Keeping us out of Richmond

President Abraham Lincoln once asked General Winfield Scott this question: “Why is it that you were once able to take Mexico City in three months with five thousand men, and we have been unable to take Richmond with one hundred thousand men?”

“I will tell you,” said General Scott. “The men who took us into Mexico City are the same men who are keeping us out of Richmond.” -- Confederate Veteran Magazine, September 1913, page 471.

The Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

"World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Negotiated among the Allied powers with little participation by Germany, its 15 parts and 440 articles reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. After strict enforcement for five years, the French assented to the modification of important provisions. Germany agreed to pay reparations under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan, but those plans were cancelled in 1932, and Hitler’s rise to power and subsequent actions rendered moot the remaining terms of the treaty."

The Armistice of Compiègne had effectively stopped the war November 11, 1918, but the Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War I on this day 100 years ago.

100 years ago

The Armistice of Compiègne

"At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure."

The Armistice of Compiègne effectively stopped the war, though the peace Treaty of Versailles officially ended the conflict 7 months later.

Stranger things have happened

Speaking of a statue of Robert E. Lee, Baptist historian Brent Aucoin said, “I just find it strange to venerate someone who waged war against our country.” Strange it may be, but not unique: George Washington in Trafalgar Square, England.

Another picture

December 7...

“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”

The following link includes audio and transcript of President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress after the Pearl Harbor bombing, in which he asked for a declaration of war.

At 103 Jim Downing is believed to be the oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor.

Jones and other Free States

The movie Free State of Jones debuted in theaters on Friday June 24th. It "tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy...[who]...continued his struggle into Reconstruction." The Free State of Jones was the region of Jones County, Mississippi and surrounding counties that threw off the yoke of the Confederacy in the final years of the War Between the States. The movie is rated "R" because of its violence and graphic images (for example, in the opening scenes of the movie we see the back of a soldier's head get blown out and hogs eating the guts of a wounded or dead soldier). There is no sex (though implied), nudity or profanity. For a Hollywood movie, it does a pretty fair job following the historical events -- though there is obviously a lot of license. And some of the facts are disputed as well. History vs Hollywood points out some of the fact and fiction.

The movie will serve a good purpose if it makes us think about and research our history and heritage. Due to the firmly-embraced narrative of the Lost Cause, I suspect many of us native Southerners rarely think of the amount of doubt, discouragement, dissension, desertion -- and outright rebellion -- across the South regarding secession and war. The truth is clouded by the lore of some who inflate the anti-Confederate identity -- while others who settled into life in the post-war South wanted to erase and forget it (even some who were among the "antis").

Jones County, Mississippi may have one of the best stories for retelling, but it was not the only area of its kind to oppose secession and the Confederacy. Others include the Nickajack region of North Alabama and Southeast Tennessee, the Republic of Winston in Northwest Alabama, Searcy County in Arkansas, the State of Scott in North Tennessee, and the Free State of Van Zandt in Texas. Many East Texans have heard of Van Zandt County as the "Free State of Van Zandt," but varying stories and legends make us wonder whether it was ever a "free state" in the same sense as Jones County, Mississippi. Evan Andrews tells us of 6 Southern Unionist Strongholds During the Civil War -- one that is seldom mentioned and little-known, the Hill Country of Texas, and one that is so well-known and obvious that we forget, the state of West Virginia. Perhaps one of the best known Southern leaders who opposed secession was General Sam Houston. He refused to take the oath of loyalty to the Confederate States of America and was removed from the office of Governor of Texas, but he did not actively support the Union. He died in 1863 during the middle of the War.

Interesting facts
Rudy H. Leverett, author of the scholarly work The Legend of the Free State of Jones from University of Mississippi Press, was the great-grandson of Major Amos McLemore (believed killed by Newton Knight). Leverett is buried in the same small cemetery as McLemore in Forrest County. Victoria E. Bynum, who wrote The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War, says Leverett’s book "exposed so many of the untruths passed on over the years" and her book "takes up where Dr. Leverett left off, but he and I came to very different conclusions about the men and families who joined and supported the Knight Company."

Ethel Boykin Knight, who wrote The Echo of the Black Horn was married to Sidney Knight, a grandson of Newton Knight's uncle D. C. Knight. Her book gives a very unflattering view of the Knight Company. Her husband's Knight ancestors fought for the Confederacy.

Why one man fought the Civil War

The Sniper Who Slayed More Than 100 Union Soldiers – “...sometimes a man simply fights because of personal loss — and the need for bloodstained revenge.”

