Poets of the Civil War

edited by j. d. mcclatchy

INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878)

The Death of Slavery

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)

Boston Hymn

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS (1806-1870)

Ode—"Do Ye Quail?"

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

The Witnesses

The Warning

The Cumberland

Killed at the Ford

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)

A Word for the Hour

The Battle Autumn of 1862

Laus Deo

Anniversary Poem

Barbara Frietchie

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894)

To Canaan

JULIA WARD HOWE (1819-1910)

Battle-Hymn of the Republic

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)

Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)

The Portent

The March into Virginia

Shiloh

Malvern Hill

The Armies of the Wilderness

The College Colonel

Inscription

A Meditation

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)

Cavalry Crossing a Ford

Bivouac on a Mountain Side

The Artilleryman's Vision

Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night

A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown

The Wound-Dresser

Reconciliation

Spirit Whose Work Is Done

O Captain! My Captain!

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON (1820-1897)

Hymn to the National Flag

A Grave in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond

HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL (1820-1872)

The Bay Fight

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ (1822-1872)

Sheridan's Ride

FRANCIS ORRAY TICKNOR (1822-1874)

The Virginians of the Valley

Little Giffen

GEORGE HENRY BOKER (1823-1890)

"Blood, blood! The lines of every printed sheet"

"Oh! Craven, craven! While my brothers fall"

Dirge for a Soldier

FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER (1825-1911)

The Slave Auction

JOHN W. DE FOREST (1826-1906)

from Campaigning

The Storming Column

ETHEL LYNN BEERS (1827-1879)

All Quiet Along the Potomac [The Picket Guard]

FRANCIS MILES FINCH (1827-1907)

The Blue and the Gray

HENRY TIMROD (1828-1867)

Ethnogenesis

Carolina

Charleston

Carmen Triumphale

The Unknown Dead

Lines

FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN (1828-1862)

The Soldier's Letter

SILAS WEIR MITCHELL (1829-1914)

How the Cumberland Went Down

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)

"Of Bronze–and Blaze–"

"If any sink, assure that this, now standing–"

"It feels a shame to be Alive–"

"When I was small, a Woman died–"

"My portion is Defeat–today"

"He fought like those Who've nought to lose–"

PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE (1830-1886)

Vicksburg—A Ballad

AUGUSTA COOPER BRISTOL (1835-1910)

The Crime of the Ages

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH (1836-1907)

Fredericksburg

By the Potomac

BRET HARTE (1836-1902)

John Burns of Gettysburg

Relieving Guard

A Second Review of the Grand Army

ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN (1838-1886)

The Sword of Robert Lee

JAMES RYDER RANDALL (1839-1908)

Maryland

NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER (1841-1906)

Near the Front

The Marksman's Work

The Merry Truce

KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD (1841-1914)

Thomas at Chickamauga

SIDNEY LANIER (1842-1881)

The Dying Words of Jackson

AMBROSE BIERCE (1842-1914?)

To E. S. Salomon

A Year's "Casualties"

The Hesitating Veteran

Sources and Acknowledgments

Notes