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.