THE HUNDRED DAYS' MEN.
In the busiest season of the spring of 1864, the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois pledged to the Government of the United States one hundred thousand men for a hundred days.
'T is time the corn was planted, the latest wheat was sown,—
The oriole is in the elm, the last swan northward flown;
By streams the cottonwood is green, the plum waves white as snow,
The wild-crab blushes in the woods, the red-bud soon will blow;
And to the fenceless pastures, whose grass grows sweet and tall,
Slow move the herds, to feed at will till autumn frosts shall fall.
O for the arms so sturdy, O for the tireless feet,
That shared our toil when other Mays brought summer bloom and heat!
But proud we spared our manliest to face the country's foe;
To march when word comes, "Forward!" to ride when bugles blow:
The oriole is in the elm, the last swan northward flown;
By streams the cottonwood is green, the plum waves white as snow,
The wild-crab blushes in the woods, the red-bud soon will blow;
And to the fenceless pastures, whose grass grows sweet and tall,
Slow move the herds, to feed at will till autumn frosts shall fall.
O for the arms so sturdy, O for the tireless feet,
That shared our toil when other Mays brought summer bloom and heat!
But proud we spared our manliest to face the country's foe;
To march when word comes, "Forward!" to ride when bugles blow:
