was told by Colonel William R. Aylett, who succeeded General Armistead (see “High Tide at Gettysburg”) as commander of his brigade, at a reunion of the Blue and Grey at Gettysburg, in 1887. Miss Cone believes that the girl’s name is not known.
Greencastle is a small town in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, not far from the Maryland line.
=Stanza 1.= =Longstreet= (James, 1821-), a prominent Confederate general, by some considered the hardest fighter in the rebel service. He served in Mexico, and was active all through the Rebellion. At Gettysburg it is said he endeavored to dissuade Lee from ordering Pickett’s famous charge.
=Stanza 3.= =Pickett= (George Edward, 1825-1875), one of the most gallant Confederate generals. His charge at Gettysburg is historic, and was “the most brilliant feat of arms performed by the Confederates on any field.”
35. JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG. By (Francis) Bret Harte.
(Francis) Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, August 25, 1839. The years of his early manhood were passed in California. It was in San Francisco, while he was the editor of the _Overland_ _Monthly_ that the publication of “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Heathen Chinee” established his reputation. He has been United States Consul at Crefeld, Germany, and at Glasgow, Scotland. He resigned the latter post in 1885, since when he has resided in and near London.
The following statement, made by a Union officer who served in the Eleventh Corps at the battle of Gettysburg, is taken from Mr. Francis F. Browne’s “Bugle Echoes”:--“During the first day’s fight an old man, in a swallow-tailed coat and battered cylinder hat, came stalking across the fields from the town, and made his appearance at Colonel Stone’s position. With a musket in his hand, and ammunition in his pocket, this venerable citizen asked Colonel Wister’s permission to fight. Wister directed him to go over to the Iron Brigade, where he would be sheltered by the woods; but the old man insisted on going forward to the skirmish line. He was allowed to do so, and continued firing until the skirmishers retired, when he was the last man to leave. He afterward fought with the Iron Brigade, where he was three times wounded. This patriotic and heroic citizen was Constable John Burns, of Gettysburg.”
The battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1, 2, and 3, 1863.
=Line 11.= =Lee.= See “Barbara Frietchie.”
=l. 14.= =Meade= (George Gordon, 1815-1872), the commander of the Union army at Gettysburg. He served in the Mexican and Seminole Wars, and distinguished himself at Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was at the head of various military departments after the war.
=l. 100.= =Navarre.= See Macaulay’s ballad, “Ivry.”
36. HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG. By Will Henry Thompson.
Will Henry Thompson (brother of Maurice Thompson; see “An Incident of War,” and “The Ballad of a Little Fun”), a lawyer and poet residing in Seattle, Washington, was born in Calhoun county, Georgia, March 10, 1848. Mr. Thompson was a Confederate soldier, and his “High Tide at Gettysburg” is one of the finest poems inspired by the Civil War.
“High Tide at Gettysburg,” the day of Pickett’s charge, was the last day of that memorable battle, July 3, 1863.
=Stanza 2.= =Lee.= See “Barbara Frietchie.”
=Pickett.= See “Greencastle Jenny.”
=Stanza 3.= =Shiloh.= See “Johnston at Shiloh.”
=Chickamauga.= See “Thomas at Chickamauga.”
=Stanza 4.= =Pettigrew=, (James Johnson) a Confederate brigadier-general who was mortally wounded in Pickett’s charge. He was a native of North Carolina (1828-1863).
=Waterloo.= June 18, 1815.
=Stanza 5.= =Kemper= (James Lamson, 1823-), a Confederate brigadier-general, severely wounded and captured at Gettysburg. He has been governor of Virginia.
=Garnett= (Richard Brooke, 1819-1863), a Confederate brigadier-general who fell at Gettysburg.
=Armistead= (Lewis Addison, 1817-1863), a Confederate brigadier-general in Pickett’s division, who was mortally wounded in the famous charge.
=Stanza 7.= =Doubleday= (Abner, 1819-1893), a Federal major-general of volunteers, whose division was active in repulsing Pickett’s charge. It was he who fired the first gun in defense of Fort Sumter.
For another rendering of this battle in verse see Edmund Clarence Stedman’s “Gettysburg” (Complete Poems.).
37. THOMAS AT CHICKAMAUGA. By Kate Brownlee Sherwood.
Kate Brownlee Sherwood, a poet and journalist of Toledo, Ohio, who has written a number of successful war lyrics and memorial poems, was born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1841.
