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WHEN YOU WORE THE YANKEE BLUE.

men had been enabled to capture the flag, as in the darkness the Union forces sallied forth from their stockade, and thus exposed were easily captured by superior forces. He was assured of the good feeling between the North and the South, however much politicians might attempt to misrepresent facts. "The war was inevitable," continued Colonel Hall, "because our hot blood had to be cooled in that way, but I am glad that it came in my day, and not to my children and their children.

"I believe Providence was in the war, and if He had decided the victory in our favor, I think He would have made a great mistake."

There were more loud cheers and yells to mark the approval of this

utterance.

d

Mayor Edson replied that it gave him great pleasure, on behalf of the city of New York, to welcome the visitors on their graceful errand of peace. "All differences," said he, "are now buried deep and forever, and this occasion has a far deeper significance in that regard than the mere restoration of that which was lost by the misfortune of battle. We will preserve this flag as an emblem of peace and good-will, and in the name of the people we welcome you to this metropolis."

The war ended at Appomattox. We are one people, with one common destiny. "Let us have peace."

T

WHEN YOU WORE THE YANKEE BLUE.
BY JOHN TALMAN.

(Written for a Banquet of Veterans.)

I

IME to pity is a stranger. To withstand his soulless force,
Might of men and gods avails not; for with grimmest unremorse
Onward bears he men and nations, as on towering ocean waves,
To the ultimatum Nature only speaks from open graves.

But he is the surest healer. Bleeding wounds to-day there are
Of whose traces shall the morrow only know the painless scar;
And one little generation hath sufficed almost to hide
The abrasions from disunion and the blade of fratricide-
Bridged the deep, broad, hideous chasms the distracted country knew
In its days of sorest travail, when you wore the Yankee blue.

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WHEN YOU WORE THE YANKEE BLUE.

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Cherished names and works of daring in "the times that try men's souls "
Speak with mute yet moving eloquence from out your muster-rolls,
And the memories of your faith and heroism half divine
Do not wait upon the lifting of a feeble voice like mine;
But as one among the millions of the proud and grateful sons
In whose veins, prized like a fetish, blood of martyred patriots runs;
Fain would I partake in spirit of each pleasing social rite-
Touch some chords of recollection at your merry board to-night;
Thankful to the phantom thousands who to rest preceded you-
Thankful to the dead and living who have worn the Yankee blue.

III

From the sluggish, bracken current of Potomac's languid stream
To the shambles of Manassas with destruction all agleam,
With what rigid resolution and strong purposes you strode,
Though its seeds the murderous genius of annihilation sowed!
Never did you pause or falter, though the smoke of Malvern Hill,
Antietam's field, the carnage of the awful Chancellorsville,
With disaster supplemented and with newer horrors crowned
The mad rout of Pittsburg Landing and the blood of Shiloh's ground.

History never can emblazon with the meed of praises due,
The sublime, immortal courage that was garbed in Yankee blue.

IV

O, the clashing, crushing tumult that its furious presence wreaked

On the air when mortars thundered and the shells like harpies shrieked;
When the chain-shot brought its summons and the war god's foaming wrath,
Hurtling fire and blood in tempests, cleaved a wide, hadean path!

In what hot, death-dealing madness mingled chargers, friends and foes
While the musketry was rattling and the sabres fell and rose!

Detonating cannon drowning with their roar curses and groans-
Ambulance and caisson threading causeways made of human bones-
Veterans! rise they not, in shadow, to your retrospective view,
Now, as when you first beheld them, when you wore the Yankee blue?

V

O'er the rifle-pit the ivy long hath clambered since the day
That from Gettysburg's red summit fell the tide of death away;
Since the victor's noblest laurel was embossed upon our shield
By the compact of reunion at Appomattox sealed.

392

THE CHARGE OF PICKETT'S DIVISION.

There's new meaning in the eagle's sweeping flight from crag to crag

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For again the Southron loyally upbears Columbia's flag;

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With his gaze upon a future full of largest promise set,

Not for him to hunt old graveyards of resentment and regret,

You to-night extend erst wearers of the gray the brave man's due

Comradeship among the soldiers who have worn the Yankee blue.

