Memorial Day Poem by Captain James T. Long

Image from http://theapostolicreport.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/

Memories in Month of May

The muffled drum’s sad roll will beat
And heroes brave march through the street,
With locks once dark, but now turned gray
In honor of Memorial Day,
While thoughts of Comrades brave and true
Who proudly wore our Union blue,
Who fought and fell in Fiercest fray
Are in our minds in month of May.

How thoughts of Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill
And Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville,
Antietam, Bull Run, Mary’s Height
Old Glory waving in the fight,
With whiz of shot and shriek of shell
The Yanks, Hurrah: “The Rebel yell;”
The charge on breastwork of the gray
Come back to memory in this May.

How thoughts of Gettysburg and Meade
Rush through our brains with lightning speed,
and “Little Mac.” and Hancock true
Phil Kearny,  Meagher,  Sickels too,
With Grant and Sheridan conquering Lee
And Sherman marching to the sea,
Ah; how these thoughts come back today
These memories dear in month of May.

Our comrades brave, the rank and file
Who fought so glorious all the while,
Whose mangled bodies, torn and slain
Now sleep ‘neath fields of waving grain,
Where oak and pine and hemlock wave
Ah; there they lie in unknown grave,
There sleep in peace the blue and gray
God rest their souls this month of May.

Oh memories, how you crowd our brain
When month of May returns again,
As down Life’s path of time we go
Our thoughts go back to long ago,
When Comrades true we loved so well
Who for their Country fought and fell,
Whose faces dear, come back today
In memory sad — this month of May.

Then strew sweet flowers on heros’ graves
And let old Glory proudly wave,
They served their country well and true
Their life blood dyed their union blue,
They’re undisturbed by cannon’s boom
While glory guards their hallowed tomb
With God we hope they are today
In Heaven, at peace this month of  May.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. LONG

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) May 29,  1909