The battle of Chickamauga (Tennessee) was fought on the 19th and 20th of September, 1863. General George Henry Thomas, “the rock of Chickamauga,” who saved the day for the Federal forces, and made the Confederate victory a barren one, was a Virginian by birth (1816). He served in Florida and Mexico. It was he who was in command at Mission Ridge, and who overthrew the last Confederate army in the southwest. He was also in the Atlanta campaign. It has been said of him that he was the beau-ideal of a soldier and a gentleman. Among Federal generals he ranks after Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. He was in command of the military division of the Pacific when he died at San Francisco, March 28, 1870. The sobriquet “Pap” was spontaneously given Thomas by the soldiers of his command on account of the fatherly interest he took in them.
=l. 5.= =Hooker= (Joseph, 1814-1879), a distinguished Union general, who was nicknamed “Fighting Joe” by the soldiers for his courage under fire. He participated in some of the most important battles of the Rebellion, and was at one time in command of the Army of the Potomac.
=l. 33.= =Bragg= (Braxton, 1817-1876), a well-known rebel general who was in command of the Confederate forces at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga.
=l. 42.= =Steedman= (James Barrett, 1818-1883), a Pennsylvanian who was public printer at Washington during Buchanan’s administration. He was in command of the first division of the reserve corps of the Army of the Cumberland at Chickamauga, and reënforced Thomas at the most critical moment in the battle.
38. THE SMALLEST OF THE DRUMS. By James Buckham.
James Buckham, a well-known contributor to the periodicals of the day, was born in Burlington, Vermont, November 25, 1858.
The author states that this poem was suggested by a newspaper paragraph.
=Stanza 3.= =Sherman= (William Tecumseh), the eighteenth general-in-chief of the United States army, famous for his “march to the sea,” was born in Lancaster, Ohio, February 8, 1820. He was Grant’s most efficient assistant at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. He visited Europe in 1872, and was everywhere received with distinguished honor. In 1874 he retired from the command of the army to make room for Sheridan. He died in New York City, February 14, 1891. See “Sherman, an Horatian Ode,” by Louise Imogen Guiney (“A Roadside Harp”), and “General Sherman,” by H. C. Bunner (Complete Poems).
=Stanza 4.= =Chickamauga.= See “Thomas at Chickamauga.”
39. LITTLE GIFFEN. By Francis Orrery Ticknor.
Francis Orrery Ticknor, a physician, and the author of several lyrics of the Civil War very popular in the South, was a native of Georgia, and died near Columbus, in that State, in 1874. A posthumous volume of his poems was issued in 1879, with an introduction by Paul H. Hayne.
The hero of this poem was Isaac Giffen, a native of the mountainous region of East Tennessee. He had been terribly wounded at Murfreesboro, and was taken by Dr. Ticknor and his wife into their own home. He fell in one of the battles before Atlanta.
=Stanza 5.= “Johnson pressed at the front, they say.” Probably General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, is meant.
40. ULRIC DAHLGREN. By Kate Brownlee Sherwood.
Kate Brownlee Sherwood. See note on “Thomas at Chickamauga.”
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, the son of Admiral Dahlgren, distinguished himself while serving upon the staffs of General Hooker, General Sigel, and General Meade, lost a leg at Gettysburg, and while on crutches led an expedition to free the Union prisoners in Libby prison at Richmond, during which he was ambushed and slain, on the night of March 2, 1864. He was twenty-two years of age.
41. FARRAGUT. By William Tuckey Meredith.
William Tuckey Meredith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1839. He served with Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay, and was afterward the admiral’s secretary. He subsequently became a banker in New York City.
The battle of Mobile Bay was fought August 5, 1864. See “Craven,” below.
=Farragut.= See note on “The River Fight.”
=Stanza 2.= =Morgan=, a Confederate fort.
42. LEE TO THE REAR. By John Randolph Thompson.
John Randolph Thompson, journalist and poet, was born in Richmond, Virginia, October 23, 1823. He abandoned the law to devote himself to literature, and for a dozen years successfully edited the _Southern Literary Messenger_. After the Civil War he was for a time literary editor of the New York _Evening Post_. He died in New York City, April 30, 1873.
The incident described in the poem is authentic. For LEE, See “Barbara Frietchie.”
=Stanza 1.= THE WILDERNESS is a region a few miles south of the Rapidan river, in Virginia, memorable for the dreadful battle fought there between the Federal army under Grant and the Confederate forces under Lee on the 5th and 6th of May, 1864.