In his book Jack Hinson’s One-Man War: A Civil War Sniper, Tom McKenney describes Hinson as “a Southerner at heart,” but one who “was firmly against secession and war.” The brutal death of his sons changed all that. Two of Hinson’s sons “were caught with rifles by a Union patrol while hunting squirrels, they were executed on suspicion of guerrilla activity, their decapitated heads delivered to Bubbling Springs, the Hinson plantation, and mounted on gateposts. That was the day that 57-year-old Hinson’s neutrality came to an end.” Hinson freed his slaves, collected his rifle, and waged his own war against the Union – beginning with “the lieutenant responsible for killing his sons” and the soldier who put his sons’ heads on his gateposts.

The Free State of Jones

• Baptists and the American Civil War: March 31, 1864 -- " Newton Knight, Confederate deserter and Primitive Baptist...remains controversial almost a century after his death."
• Did Jones County Secede from the Confederacy? -- "Newt himself, as well as his 1st Sgt., Jasper J. Collins, and Jasper’s son, Loren, all denied the myth of secession during their lifetimes."
• Free State of Jones (2016) -- "We Stood firm to the union when secession swept as an avalanche over the state."
• Jasper Collins and the ‘Ellisville Patriot’ -- "For many Southern renegades, their actions during the Civil War marked a single instance in which they felt compelled to defy the expectations of the larger Southern community."
• Newt Knight vs. The U.S. Court of Claims -- "Newt Knight was relentless in his efforts to gain compensation for himself and his men from the U.S. Government for having served the Union."
• Newton Knight -- "Knight Cemetery, Jasper County, Mississippi"
• Newton Knight and the Legend of the Free State of Jones -- "Private Jasper Collins, was furious: “This law...makes it a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.”"
• Rachel Knight and Her Descendants -- "There were but two options open to Rachel’s descendants,...remain in Mississippi...to suffer racial discrimination and prejudice...as blacks...The other option for Rachel’s descendants was to move to other states where they were not known and could passa blanca..."
• Rachel Knight and Her Descendants, Part 2 -- "Newt set Rachel and her children up in a house next door to his family and brought them up as white."
• Rachel Knight and Her Descendants, Part 3 -- "They were raised as white in an isolated environment and had difficulty being accepted by either whites or blacks."
• ‘The Free State of Jones’ Battles Civil War Cliches -- "...this will likely be the first exposure to the history of Reconstruction for many moviegoers."
• The True Story of the ‘Free State of Jones’ -- "He was a Primitive Baptist who didn’t drink, didn’t cuss, doted on children and could reload and fire a double-barreled, muzzle-loading shotgun faster than anyone else around."
• Who was Newt Knight of “Free State of Jones?” -- "A number of Knight family members served the Confederacy, including Newt who enlisted in the 8th Mississippi Infantry, Co. K, in August of 1861 for a one-year term."
• Why I wrote the Free State of Jones -- "...the American Revolution and the opening of the Southwestern frontier—shaped attitudes toward authority and government among these plain folks of the Old South."

Women in Combat, links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• A Quiet Circumvention of Morality — Women in Combat -- "In its essence, war is a horrible business."
• Map: Which countries allow women in front-line combat roles? -- "he map at the top of this page shows in red which countries formally permit women in combat positions [in 2013]."
• Now Women Should Register for the Draft -- "Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced last week that all positions in the U.S. military would now be open to any member of the armed forces who can meet the standards...In the wake of Secretary Carter’s announcement, Congress should now require young women as well as men to register for the Selective Service System."
• Obama administration weighs making women eligible for military draft -- "The government is deliberating whether to propose Selective Service changes that would make women eligible for the military draft, the White House said Friday..."
• The USMC Sought to Protect Women, Now Forced to Endanger Them -- "The Marine Corps, historically, is concerned with primarily one thing: winning in combat."
• Why One Woman Quit the Police Force -- "Growing up as a little tom-boy, I would have told you that I wanted to be in the military, and later that dream morphed into becoming a police officer."
• Women in Military – A Christian Perspective -- "If I were the last man on the planet to think so, I would want the honor of saying no woman should go before me into combat to defend my country."
• Women in Combat: A Christian's Thoughts -- "My thoughts come from the standpoint of someone who believes that men and women are both image bearers of God, but who have been created by God to complement one another."
• Women in Combat: A Good Idea? -- "Throughout history, most men and women—and even children—have recognized the wisdom of not sending our mothers, daughters, and sisters to the battlefield."
• Women in Combat–A Time for Truth -- "Christian moral teaching holds that military service is for men–not women."
• Women in Combat and the Undoing of Civilization -- "Americans have by and large cast aside the “quaint” view that men and women are different and that they ought to have roles and responsibilities that correspond to those differences."

