There is bustle and commotion to-night with “Ellen N,” Fair Ellen, maid of iron stays, beloved of many men, From a thousand fertile valleys, from many a teeming glen, She bears great stores on laboring trains to Thomas and his men The blue-coats down at Nashville have come to do or die, To battle for the old flag beneath the Southern sky, And to Ellen’s welcome ministry--they look most wistfully, She bears souvenirs and messages in her capacious trains, The maidens of the great Northwest send greetings to their swains, She has hard-tack, and tobacco, and bacon in her store, She has cod-fish and dried beef and gingerbread galore, From Keystone, Empire State, from Indiana’s plains Ellen speeds them all along in her wide flowing trains, Bibles and tracts and song-books, and sweet messages from home, And prayer-books from every church from Geneva to Rome, From many a Western Valley, from many a quiet glen, Comes goodly cheer from the kindly hands of buxom Ellen N. There is trouble on your road to-night, O dauntless Ellen N! There is panic, there is hurry--’tis John Morgan and his men, There are bridges burned--the track’s ripped up--some one has cut the wire And commissary stores go up by thousands in the fire, A sudden charge at midnight, the long train is in ashes, The magazine explodes with deafening roar and crashes, Millions go up like tinder in all-consuming flame, And Morgan and his men ride off, as quickly as they came. Nashville and Chattanooga rue, Divided rations cut in two. The horseman scathless burned and fled Their foes went supperless to bed. They might as well have fought the air They charged--but Morgan was not there. His baffled foe, always too slow To harass or inflict a blow, Muttered, “For sure the man’s a wizard, One might as well strike at a blizzard,” He’s here--he’s gone again--he’s there! Like exhalation of the air Waving its strange, uncanny light O’er grave or dismal swamp at night. One trait his hottest foe confessed, “A hero’s heart beats in his breast, He never strikes a foe when down, Nor woman ever saw him frown.”