TINGED with flame and sore beset, Where gunboat and rifle fire met; Where cannon blazed from water and land Upon the Donelson Southern band, A gallant lad of nineteen years, A stranger to tremor and to fears, Stood by a battery piece and shot The first shell in that crater hot. His captain, Porter, smitten down Where all the volleyed thunders frown, Shouted, when borne in pain away: "John, don't give up that gun, I say!" "No! not while a man is left," replied The lad, in the flush of martial pride; And he kept his word to the utter end, While a man could live in that river bend. "No prison for me," grim Forrest said, And thousands followed where he led; But other thousands remained because They bowed to Buckner's word and laws. Whelmed by the girdling Northern men, They marched to the captive's dismal den, And the lad who fired the first gun past Into that solitude sad and vast. A few months more, and the daring boy Breathed the air that the free enjoy— A few months more, and he gaily went Where dauntless Forrest pitched his tent. Saluting the hero, he quickly gave To the South's own "bravest of the brave" A paper that said he was to be The Wizard's Chief of Artillery. A derisive smile swept over the face Of the stern commander from his place. "What!" he growled, "are you to wield Command of my guns in war's fierce field? Nonsense, boy, go grow a beard!" And this was what the stripling heard. But presently the Wizard's brow Grew calm. "I'll try you, anyhow," He said, and from that setting sun Morton and Forrest were as one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOUND WANTING by EMILY DICKINSON EPITAPH ON THOMAS CLERE, SURREY'S FAITHFUL FRIEND AND FOLLOWER by HENRY HOWARD SONG, WRITTEN AT SEA, IN THE FIRST DUTCH WAR, 1665 ... by CHARLES SACKVILLE (1637-1706) |