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[September 19, 1864]
UP from the South at break of day, | |
| Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, | |
| The affrighted air with a shudder bore, | |
| Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door, | |
| The terrible grumble and rumble and roar, | 5 |
| Telling the battle was on once more, | |
| And Sheridan twenty miles away. | |
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| And wider still those billows of war | |
| Thundered along the horizon’s bar; | |
| And louder yet into Winchester rolled | 10 |
| The roar of that red sea uncontrolled, | |
| Making the blood of the listener cold | |
| As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, | |
| With Sheridan twenty miles away. | |
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| But there is a road from Winchester town, | 15 |
| A good, broad highway, leading down; | |
| And there, through the flash of the morning light, | |
| A steed as black as the steeds of night | |
| Was seen to pass as with eagle flight. | |
| As if he knew the terrible need, | 20 |
| He stretched away with the utmost speed; | |
| Hills rose and fell,—but his heart was gay, | |
| With Sheridan fifteen miles away. | |
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| Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South, | |
| The dust, like smoke from the cannon’s mouth; | 25 |
| Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster, | |
| Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster. | |
| The heart of the steed and the heart of the master | |
| Were beating, like prisoners assaulting their walls, | |
| Impatient to be where the battle-field calls; | 30 |
| Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, | |
| With Sheridan only ten miles away. | |
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| Under his spurning feet, the road | |
| Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, | |
| And the landscape sped away behind, | 35 |
| Like an ocean flying before the wind; | |
| And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, | |
| Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire; | |
| But, lo! he is nearing his heart’s desire, | |
| He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, | 40 |
| With Sheridan only five miles away. | |
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| The first that the General saw were the groups | |
| Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops; | |
| What was done,—what to do,—a glance told him both, | |
| And, striking his spurs with a terrible oath, | 45 |
| He dashed down the line mid a storm of huzzas, | |
| And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because | |
| The sight of the master compelled it to pause. | |
| With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; | |
| By the flash of his eye, and his nostril’s play, | 50 |
| He seemed to the whole great army to say, | |
| “I have brought you Sheridan all the way | |
| From Winchester down, to save the day!” | |
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| Hurrah, hurrah for Sheridan! | |
| Hurrah, hurrah for horse and man! | 55 |
| And when their statues are placed on high, | |
| Under the dome of the Union sky,— | |
| The American soldier’s Temple of Fame,— | |
| There with the glorious General’s name | |
| Be it said in letters both bold and bright: | 60 |
| “Here is the steed that saved the day | |
| By carrying Sheridan into the fight, | |
| From Winchester,—twenty miles away!” | |
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