=Mendelssohn=, the famous German composer, 1809-1847.
=Stanza 4.= =Grant= (Ulysses Simpson, 1822-1885), the eighteenth president of the United States, and the most distinguished Federal general in the War of the Rebellion. Grant’s most celebrated battles were Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and the conflicts in the Wilderness and before Richmond, which culminated in the surrender of Lee. See “Grant,” by H. C. Bunner (Complete Poems); “On the Death of an Invincible Soldier,” by E. C. Stedman (“Poems Now First Collected”); and “Great Captain, Glorious in Our Wars,” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (Complete Poems).
43. CRAVEN. By Henry Newbolt.
Henry Newbolt, an English lawyer and poet, was born in Bilston, England, June 6, 1862. His best work is to be found in the volume entitled “Admirals All.”
=Craven= (Tunis Augustus Macdonough), the “Sidney of the American navy,” was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in January, 1813. He entered the navy at sixteen, and was a commander at the opening of the Civil War. As captain of the monitor _Tecumseh_, which had been given the post of honor, and was leading the fleet, he met his death in Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864.
=Stanza 8.= =Sidney= (Sir Philip, poet, soldier, and statesman. 1554-1586.) The reference is to the well-known story of Sidney’s refusing a cup of water, when lying mortally wounded on the battle-field of Zutphen, in order to give it to a wounded soldier.
=Nelson.= See “Fight of the _Armstrong_ Privateer.” The reference here is to the battle of the Nile, where Nelson was severely wounded.
=Lucas=, a young English captain, who was captured and imprisoned by an Indian despot (Hyder Ali,) during the campaign of 1780. To relieve Captain Baird, a severely wounded comrade, he assumed two sets of chains, so that the wounded man might be left free.
=Outram.= (Sir James, 1803-1863.) The reference is to his action at Cawnpore, in 1857, when, though superior in command, in admiration for the brilliant deeds of General Havelock, he conceded to that soldier the glory of relieving Lucknow, waiving his own rank, and tendering his services as a volunteer.
44. GRACIE OF ALABAMA. By Francis Orrery Ticknor.
Francis Orrery Ticknor. See “Little Giffen.”
Petersburg, the scene of this incident, a city which witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War, is situated upon the southern bank of the Appomattox River, about twenty miles south of Richmond.
The Gracie of the poem (Archibald,) was a Confederate brigadier-general who served with distinction at Knoxville and Chickamauga.
=Stanza 3.= LEE. See “Barbara Frietchie.”
45. THE BALLAD OF A LITTLE FUN. By Maurice Thompson.
Maurice Thompson. See note on “An Incident of War.”
=Stanza 5.= Salliquoy. A tributary of the Coosawattee. (See below.)
=Stanza 6.= Coosawattee. A stream that rises in Gilmer county, northern Georgia, and flows southwesterly through Gordon county, where it unites with the Canasauga to form the Oostanaula.
This poem relates an adventure that befell a Confederate scouting party near Hogan’s Ford, on the Coosawattee, while out upon a reconnoitering expedition late in 1864, or early in 1865.
46. SHERIDAN’S RIDE. By Thomas Buchanan Read.
Thomas Buchanan Read, poet and artist, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822. After a roving youth, he settled in Philadelphia, in which town and various Italian cities most of his life was spent. He died in New York City, May 11, 1872. The lyrics “Drifting” and “The Closing Scene “ show Read at his best as a poet.
Sheridan (Philip, generally known to army men as “Little Phil,” 1831-1888), was the most distinguished Federal cavalry leader in the Civil War. Serving in the early part of the war with the Army of the Cumberland, during the latter portion of the conflict he was with the Army of the Potomac, and rendered Grant important aid in crushing Lee. His own version of his famous ride (October 19, 1864,) may be read in his memoirs. It has been said of Sheridan that he was never defeated, but often plucked victory from the jaws of defeat.
=Line 2.= =Winchester.= The capital of Frederick county, Virginia, and the key to the Shenandoah valley.
47. DOWN THE LITTLE BIG HORN. By Francis Brooks.
Francis Brooks, a Chicago poet, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, March 7, 1867, and died near Geneva, Wisconsin, April 12, 1898. A memorial edition of his poems, edited by Wallace Rice, was issued in the autumn of 1898.
