When the Civil War broke out, she poured forth the feelings that so deeply moved her in a number of poems. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is the best known of these, as it deserves to be. The others, however, while varying as to merit, show the same patriotism, indignation against wrong, and elevation of spirit. The woman’s tenderness of heart breathes through them, too, as in the story of the dying soldier: LEFT BEHIND The foe is retreating, the field is clear; My thoughts fly like lightning, my steps stay here; I’m bleeding to faintness, no help is near: What, ho! comrades; what, ho! The battle was deadly, the shots fell thick; We leaped from our trenches, and charged them quick; I knew not my wound till my heart grew sick: So there, comrades; so there. We charged the left column, that broke and fled; Poured powder for powder, and lead for lead: So they must surrender, what matter who’s dead? Who cares, comrades? who cares? My soul rises up on the wings of the slain, A triumph thrills through me that quiets the pain: If it were yet to do, I would do it again! Farewell, comrades, farewell! It will be remembered that the first blood shed in the Civil War was in Baltimore. There the Massachusetts troops, while on their way to defend the national capital, were attacked by “Plug-Uglies” and several soldiers were killed. My mother thus describes the funeral in Boston:[38] “We were present when these bodies were received at King’s Chapel burial-ground, and could easily see how deeply the Governor was moved at the sad sight of the coffins draped with the national flag. This occasion drew from me the poem: “OUR ORDERS “Weave no more silks, ye Lyons Looms; To deck our girls for gay delights! The crimson flower of battle blooms, And solemn marches fill the night. “Weave but the flag whose bars to-day Drooped heavy o’er our early dead, And homely garments, coarse and gray, For orphans that must earn their bread!” (We give the first two of the six verses.) Other verses published in _Later Lyrics_ under the title “April 19” commemorate the same event. They were evidently written in the first heat of indignation at the breaking out of the rebellion, yet her righteous wrath always gave way to a second thought, tenderer and more merciful than the first. We see this in the last verse of the “Battle Hymn” and in various other poems of hers. The opening verses of “April 19” are: A spasm o’er my heart Sweeps like a burning flood; A sentence rings upon mine ears, Avenge the guiltless blood! Sit not in health and ease, Nor reckon loss nor gain, When men who bear our Country’s flag Are set upon and slain. Of her “Poems of the War” “The Flag” ranks second in popular esteem and has a place in many anthologies. She thus describes the circumstances under which it was composed:[39]