The color-bearers facing death White in the whirling sulphurous wreath, Stand boldly out before the line Right and left their glances go, Proud of each other, glorying in their show; Their battle-flags about them blow, And fold them as in flame divine: Such living robes are only seen Round martyrs burning on the green-- And martyrs for the Wrong have been. Perish their Cause! but mark the men-- Mark the planted statues, then Draw trigger on them if you can. The leader of a patriot-band Even so could view rebels who so could stand; And this when peril pressed him sore, Left aidless in the shivered front of war-- Skulkers behind, defiant foes before, And fighting with a broken brand. The challenge in that courage rare-- Courage defenseless, proudly bare-- Never could tempt him; he could dare Strike up the leveled rifle there. Sunday at Shiloh, and the day When Stonewall charged--McClellan’s crimson May, And Chickamauga’s wave of death, And of the Wilderness the cypress wreath-- All these have passed away. The life in the veins of Treason lags, Her daring color-bearers drop their flags, And yield. _Now_ shall we fire? Can poor spite be? Shall nobleness in victory less aspire Than in reverse? Spare Spleen her ire, And think how Grant met Lee. The Muster:[17] Suggested by the Two Days’ Review at Washington (May, 1865.) The Abrahamic river-- Patriarch of floods, Calls the roll of all his streams And watery mutitudes: Torrent cries to torrent, The rapids hail the fall; With shouts the inland freshets Gather to the call. The quotas of the Nation, Like the water-shed of waves, Muster into union-- Eastern warriors, Western braves. Martial strains are mingling, Though distant far the bands, And the wheeling of the squadrons Is like surf upon the sands. The bladed guns are gleaming-- Drift in lengthened trim, Files on files for hazy miles-- Nebulously dim. O Milky Way of armies-- Star rising after star, New banners of the Commonwealths, And eagles of the War. The Abrahamic river To sea-wide fullness fed, Pouring from the thaw-lands By the God of floods is led: His deep enforcing current The streams of ocean own, And Europe’s marge is evened By rills from Kansas lone. Aurora-Borealis. Commemorative of the Dissolution of Armies at the Peace. (May, 1865.) What power disbands the Northern Lights After their steely play? The lonely watcher feels an awe Of Nature’s sway, As when appearing, He marked their flashed uprearing In the cold gloom-- Retreatings and advancings, (Like dallyings of doom), Transitions and enhancings, And bloody ray.