No Poo and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• 10 fascinating facts about Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant -- "After the war started on April 12, 1861, Lee was offered command of the Union army." [not mentioned is that they were both slave-owners]
• Denver's Azucar Bakery wins right to refuse to make anti-gay cakes -- "Colorado's legal battles between religious freedom and gay rights continue to play out in the not-so-sweet arena of bakery cake requests."
• I Haven't Shampooed My Hair in 6 Years -- "The anti-shampoo movement has a name — No Poo — which has been gaining a lot of attention lately..."
• In an Iowa courtroom, an astonishing case of sex and Alzheimer’s -- "Rayhons’s trial, which begins Wednesday, is a rare and possibly unprecedented examination of a little-explored aspect of consent."
• Lee surrenders at Appomattox, 150 years ago today -- "On a Palm Sunday 150 years ago today, Confederate General Robert E. Lee agreed to surrender his Army of Northern Virginia, marking a symbolic end to the Civil War."
• Making Sense of Robert E. Lee -- "He did not see right and wrong in tones of gray, and yet his moralizing could generate a fog..."
• Washington Nationals sued for religious discrimination -- "Although the team allowed the men to miss games during the 2013 season in order to observe their sabbath (sundown Friday through sundown Saturday), the Nationals allegedly fired the three in 2014 when their religious beliefs prevented them from working at least 80% of the team’s games."

Are You Kelvin Cochran, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

* 5-Year-Old Girl Dies After Catching the Flu, Even After Getting Vaccine -- "He said his family has taken comfort in the fact that his wife knew CPR and did everything she could. And he knows he'll see his little girl again someday, he said."
* After 150 years, Confederate submarine's hull again revealed -- "What they find may finally solve the mystery of why the hand-cranked submarine sank during the Civil War."
* Are You Kelvin Cochran? -- "Chief Cochran’s struggle is my struggle! I am Kelvin Cochran."
* Evolution Deniers Believe in 'Smorgasbord' of Science -- "Scientists like to portray what they're doing as making fact claims about the natural world. I think that the public doesn't view that quite so cleanly. They see scientists as making moral or meaning claims about the world at the same time."
* Football Physics: Why Deflated Balls Are Easier to Catch -- "A slightly deflated football may also be easier to throw, as long as it isn't overly flat."
* "Last Funeral of the Civil War" to Put Hunley Crew to Rest -- "They died in an age of horse-drawn simplicity."
* NFL says Solder touchdown play was illegal -- "For Fleming to go from an eligible player to an ineligible player, by rule, he would have had to sit out one play (unless there was a timeout, a penalty, or it was the end of a quarter) before returning to the field."
* Son of ex-slave who fought in Union army dies at age 97 -- "...the son of an ex-slave and Civil War Union soldier, died on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, 179 years after his father was born."
* Stats Show the New England Patriots Became Nearly Fumble-Proof After 2006 Rule Change Proposed by Tom Brady -- "The statistical 'jump' the Patriots make in the 2006 offseason, from one fumble every 39 plays to one fumble every 76 plays is nothing short of remarkable. Their trendline over this period is not even close to that of the rest of the NFL."
* Texas lawmaker under fire for Facebook post on Muslim Capitol Day -- "The annual gathering of Texas Muslims began in 2003. Organizers told the Texas Tribune that this the first year there have been protests."
* To prevent sex trafficking from becoming Super Bowl scourge, FBI intensifies law enforcement efforts -- "On the Saturday before the Super Bowl, a 23-year-old on the northern edge of this sprawling city scans escort offers on the Internet...She is an agent in the Phoenix division of the FBI."

Gettysburg, its battles and addresses

From July 1 to July 3, 1863, the "Battle of Gettysburg" was fought between Union and Confederate soldiers in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -- with horrendous outcome, the loss of about 23,000 Union soldiers (wounded, captured or missing) and 23,000 to 28,000 Confederate casualties (wounded, captured or missing).

About four months later the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was held November 19, 1863. The Cemetery was created for re-interments from the Gettysburg Battlefield of those soldiers who had been hastily buried there.

The main speaker at the memorial was Edward Everett (1794–1865), who reportedly delivered a two-hour speech. Everett was from Massachusetts, a renowned speaker, former pastor and politician (which included U. S. Representative, U. S. Senator and Governor of Massachusetts). President Lincoln's "Dedicatory Remarks" followed Everett's oration and a song, and preceded another song and the benediction by Henry L. Baugher, a Lutheran clergyman and president of Gettysburg College.

