Oh, how our pulses leaped and thrilled, when, at the dead of night, We saw our legions mustering, and marching forth to fight! Line after line comes surging on with martial pomp and pride, And all the pageantries that gild the battle's crimson tide. A forest of bright bayonets, like stars at midnight, gleam; A hundred glittering standards flash above the silver stream. We plunged into the Wilderness, and morning's early dawn Disclosed our gallant army in line of battle drawn. An early zephyr fresh and sweet breathed through the forest shade; A thousand happy warblers, too, a pleasant music made; And modest blossoms bathed in dew the morning light revealed: Oh, who could deem those pleasant shades a savage foe concealed? With lagging pace the morning hours dragged heavily away, And yet we wait the coming strife, in battle's stern array. A solemn stillness reigns around--but hark! a savage yell, As if ten thousand angry fiends had burst the gates of hell, Now thrills upon our startled ears. By heaven! the traitors come! We see their gleaming banners, we hear the throbbing drum. In solid ranks, their countless hordes from the dense woods emerge, And roll upon our serried lines like ocean's angry surge. Our ranks are silent--on each face the light of battle glows: 'Ready!' At once our polished tubes are levelled on our foes. Now leaps a livid lightning up--from rank to rank it flies-- A fearful diapason rends the arches of the skies. The wooded hills seem reeling before that fierce recoil; With fire and smoke the valleys like Etna's craters boil: From red volcanoes bursting, hissing, hurtling in the sky, A thousand death-winged messengers like fiery meteors fly: Within that seething vortex their shattered cohorts reel. 'Fix bayonets!' At once our lines bristle with burnished steel. 'Charge!' And our gallant regiments burst through the _feu d'enfer_. Before their furious onset the rebel hosts give way; And, surging backward, hide again within the forest's shade, Whose mazes dark and intricate our charging columns stayed.