Classic Poem

There in the Salient at the Bloody Angle,
Amidst the fight, its main controlling force,
Watching with deep intensity of mind
And staggering desperation mixed therewith,
By order, word of cheer, by flashing eyes,
By sword out-flung as 'twere a shaft of flame,
Rode forth and back the Great Confederate, Lee, —
The tragic figure of a tragic time.
It passes comprehension that this man,
A paragon of Christian courtesy,
So singularly sweet and sensitive,
So honored and beloved for every grace
Of gentle motives and of kindly deeds
That made the Old School Southern Gentleman,
Who loved the ways of peace and hated war,
Could move so with destruction's purple tides,
The dominant spirit, the commanding head,
In blazing front of battle savagery.
Never in all the seasons of the war
Did captaincy more brilliantly display
Its powers imperious and imperial
Than in the battle of the Wilderness,
And in the bloody fight at Spotsylvania.