Augusta County: "The Confederate Dead," by A. G. Gordon, January 30, 1899
Summary: This article consists mostly of a poem by A. C. Gordon of Staunton, read at the unveiling of the monument erected to the Confederate dead at Staunton, Va.
To the Editor of the Times:
In reading the excellent address of Capt. R. S.
Parks to the veterans [see ante pp. 354-364], as reported in your paper, and the
beautiful and fitting verses with which he closed, it occurred to me that you
would enjoy, if you have never seen it, or read it, the entire poem as delivered
by the author, the Hon. A. C. Gordon, of
Staunton, Va., upon the occasion of unveiling the
monument erected to the Confederate dead at Staunton, Va., and I enclose you a copy. The late Professor George Fred. Holmes
told the writer of this that he considered Mr. Armistead Gordon's poem "the
finest on such an occasion he had read since the war." With many other
distinguishing qualities, I am happy that Virginia has in this son one who
writes so beautifully in verse.*
* He has written as well in prose. it
may be assumed, for, as fellow student with Thomas Nelson Page at the
University of Virginia, he yielded to the latter (it has been admitted),
some conceptions-upon which our dialect writer rose to fame and
wealth.
G. JULIAN PRATT.
Waynesboro, Va., January 25, 1898.
THE CONFEDERATE DEAD.
"The grief that circled his brow with a crown of thorns was also that which wreathed them with the splendor of immortality." - Castelar's "Savonarola."
I.
Where are they who marched away,
Sped with smiles that changed to
tears,
Glittering lines of steel and gray
Moving down the battle's
way-
Where are they these many years?
Garlands wreathed their shining swords;
They were girt about with
cheers,
Children's lispings, women's words,
Sunshine and the songs of
birds-
They are gone so many years.
"Lo! beyond their brave array
Freedom's august dawn appears:"
Thus we
said: "The brighter day
Breaks above that line of gray."-
Where are
they these many years?
All our hearts went with them there,
All our love, and all our prayers;
What of them? How do they fare,
They who went to do and dare,
And are
gone so many years?
What of them who went away
Followed by our hopes and fears?
Braver
never marched than they,
Closer ranks to fiercer fray.-
Where are they
these many years?
II.
Borne upon the Spartan shield
Home returned that brave array
From the
blood-stained battle-field
They might neither win nor yield;
That is
all, and here are they.
That is all, The soft sky bends
O'er them, lapped in
earth away;
Her benignest influence lends,
Dews and rains and radiance
sends
Down upon them, night and day.
Over them the Springtide weaves
All the verdure of her May:
Past them
drift the sombre leaves
When the heart of Autumn
grieves
O'er their slumbers.-What care they?
What care they, who failed to win
Guerdon of that splendid day-
Freedom's day-they saw begin,
But that, 'mid the
battle's din,
Faded in eclipse away?
All is gone for them. They gave
All for naught. It was their way
Where
they loved. They died to save
What was lost. The fight was brave.
That
is all; and here are they.
III.
Is that all? Was duty naught?
Love and Faith made blind with tears?
What the lessons that they taught?
What the glory that they caught
From the onward sweeping years?
Here are they who marched away,
Followed by our hopes and fears;
Nobler
never went than they
To a bloodier, madder fray,
In the lapse of all
the years.
Garlands still shall wreathe the swords
That they drew amid our cheers;
Children's lispings, women's words,
Sunshine, and the songs of birds
Greet them here through all the years.
With them ever shall abide
All our love and all our prayers.
"What of
them?" The battle's tide
Hath not scathed them. Lo, they ride
Still
with Stuart down the years.
Where are they who went away,
Sped with smiles that changed to tears?
Lee yet leads the lines of gray-
Stonewall still rides down this way;
They are Fame's through all the years.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: SHSP, Vol. XXV, p.382-384, 1898
