A GEORGIA
VOLUNTEER
Far up the lonely mountain
sideMy wandering
footsteps
led.The moss lay
thick beneath my
feet,The pines
sighed overhead.The
trace of a dismantled
fortLay in the forest
nave,And in the
shadow near my pathI
saw a soldier's
grave.The bramble
wrestled with the
weedUpon the lowly
mound.The simple head
board rudely
written,Had rotted to
the ground.I raised
it with a reverent
hand,From dust in
words to clear,But
time had blotted all but
these...." A Georgia
Volunteer !"I saw
the road and scaly
snakeFrom tangled
covert start,And hide
themselves among the
weedsAbove the dead
man's heart.But
undisturbed, in sleep
profound,Unheeding
there he lay.His
coffin but the mountains
soil,His shroud
Confederate gray.I
heard the Shenandoah
rollAlong the vale
below.I saw the
Alleghenies
riseTowards the relms
of snow.The "Valley
Campaign" rose to
mind...It's leader's
name, and thenI knew
the sleeper had been
oneOf Stonewall
Jackson's men.Yet,
whence he came, what lip shall
say,Whose tongue will
ever tellWhat
desolated hoarths and
heartsHave been
because he fell ?What
sad eyed maiden braids her
hair,Her hair which
he held dear ?One
lock of which per chance lies
withThe Georgia
Volunteer !
What
mother, with long watching
eyes,
And white lips
cold and dumb,
Waits
with appalling patience
for
Her darling boy to
come ?
Her boy! Whose
mountain grave swells
up,
But one of many a
scar,
Cut on the face
of our fair land,
By
gory handed war.
What fights he fought, what wounds he wore,
Are all unknown to fame.
Remember, on his lonely grave
There is even not a name.
That he fought well and bravely too,
And held his country dear,
We know, else he had ever been
A Georgia Volunteer.
He sleeps, what need to question now
If he were wrong or right ?
He knows, ere this, whose cause was just
In God the Father's sight.
He wields no war like weapons now,
Returns no foemans thrust...
Who but a coward would revile
An honest soldier's dust ?
Roll, Shenandoah, proudly roll
Adown thy rocky glen,
Above thee lies the grave of one
Of Stonewall Jackson's men.
Beneath the cedar and the pine
In solitude austere,
Unknown, unnamed, forgotten, lies
A Georgia Volunteer !Author
Mary Ashley Townsend
( 1832 - 1908 )
Portrait Of
William Bond Prichard ~ C.S.A
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