VI

Time shall see the world divested of contention's livid stain-
Progress' never-folding pinions loftier mountain peaks shall gain;
But while oceans heave, suns rise and set and Freedom claims her own,
Gratitude the flaming bivouacs of your perils will enthrone.

Dear and glorious old campaigners, with your bosoms ever warmed
By the consciousness inspiring of all duty well performed !
Be the wine that brims your beakers like ambrosial streams that flowed
For the godhood of Olympus, and undying youth bestowed!
Three times three, then, to your honored heads; they wear the gray, 'tis true,
But your hearts this hour, as ever, wear the same old Yankee blue!

1

THE CHARGE OF PICKETT'S DIVISION.

BY JAMES H. WALKER,

(Formerly First Sergeant, Company K, Ninth Virginia Infantry, Armistead's Brigade.)

N THE first of July, 1863, Pickett's Division of Virginians was the rear guard of the "Army of Northern Virginia," and at night was bivouacked near Chambersburg, Pa., about twenty miles from Gettysburg.

The division was composed of three brigades, commanded by Armistead, Garnett, and Kemper, the first two being formerly United States Army officers. General George E. Pickett was also at one time an officer in the United States Army, and had gained much notoriety previous to the Civil War, as the officer commanding the United States troops which were ordered to take possession of the Island of San Juan, when a dispute occurred with Great Britain as to who had the right to occupy it. As I have said before, Pickett's Division was lying at Chambersburg on the night of the first of July, and had no intimation that they would be called on to take part in the battle which was going on at Gettysburg.

THE CHARGE OF PICKETT'S DIVISION.

393

The men were quietly sleeping after a most fatiguing march, and many, no doubt, dreaming of their homes along the Atlantic and Chesapeake, and others of their mountains and beautiful valleys, and in their dreams, perhaps, felt the warm kiss of their loved Sweet Dreams of ones. All at once the long roll was sounded, and these visions vanished as they awoke and realized that grim war was still rampant.

Loved Ones.

The division was ordered, about 1 a. m., to "pack up," and while doing so, it was rumored that in the engagement at Gettysburg, on the first, Hood's Division of Texans, which we considered one of the very best in our army, and, in fact, a crack division, had been repulsed in charging Cemetery Heights, with frightful loss, and that it was the intention of General Lee to hurl his Virginia division against this terrible position as a forlorn hope.

The division moved about 3 a. m., July 2, and marched as rapidly as circumstances would permit, but as the roads were blocked with wagons, artillery and the wounded of both armies, it frequently had to leave them, and enter the woods or fields of ripening grain. It arrived within two miles of Gettysburg, about 2 p. m., and immediately went into camp, and as we were doing so, a courier rode up and informed us that McLaw's Division of Georgians had just made a charge on Cemetery Heights, and had been repulsed with terrible loss, as Hood's Texans had been the day previous. The above divisions, with Pickett's, formed Longstreet's corps d' armée, and it seemed that each of his divisions was to have the honor of making the assault, but so far the skill of Hancock and the bravery of his men had frustrated each attempt. We were now informed that General Pickett had orders to hurl his division against this position next day, unless the artillery should succeed in dislodging them. The following day we took position in battle, with the command to lie down, as in a short time one of the most terrible artillery duels would be fought which had ever been witnessed. General Lee had massed in front of the division about 120 pieces of artillery, and they were to open on Cemetery Heights, and endeavor, if possible, to dislodge the enemy. This cannonading commenced about noon, and as our guns opened, the enemy replied by a fire from about one hundred pieces. If mortal has ever witnessed a more terrific fire than occurred about noon on the third of July, 1863, then history has not recorded it. The earth was shaken by its roar, such as probably the younger Pliny mentioned in his description of the eruption of Vesuvius, when Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. The sky was black with smoke, and livid with the flame belching from the mouths of these horrible engines of war. Under all of this terrific cannonading, Pickett's Division was lying awaiting it to cease.

The most Terrific Artillery Duel of the War.