All his aim--
To win the victory; applause and praise
He almost hated; grimly he endured
The fulsome flattery of his comrades nerved
By his calm courage up to manlier deeds.
"I saw him angered once--if one might call
His sullen silence anger--as by night
Across the Rappahannock, from the field
Where brave and gallant 'Stonewall' Jackson fell,
With hopeless hearts and heavy steps we marched.
Such sullen wrath on other human face
I never saw in all those bloody years.
One evening after, as he read to me
The fulsome General Order of our Chief--
Congratulating officers and men
On their achievements in the late defeat--
His handsome face grew rigid as he read,
And as he closed, down like a thunder-clap
Upon the mess-chest fell his clinched fist:
'Fit pap for fools!' he said--'an Iron Duke
Had ground the Southern legions into dust,
Or, by the gods!--the field of Chancellorsville
Had furnished graves for ninety thousand men!'[B]
"That dark disaster sickened many a soul;
Stout hearts were sad and cowards cried for peace.
The vulture, perched hard by the eagle's crag,
Loud cawed his fellows from afar to feast.
Ill-omened bird--his carrion-cries were vain!
Again our veteran eagles plumed their wings,
And forth he fled from Montezuma's shores--
A dastard flight--betraying unto death
Him whom he dazzled with a bauble crown.
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