A cloud of smoke--
Dense, sulphurous, stifling--covered all our ranks.
Our steady, deadly rifles crackled still,
And still their crashing volleys rolled and roared.
Our rifles blazed upon the blaze below;
The blaze below upon the blaze above,
And in the blaze the buzz of myriad bees
Whose stings were deadlier than the Libyan asp.
Five times our colors fell--five times arose
Defiant, flapping on the broken wall.
[C] These are the very words used by General Hancock on this occasion.
"We hold the perilous breach; on either hand
Our foes out-flank us, leap the sheltering wall
And pour their deadly, enfilading fire.
God shield our shattered ranks!--God help us!
"Ho!
'Stars and Stripes' on the right!--Hurra!--Hurra!
The Green Mountain Boys to our aid!--Hurra!--Hurra.
Cannon-roar down on the left!--Our batteries are there--
Hurling hot hell-fire'--See!--like sickled corn
The close-ranked foemen fall in toppling swaths:
But still with hurried steps and steady steel
They close the gaps--like madmen they press on!
With one wild yell they rush upon the wall!
Lo from our lines a sheet of crackling fire
Scorches their grimy faces--back they reel
And tumble--down and down--a writhing mass
Of slaughter and defeat!
"Leaped on the wall
A thousand Blues and swung their caps in air,
Thundering their wild _Hurra!_ above the roar
And crash of cannon;--victory was ours.
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