Southern War Songs: Camp-Fire, Patriotic and Sentimental
History
Southern War Songs: Camp-Fire, Patriotic and Sentimental
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Songs and music -- Confederate States
As the blue-clad lines
Swept fearfully near,
There was wavering yonder,
And a break in the cheer
Of our columns unsteady:
But "WE ARE HERE! _We_ are ready
With rifle and blade!"
Cried the Texas Brigade
To General Lee.
He smiled--it meant death,
That wonderful smile;
It leaped like a flame
Down each close set file;
And we stormed to the front
With a long, loud cry--
We had long ago learned
How to charge and to die:
There was faith in the eye
Of General Lee.
But a sudden pause came,
As we dashed on the foe,
And our scathing columns
Swayed to and fro;
Cold grew our blood,
Glowing like wine,
And a quick, sharp whisper
Shot over our line,
As our ranks opened wide--
_And there by our side
Rode General Lee._
How grandly he rode!
With his eyes on fire,
And his great bosom shook
With an awful desire!
But, "Back to the rear!
'Till you ride to the rear
We will not do battle
With gun or with blade!"
Cried the Texas Brigade
To General Lee.
[Illustration: Gen. Robert E. Lee.]
And so he rode back;
And our terrible yell
Stormed up to the front;
And the fierce, wild swell,
And the roar and the rattle,
Swept into the battle
From General Lee.
I felt my foot slip
In the gathering fray--
I looked, and my brother
Lay dead in my way.
I paused but one moment
To draw him aside;
Ah! the gash in his bosom
Was bloody and wide!
But he smiled, for he died
For General Lee.
Christ! 'twas maddening work;
But the work was done,
And a few came back
When the hour was won.
Let it glow in the peerless
Records of the fearless--
The charge that was made
By the Texas Brigade
For General Lee.
A SOUTHERN SONG.
By "L. M.," in _Louisville Courier_.
If ever I consent to be married,
And who would refuse a good mate?
The man whom I give my hand to,
Must believe in the rights of the State.
To a husband who quietly submits
To negro-equality sway,
The true Southern girl will not barter
Her heart and affections away.
The heart I may choose to preside o'er,
True, warm, and devoted must be,
And have true love for a Union
Under the Southern Liberty Tree.
Should Lincoln attempt to coerce him
To share with the negro his right,
Then, smiling, I'd gird on his armor,
And bid him God-speed in the fight.
And if he should fall in the conflict,
His memory with tears I will grace;
Better weep o'er a patriot fallen,
Than blush in a Tory embrace.
We girls are all for a Union,
Where a marked distinction is laid
Between the rights of the mistress
And those of the kinky-haired maid.
THE TEXAN MARSEILLAISE.
By JAMES HAINES, of Texas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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