Custer (George Armstrong) was born in New Rumley, Ohio, December 5, 1839. He entered the army directly after his graduation from West Point in June, 1861, and participated in all but one of the battles of the Army of the Potomac, attaining the rank of major-general at twenty-five. He had eleven horses shot under him in battle. After the Civil War he served in several Indian campaigns. His last fight, on the banks of the Little Big Horn river in Montana, took place June 26, 1876. See “Custer,” by Edmund Clarence Stedman (Complete Poems).
=Stanza 2.= =Sitting Bull=, who commanded the Indians in the Custer fight, was a Sioux chief, born about 1837. He was killed while resisting arrest in the Sioux outbreak of December, 1890.
=Stanza 3.= =Rain-in-the-Face=, a Sioux chief, who had been imprisoned for murdering a sutler and veterinary surgeon, but had subsequently escaped. See Longfellow’s poem, “The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face.”
=Stanza 7.= =Comanche.= See “Miles Keogh’s Horse,” by John Hay (Poems).
48. THE BOND OF BLOOD. By Will Henry Thompson.
Will Henry Thompson. See note on “High Tide at Gettysburg.”
=Stanza 3.= =Lee.= See “Barbara Frietchie.”
=Stanza 6.= =Hancock= (Winfield Scott, 1824-1886), a distinguished Union general, and the Democratic candidate for President in 1880. He was conspicuous for his gallantry at Gettysburg, where he was wounded. The reference in this stanza is probably to the battle of Spottsylvania, where he captured and held a salient of field-works on the Confederate center, afterward known as “the bloody angle.”
=Stanza 9.= =Hill=, either A. P. or D. H., both noted Confederate generals.
=Gordon= (George Washington), a brilliant Confederate leader, well known after the war as a lawyer and public speaker.
=Stanza 12.= =Sherman.= See “The Smallest of the Drums.”
=Stanza 16.= =Wilderness.= See “Lee to the Rear.”
49. A BALLAD OF MANILA BAY. By Charles George Douglas Roberts.
Charles George Douglas Roberts, poet and novelist, was born near Frederickton, New Brunswick, January 10, 1860. He was at one time Professor of English Literature in King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. Of recent years he has resided in the United States and devoted himself entirely to writing. He is commonly spoken of as the leader of the Canadian School of poets.
George Dewey, who by his victory over the Spanish in Manila Bay has come to be looked upon as the greatest naval commander of modern times, was born in Montpelier, Vermont, December 26, 1837. He was with Farragut at the opening of the Mississippi (see “The River Fight”), and took part in the severe engagements at Fort Fisher. He became a commodore in 1896, and in recognition of his Manila victory (May 1, 1898), and his subsequent services, he was promoted, first to the rank of rear-admiral, and later to that of admiral.
=Stanza 1.= =Corregidor=, an island at the entrance to Manila Bay.
=Stanza 4.= =El Fraile= (the Friar), an outcrop of rock, tunnelled to serve as a battery, lying in the main channel almost due south of the westerly tip of Corregidor.
=Stanza 7.= =Kalibuyo= and =Salinas=, towns in the province of Cavité, on the southern shore of Manila Bay.
=Stanza 8.= =Cavité=, a former Spanish fortress and naval station situated upon a point of land seven miles south of Manila.
=Stanza 10.= =Bakor Bay=, the bay formed by the projection upon which Cavité is situated.
=Stanza 14.= =Drake= (Sir Francis, 1540-1596), the greatest of the Elizabethan seaman, whose strategy and skill and audacious courage were largely instrumental in destroying the Spanish Armada.
=Farragut.= See “The River Fight.”
=Blake= (Robert, 1599-1657), called, next to Nelson, the greatest of the English admirals, and noted for his victories over the Dutch and Spanish.
=Stanza 16.= =Nelson.= See “The Fight of the _Armstrong_ Privateer.”
50. DEWEY AT MANILA. By Robert Underwood Johnson.
Robert Underwood Johnson, associate-editor of the _Century Magazine_, was born in Washington, D. C., January 12, 1853. As secretary of the Authors’ and Publishers’ Copyright Leagues, Mr. Johnson rendered valuable services to the cause of international copyright.
Dewey. See note on “A Ballad of Manila Bay,” by Charles George Douglas Roberts.
=Stanza 1.= =Bocagrande= (large mouth), the main channel into Manila Bay south of Corregidor Island. The northerly channel is called Bocachica (small mouth).
