Twilight on Sumter. Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903). Southern States: Sumter, the Fort, S. C. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. America: Vols. XXV-XXIX

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Southern States: Sumter, the Fort, S. C.

Twilight on Sumter

Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903)


August 24, 1863 STILL and dark along the sea
Sumter lay:
A light was overhead,
As from burning cities shed,
And the clouds were battle-red,	5
Far away.
Not a solitary gun
Left to tell the fort had won,
Or lost the day!
Nothing but the tattered rag	10
Of the drooping Rebel flag,
And the sea-birds screaming round it in their play.

How it woke one April morn,
Fame shall tell;
As from Moultrie, close at hand,	15
And the batteries on the land,
Round its faint but fearless band
Shot and shell
Raining hid the doubtful light;
But they fought the hopeless fight	20
Long and well,
(Theirs the glory, ours the shame!)
Till the walls were wrapt in flame,
Then their flag was proudly struck, and Sumter fell!

Now—oh, look at Sumter now,	25
In the gloom!
Mark its scarred and shattered walls,
(Hark! the ruined rampart falls!)
There ’s a justice that appalls
In its doom;	30
For this blasted spot of earth
Where Rebellion had its birth
Is its tomb!
And when Sumter sinks at last
From the heavens, that shrink aghast,	35
Hell shall rise in grim derision and make room!