Read "Stonewall Jackson (Poems from Battle Pieces)" by Herman Melville online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Mortally wounded at Chancellorsville"
May, 1863
The Man who fiercest charged in fight, / Whose sword and prayer were long- / Stonewall!
Even him who stoutly stood for Wrong, / How can we praise? Yet coming days / Shall not forget him with this song.
Dead is the Man whose Cause is dead, / Vainly he died and set his seal- / Stonewall!
Earnest in error, as we feel; / True to the thing he deemed was due, / True as John Brown or steel.
Relentlessly he routed us; / But _we_ relent, for he is low- / Stonewall!
Justly his fame we outlaw; so / We drop a tear on the bold Virginian's bier, / Because no wreath we owe.