Classic Poem

It was a morning of high confidence.
The woods were vibrant with the songs of birds
Greeting the fresh May dawn. Likewise Lee's mind
Met Nature's music with a singing hope;
Bright buoyance filled his eyes, gave sustenance
To aspiration as he rose a seer.
The olden friends of Nature now again
Were gathering round him — long-familiar friends —
The thickets, labyrinths, the timbered swamps,
The jungle intricacies, depths complex,
By him long-known, oft-traversed in the past,
But strange, insidious to the Northern Chief.
Therein entrapped, the forces of the foe,
Unwitting regiments, bewildered ranks,
Would meet sure ruin 'mid his circling fires
As they met similar fate at Chancellorsville.
Lee knew his hour. The stealthy messengers
Of Stuart told of Federal cavalry
Near Chancellorsville, and all the Union host
Southwardly swarming. On Clark's Mountain waved
The expected signal flag. Swift answering,
Gray columns started towards the Wilderness.