'T WAS swift pursuit that followed the swift flight
Of Lee's retreating Army westward driven.
'Twas hot pursuit increasing in hot rage.
The Mighty Captain in the open now
Felt Nature's sweet elixirs, and his men —
Treading again the Old Dominion soil,
Its woods and fields in all their Springtime bloom —
Joined brightness to his brightness as they fled,
And fleeing fought, and fighting onward passed
Along the margin of the Appomattox.
They reached at length Amelia Court House, spent
With weariness and hunger. There they found
No stores as promised, — yet they forward moved
In their long-losing and despairing flight,
Grant's guns behind them with increasing scourge.
They felt the fiery cordon drawing close
As on they strove. But yet the resolute will
Forsook them not. They fled, they stood, they charged;
Then overpowered, again they fled for life,
Their spirits unconquered, but defiant still
And daring fate and fate's hard-pressing legions.
The wild rush widened over hill and vale;
The whole Virginian Army, routed now,
Left all the ways behind with wreckage strewn.
Along the road o'ertoppled wagons blazed,
Fired to escape the foe. About the rear
The ammunition trains, quick-lighted, rent
The air with loud explosions. Worn and starved
But staggering forward, men dropped weaponry
In sheer exhaustion and bewilderment,
Longing to die, and falling upon death;
And all the while the roaring of Grant's guns
And the advancing surge of Federal hosts
Drove them yet madly on. As morning dawned,
Starting that April day inglorious,
With the last charge audacious of Gray troops,
The bold Confederates gazed in ghastly awe
Upon the Union lines of Infantry
Spread thickly over valley, hill, and road,
With bayonets ranged and ready for assault.
Lee's veterans halted in amazed recoil —
Halted and gazed, seeing the portent loom
Running along the bristling musketry.
Then suddenly above the Southern ranks —
Those battered, tattered ranks of veterans —
A white flag rose and caught the April breeze.
The end was nearing, doom had come at last.
Of Lee's retreating Army westward driven.
'Twas hot pursuit increasing in hot rage.
The Mighty Captain in the open now
Felt Nature's sweet elixirs, and his men —
Treading again the Old Dominion soil,
Its woods and fields in all their Springtime bloom —
Joined brightness to his brightness as they fled,
And fleeing fought, and fighting onward passed
Along the margin of the Appomattox.
They reached at length Amelia Court House, spent
With weariness and hunger. There they found
No stores as promised, — yet they forward moved
In their long-losing and despairing flight,
Grant's guns behind them with increasing scourge.
They felt the fiery cordon drawing close
As on they strove. But yet the resolute will
Forsook them not. They fled, they stood, they charged;
Then overpowered, again they fled for life,
Their spirits unconquered, but defiant still
And daring fate and fate's hard-pressing legions.
The wild rush widened over hill and vale;
The whole Virginian Army, routed now,
Left all the ways behind with wreckage strewn.
Along the road o'ertoppled wagons blazed,
Fired to escape the foe. About the rear
The ammunition trains, quick-lighted, rent
The air with loud explosions. Worn and starved
But staggering forward, men dropped weaponry
In sheer exhaustion and bewilderment,
Longing to die, and falling upon death;
And all the while the roaring of Grant's guns
And the advancing surge of Federal hosts
Drove them yet madly on. As morning dawned,
Starting that April day inglorious,
With the last charge audacious of Gray troops,
The bold Confederates gazed in ghastly awe
Upon the Union lines of Infantry
Spread thickly over valley, hill, and road,
With bayonets ranged and ready for assault.
Lee's veterans halted in amazed recoil —
Halted and gazed, seeing the portent loom
Running along the bristling musketry.
Then suddenly above the Southern ranks —
Those battered, tattered ranks of veterans —
A white flag rose and caught the April breeze.
The end was nearing, doom had come at last.