Three weary days, from height to height,
The battle rolled from morn till night;
Three dreary days the cannon's breath
Belched forth its messengers of death,
Till earth and sky grew dark with dread
And many thousand men lay dead—
Then silently the remnant gray
Closed up its ranks and stole away.
The battle rolled from morn till night;
Three dreary days the cannon's breath
Belched forth its messengers of death,
Till earth and sky grew dark with dread
And many thousand men lay dead—
Then silently the remnant gray
Closed up its ranks and stole away.
'Twas on the third day "Charge!" was said—
The day that last wild charge was led;
They fired no shot from ten till one,
Each gunner rested on his gun;
A breathless hush and a deathlike calm
Foretold the coming of the storm.
The day that last wild charge was led;
They fired no shot from ten till one,
Each gunner rested on his gun;
A breathless hush and a deathlike calm
Foretold the coming of the storm.
Then like some mighty tidal crest
That rises high above the rest
And madly dashes on the shore
With thund'rous shock and deaf'ning roar,
There rose a mighty sea of men
Where peaceful fields of grain had been,
And half the Southern army wheeled
And charged across the quiet field.
That rises high above the rest
And madly dashes on the shore
With thund'rous shock and deaf'ning roar,
There rose a mighty sea of men
Where peaceful fields of grain had been,
And half the Southern army wheeled
And charged across the quiet field.
They shook the ridges with their yells—
We could not hear their bursting shells—
They ploughed our breastworks with their shot—
We could not hear their bursting shells—
They ploughed our breastworks with their shot—
84
