Classic Poem

We had tramped through field and forest,
O the long and dreary way!
With the stars alone to guide us,
For we dared not move by day—

Jack and I, two Union soldiers,
Just escaped from prison-shed,
Squalid, ghastly, shoeless, starving,
And no place to ask for bread;

Swimming rivers deep and swollen,
Crossing mountains grim and dark,
Wading marshes, crouched in thickets,
Trembling at the blood-hound's bark.

O the chill nights marched in silence,
As the weeks crept slowly past;
Leagues away the Union army,
Where we dreamed of rest at last.

But our strength was wellnigh broken,
When, one night, the Lord be praised!
Right before us, through the pine-trees,
Suddenly a camp-fire blazed.

Straight we turned, but stayed our footsteps,
As upon the evening air
Came the gentle, broken accents
Of a heartfelt, earnest prayer.

Drawing nearer through the shadows,
Creeping close from tree to tree,
There a white-haired slave was kneeling,
Asking God for liberty.

And his words were sweet and touching
As the first prayer of a child,
And it seemed that God's own presence
Filled the forest vast and wild.

And the “Amen” that he uttered
Seemed to echo through the trees;
But it might have been our voices,
For he started from his knees,

And he glanced in fear about him,
And his look was wild with fright.
“Save us! we are Union soldiers;
We implore your help to-night.

“Tell us, where's the Union army?”
And we stood before him there,
Wan and ghost-like, hardly human,
Haggard phantoms of despair.

Then we sat and told our story
While he served his simple food,
And the moaning pines above us
Whispered low in plaintive mood.

And the midnight stars were shining
Ere we rose to take our way,
And we knelt—we all were brothers—
As he bowed again to pray.

From that heart by bondage broken,
From that son of toil and pain,
Rose a prayer more true and tender
Than I e'er shall hear again.

And throughout the weary marches,
Through long nights of care and fear,
Those sweet words were ever with us,
Filling both our hearts with cheer.

And we reached the Union Army,
And we told our story there,
And the “boys” were hushed and breathless
As we gave that old slave's prayer.