Everett's two-hour speech was not unusual for the time and was apparently well received. Over the years his oration has receded from view while Lincoln's "Dedicatory Remarks" have taken center stage.

Gettysburg links
* 151 years ago, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address connected a nation to 1776 -- "...Gettysburg...is both the sword that secured our national direction at a cost of 50,000 men in three days, and the address spoken by Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863..."
* Did Abraham Lincoln omit God from the Gettysburg Address? -- "...there are at least nine versions of the Gettysburg Address from the time period, with some in Lincoln’s handwriting. All are slightly different..."
* Gettysburg 150 – A Southern Perspective -- "On July 3 [2013] a reading of the Roll of the Dead began at the National Cemetery and for the first time in history, the name of both Union and Confederate were read.  Prior to this, only Union names were read at such occasions.
* Gettysburg Oration by Edward Everett -- "But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates The Battles of Gettysburg."
* History & Culture Gettysburg National Military Park -- " The fate of the nation literally hung in the balance that summer of 1863 when General Robert E. Lee, commanding the "Army of Northern Virginia", led his army north into Maryland and Pennsylvania, bringing the war directly into northern territory.
* Myths and mysteries about the Gettysburg Address -- “Edward Everett was the featured speaker of the day...he told Lincoln, 'I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.'”
* Read six different versions of the Gettysburg Address -- "There were five versions of the Gettysburg Address that were acknowledged by Abraham Lincoln in his lifetime."
* The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 -- "Tillie Pierce was born in 1848 and when the battle began, had lived all her life in the village of Gettysburg...She was attending school on June 26 when the cry 'the Rebels are coming!' reverberated through the town's sleepy streets."
* The Battle of Gettysburg - Pickett's Charge - A Confederate Official Report -- "He stopped but for a moment to look on his dying son, gave him his canteen of water, and pressed on..."
* The Battle of Gettysburg Summary & Facts -- "As many as 51,000 soldiers from both armies were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the three-day battle."
* The Other Gettysburg Address -- “Mr. Everett was listened to with breathless silence by all that immense crowd, and he had his audience in tears many times during his masterly effort.”
* Today in Media History: Reporters describe Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address -- "Depending on their political leanings, newspapers added their own comment to coverage of the speech...Newspapers critical of the President had snide things to say about the speech’s brevity and inappropriateness to the occasion. Lincoln supporters, on the other hand, published glowing reviews and noted the classical elegance and heartfelt emotion of the address."

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on life's parade shall meet
The brave and daring few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
[From Theodore O’Hara, The Bivouac of the Dead, 1847]

Veterans' Day

Driving home today I heard someone on the radio talking about veterans, which made me start thinking about members of our family and community who were veterans. Here are names I thought of, thought I probably have missed quite a few.

Charlie Vaughn - WWII
Harold Blanton - Korea
Lewis Vaughn - WWII
Roe Vaughn - WWII
Wyatt Vaughn - Civil War
William M. Chapman - Civil War
Moody V. Holleman - Civil War
Jonathan E. Whitten - Civil War
John R. Ellis - Civil War (Union)
T. S. (Steve) Vaughn - WWII
Bill Woolverton - WWII
Clifford Chapman - WWII
Elton Chapman - WWI
Homer Holleman - WWI
Asa J. Parker - Civil War
Edwin S. Parker - Civil War
G. W. Parker - Civil War
William E. Parker - Civil War
W. W. W. Parker - Civil War
E. W. H. Parker - Civil War
John A. Koonce - Civil War

Tribute to the Civil War Surgeons

From 2011-2015 the 150th anniversary of the "Civil War" is being recognized. At the beginning of the Twenty-First Annual Conference on Civil War Medicine I thought I would post this "Tribute to the Civil War Surgeons." This quote specifically addresses Southern surgeons, but it was doubtless true of all faithful surgeons who served during these tragic times.

"The Southern surgeons were the first to succor the wounded and the sick, and their ears recorded the last words of love and affection for country and kindred, and their hands closed the eyes of the dying Confederate soldiers." -- "Formation of the Medical Corps of the Confederate Army and Navy," Joseph Jones, M.D., The Medical History Of The Confederate States Army And Navy, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XX., Richmond, VA, January-December, 1892.

9 quotes on war

"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." -- Winston Churchill 

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left." -- Bertrand Russell

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy." -- John Adams 

"It's funny how those who are most pro-war are almost always the guys who never had to fight in one." -- Jerome P. Crabb

"There was never a good war, or a bad peace." -- Benjamin Franklin

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it." -- Robert E. Lee 
  
"A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end." -- George S. Patton

"We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient." -- Golda Meir

And for fun...
"Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms." -- Groucho Marx

10 Things Robert Edward Lee said

About The War
"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we should grow too fond of it."
"I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God."
"We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation."
"The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forbearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides."
"I have carefully searched the military records of both ancient and modern history, and have never found Grant's superior as a general. I doubt that his superior can be found in all history."

