The dead had rest; the Dove of Peace Brooded o'er both with equal wings; To both had come that great surcease. The last omnipotent release From all the world's delirious stings. To bugle deaf and signal-gun, They slept, like heroes of old Greece, Beneath the glebe at Arlington. And in the Spring's benignant reign, The sweet May woke her harp of pines; Teaching her choir a thrilling strain Of jubilee to land and main. She danced in emerald down the lines; Denying largesse bright to none, She saw no difference in the signs That told who slept at Arlington. She gave her grasses and her showers To all alike who dreamed in dust; Her song-birds wove their dainty bowers Amid the jasmine buds and flowers, And piped with an impartial trust-- Waifs of the air and liberal sun, Their guileless glees were kind and just To friend and foe at Arlington. JAMES RYDER RANDALL May First The linnet, the lark, and oriel Were chanting the loves they chant so well; It was blue all above, below all green, With the radiant glow of noon between. JOSEPH SALYARDS (_Idothea_; Idyl III) May Second A strange fatality attended us! Jackson killed in the zenith of his successful career; Longstreet wounded when in the act of striking a blow that would have rivalled Jackson's at Chancellorsville in its results; and in each case the fire was from our own men! A blunder! Call it so; the old deacon would say that God willed it thus. COL. WALTER H. TAYLOR _Stonewall Jackson wounded at Chancellorsville, 1863_ _Emma Sanson directs Forrest in pursuit of Streight, 1863_ May Third Chancellorsville, where 130,000 men were defeated by 60,000, is up to a certain point as much the tactical masterpiece of the nineteenth century as was Leuthen of the eighteenth. LIEUT.-COL. G. F. R. HENDERSON, C.B. General Pender, you must hold your ground, you must hold your ground. JACKSON'S Last Command May Fourth The productions of nature soon became my playmates. I felt that an intimacy with them not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on frenzy, must accompany my steps through life. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON _John James Audubon born, 1780_ May Fifth Lord of Hosts, that beholds us in battle, defending The homes of our sires 'gainst the hosts of the foe, Send us help on the wings of thy angels descending, And shield from his terrors and baffle his blow. Warm the faith of our sons, till they flame as the iron, Red glowing from the fire-forge, kindled by zeal; Make them forward to grapple the hordes that environ, In the storm-rush of battle, through forests of steel! From the Charleston _Mercury_ _Battle of the Wilderness; Lee, with 60,000 men, attacks Grant with 140,000, 1864_ May Sixth