Classic Poem

A battery, on our left,
Had thundered through the day,
Deftly served, by the lanes it cleft,
In our lines across the way;
Gliding swift with the battle drift,
It moved and blazed away—
A meteor in the clouds of war,
A demon of dismay.

“Boom!” and a bullet brake
From the bellowing battery,
With a curl of smoke and a “whiz”—no joke—
By the ear of Jubal E.,
And he turned in his saddle and spake,
“——Take that battery.”

They went, as the wildfire runs!
Positions, from one to three—
They captured; but not the guns
Of the nimble battery!

They hesitate! and they halt! Oh, shame!
And the battery boasted louder,
While a courier came thro' the fume and flame
To the General for—“Powder!”

Stiff in his stirrups then
He stood in his mighty choler,
As he thundered along the van,
Where courier dared not follow—
“Powder!”—a cuss word—“Men!”
“Confound it! and can't ye holler!”

“If a Yankee can hide in 'll,
A Rebel is bound to follow!
Take the battery with a yell!
Forward, confound you, holler!

They went for the guns as the red fire runs,
With a roar like a charging sea,
That shook the air! and then and there
They captured the battery;
And the loudest shout, as they bro't it out—
I mean no joke, and I make no doubt—
Was the shout of Jubal E.