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(Excerpt)
WE mustered at midnight, in darkness we formed, | |
| And the whisper went round of a fort to be stormed; | |
| But no drum-beat had called us, no trumpet we heard, | |
| And no voice of command, but our Colonel’s low word,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 5 |
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| And out, through the mist and the murk of the morn, | |
| From the beaches of Hampton our barges were borne; | |
| And we heard not a sound, save the sweep of the oar, | |
| Till the word of our Colonel came up from the shore,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 10 |
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| With hearts bounding bravely, and eyes all alight, | |
| As ye dance to soft music, so trod we that night; | |
| Through the aisles of the greenwood, with vines overarched, | |
| Tossing dew-drops, like gems, from our feet, as we marched,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 15 |
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| As ye dance with the damsels, to viol and flute, | |
| So we skipped from the shadows, and mocked their pursuit; | |
| But the soft zephyrs chased us, with scents of the morn, | |
| As we passed by the hay-fields and green waving corn,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 20 |
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| For the leaves were all laden with fragrance of June, | |
| And the flowers and the foliage with sweets were in tune; | |
| And the air was so calm, and the forest so dumb, | |
| That we heard our own heart-beats, like taps of a drum,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 25 |
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| Till the lull of the lowlands was stirred by a breeze, | |
| And the buskins of Morn brushed the tops of the trees, | |
| And the glintings of glory that slid from her track | |
| By the sheen of our rifles were gayly flung back,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 30 |
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| And the woodlands grew purple with sunshiny mist, | |
| And the blue-crested hill-tops with rose-light were kissed, | |
| And the earth gave her prayers to the sun in perfumes, | |
| Till we marched as through gardens, and trampled on blooms,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 35 |
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| Ay! trampled on blossoms, and seared the sweet breath | |
| Of the greenwood with low-brooding vapors of death; | |
| O’er the flowers and the corn we were borne like a blast, | |
| And away to the fore-front of battle we passed,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 40 |
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| For the cannon’s hoarse thunder roared out from the glades, | |
| And the sun was like lightning on banners and blades, | |
| When the long line of chanting Zouaves, like a flood, | |
| From the green of the woodlands rolled, crimson as blood,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 45 |
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| While the sound of their song, like the surge of the seas, | |
| With the “Star-Spangled Banner” swelled over the leas; | |
| And the sword of Duryea, like a torch, led the way, | |
| Bearing down on the batteries of Bethel that day,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” | 50 |
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| Through green-tasselled cornfields our columns were thrown, | |
| And like corn by the red scythe of fire we were mown; | |
| While the cannon’s fierce ploughings new-furrowed the plain, | |
| That our blood might be planted for Liberty’s grain,— | |
| “Column! Forward!” * * * * * | 55 |
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