=Corregidor.= See “A Ballad of Manila Bay.”
=Stanza 6.= =Cavité.= See “A Ballad of Manila Bay.”
=Stanza 7.= =Montojo= (Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasaron), the commander of the Spanish naval forces in the Philippines.
=Stanza 8.= =Farragut.= See “The River Fight.”
=Stanza 12.= =Gridley= (Charles Vernon, 1845-1898), the captain of Admiral Dewey’s flagship, the _Olympia_.
51. THE MEN OF THE “MERRIMAC.” By Clinton Scollard.
Clinton Scollard. See note on “Montgomery at Quebec.”
The _Merrimac_ was sunk on the morning of June 3, 1898, in order to block the narrow channel into Santiago Bay where the Spanish fleet was at anchor. The men who engaged in the perilous venture were:
Lieutenant Richard Pearson Hobson, naval constructor (born in Greensboro, Alabama, August 17, 1870; graduated from Annapolis at the head of his class in 1889; studied in France, and at the opening of the Spanish war was conducting the post-graduate course in construction at the Naval Academy at Annapolis).
Osborn Deignan, a coxswain of the _Merrimac_.
George F. Phillips, a machinist of the _Merrimac_.
John Kelly, a water-tender of the _Merrimac_.
George Charette, a gunner’s mate of the _New York_.
Daniel Montagu, a seaman of the _Brooklyn_.
J. C. Murphy, a coxswain of the _Iowa_.
Randolph Clausen, a coxswain of the _New York_.
=Stanza 6.= =Morro=, the ancient Spanish fortress commanding Santiago Bay.
=Socapa= and =Estrella=, batteries at the entrance to the bay.
52. THE CHARGE AT SANTIAGO. By William Hamilton Hayne.
William Hamilton Hayne, son of Paul Hamilton Hayne (see “The Battle of Charleston Harbor”), was born in Charleston, South Carolina, March 11, 1856. He has the true lyrical instinct, and is the author of many quatrains and much finished “nature” verse.
Mr. Hayne’s poem commemorates the valor of the American troops in their charge on San Juan Hill, near Santiago de Cuba, July 1, 1898.
53. SPAIN’S LAST ARMADA. By Wallace Rice.
Wallace Rice. See note on “Blood is Thicker than Water.”
“Spain’s Last Armada” celebrates the great naval victory of July 3, 1898.
=Stanza 3.= =El Morro and Socapa.= See note on “The Men of the _Merrimac_.”
=Stanza 11.= =Nimanima=, the cove, six and a half miles from the entrance to Santiago harbor, where the _Infanta Maria Teresa_ was beached.
=Stanza 12.= =Juan Gonzales=, about seven miles from the port of Santiago.
=Stanza 13.= =Aserradero=, fifteen miles from Santiago.
=Stanza 16.= =The Cape o’ the Cross=, Cape Cruz, at the southwestern extremity of Cuba.
=Tarquino=, the mouth of the Rio Tarquino, where the ill-fated _Virginius_ expedition landed.
54. BALLAD OF PACO TOWN. By Clinton Scollard.
Clinton Scollard. See note on “Montgomery at Quebec.”
The incident described in this ballad occurred during the battle of Santa Ana, fought on the 5th of February, 1899, and resulting in the total rout of General Ricarti’s division of the Filipino army. The signal-man who performed the daring deed was Lieutenant Charles E. Kilbourne, Jr.
Paco is a small town south, and slightly east, of Manila.
In Time of Peace.
55. PEACE HATH HER VICTORIES. By Wallace Rice.
Wallace Rice. See note on “Blood is Thicker than Water.”
“This thrilling international episode earned the thanks and rewards of the American Congress, Captain Hughes, of the Liverpool steamer _Lord Gough_, obtaining a gold medal, and all his gallant men being remembered.”--W. R.
The incident took place in December, 1889.
56. IN THE TUNNEL. By Bret Harte.
Bret Harte. See note on “John Burns of Gettysburg.”
57. BALLAD OF CALNAN’S CHRISTMAS. By Helen Gray Cone.
Helen Gray Cone. See note on “Greencastle Jenny.”
James F. Calnan, driver for Engine Company No. 34, in New York City, gave up his life on Christmas Day, 1897.
58. HOW HE SAVED ST. MICHAEL’S. By Mary Anna Phinney Stansbury.
Mary Anna Phinney Stansbury. See note on “The Surprise of Ticonderoga.”