Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed, By night I mused, of easeful sleep bereft, On those brave boys (Ah War! thy theft); Some marching feet Found pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft; Wakeful I mused, while in the street Far footfalls died away till none were left. Dupont’s Round Fight. (November, 1861.) In time and measure perfect moves All Art whose aim is sure; Evolving ryhme and stars divine Have rules, and they endure. Nor less the Fleet that warred for Right, And, warring so, prevailed, In geometric beauty curved, And in an orbit sailed. The rebel at Port Royal felt The Unity overawe, And rued the spell. A type was here, And victory of Law. The Stone Fleet.[2] An Old Sailor’s Lament. (December, 1861.) I have a feeling for those ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam; Ay, it was unkindly done. But so they serve the Obsolete-- Even so, Stone Fleet! You’ll say I’m doting; do but think I scudded round the Horn in one-- The Tenedos, a glorious Good old craft as ever run-- Sunk (how all unmeet!) With the Old Stone Fleet. An India ship of fame was she, Spices and shawls and fans she bore; A whaler when her wrinkles came-- Turned off! till, spent and poor, Her bones were sold (escheat)! Ah! Stone Fleet. Four were erst patrician keels (Names attest what families be), The Kensington, and Richmond too, Leonidas, and Lee: But now they have their seat With the Old Stone Fleet. To scuttle them--a pirate deed-- Sack them, and dismast; They sunk so slow, they died so hard, But gurgling dropped at last. Their ghosts in gales repeat _Woe’s us, Stone Fleet!_ And all for naught. The waters pass-- Currents will have their way; Nature is nobody’s ally; ’tis well; The harbor is bettered--will stay. A failure, and complete, Was your Old Stone Fleet. Donelson. (February, 1862.) The bitter cup Of that hard countermand Which gave the Envoys up, Still was wormwood in the mouth, And clouds involved the land, When, pelted by sleet in the icy street, About the bulletin-board a band Of eager, anxious people met, And every wakeful heart was set On latest news from West or South. “No seeing here,” cries one--“don’t crowd--” “You tall man, pray you, read aloud.” IMPORTANT. _We learn that General Grant, Marching from Henry overland, And joined by a force up the Cumberland sent (Some thirty thousand the command), On Wednesday a good position won-- Began the siege of Donelson.