About some other things
"I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it."
"Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less."
"The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope."
"The education of a man is never completed until he dies."
"My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence, who ordereth all things for our good."

Panetta's parting shot

On Wednesday outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta fired a parting shot at the United States generally, and its women in particular. He removed a ban on women serving in the front lines of combat. The front lines of combat are not a place for women, job promotions and certainly not for experimenting.

Christians in previous ages and most nations historically have held that combat is a responsibility for its men.* Evangelical historian Harold O. J. Brown wrote, “Within both Judaism and Christianity, indeed almost universally in all human culture, the military profession has been reserved for males.”The very idea of sending sisters, mothers, daughters and granddaughters would have been shameful thought. Not so in enlightened 21st century America.

Being a soldier is not a constitutional right. Questions of physical strength and the thrusting of men & women together in close combat situations are concerns that have been raised, and rightly so. But what about from a biblical standpoint? Is it a violation of scriptural principle for us to send our women into combat, or are we merely succumbing to our emotions and traditions?

Whether or how much Christians should engage in military service is a valid question that deserves serious answers. But I will not deal with that here. For now I wish to engage the coming issue -- American women will be serving on the front lines of the battlefield.

My views arise from within the general context of Christian complementarianism -- the biblical idea that men and women have "different but complementary roles and responsibilities," whether it be in marriage, family or religion.

One biblical case can be shown where an Israelite woman led men into battle, recorded in Judges chapter 4 (It cannot be shown that Deborah physically engaged in the battle.) Nevertheless, this was clearly outside the norm of Jewish life and predicated on men being reluctant to rise to the occasion. Under the law given by God to Moses able men above 20 years of age filled the normal and expected role of soldier (Numbers 1:2-3 ...every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. Cf. verses 20, 22, et al.). Deuteronomy 20:1-9 gives God’s rules for exemptions and exclusions of certain men as well. Certain family considerations had priority over the military (Deut. 24:5), and the fearful were considered incapable of serving. Verses 13-14 of that same chapter indicate that even among enemies, it was the men who were considered combatants. In Joshua 1:14 we read that the men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were continue with the other tribes over the west side of the Jordan. The army did not include their wives or their little ones. The women and children stayed at home while the men fought. (Cf. also Deut. 3:18-19; Josh. 23:10; 1 Sam. 4:9; 1 Chron. 11:10-47; Neh. 4:13-14.)

The New Testament emphasis is not on a physical seed of Abraham which might at times wage war on its physical enemies. It emphasizes rather a spiritual seed of Abraham in a spiritual battle whose weapons are not carnal, but wielded through the gospel, the word of God and the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless principles within its pages would certainly frown on men sacrificing their women on the altar of emotions, experiment and expediency. Rather, the sacrificial love of Christ is our example: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it...” (Ephesians 5:25).

As a whole even Christians in the United States seem to have lost the sense that men are to protect and provide for women, and that women own a special place of love and respect as wives and mothers -- a place far from the front lines of combat.

* Some believe no Christians, whether male or female, should engage in combat.

The Picket Guard

I first heard this on a Bobby Horton recording, and have liked it since. It's kinda sad, so proceed with caution.

"ALL quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
'Tis nothing! a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of a battle;
Not an officer lost, only one of the men
Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle.

All quiet along the Potomac to-night!
Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming;
And their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon,
And the light of their camp-fires are gleaming.
A tremulous sigh, as a gentle night-wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping;
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard o'er the army sleeping.
There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,
And thinks of the two on the low trundel bed,
Far away, in the cot on the mountain.

His musket falls slack, his face, dark and grim,
Grows gentle with memories tender,
As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
And their mother--"may heaven defend her!"
The moon seems to shine forth as brightly as then--
That night, when the love, yet unspoken,
Leaped up to his lips, and when low-murmured vows
Were pledged to be ever unbroken.

Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,
He dashes off tears that are welling;
And gathers the gun closer up to his breast
As if to keep down his heart's swelling.
He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree,
And his footstep is lagging and weary;
Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light,
Towards the shades of the forest so dreary.

Hark! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves?
Was it the moonlight so wondrously flashing?
It looked like a rifle: "Ha! Mary, good-by!"
And his life-blood is ebbing and plashing.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
No sound save the rush of the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead,
And the picket's off duty forever!
-- By Ethyl Lynn Beers, 1861