Keenan's Charge
By George Parsons Lathrop (1851
- 1898) |
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By the shrouded gleam of
the western skies,
Brave Keenan looked in Pleasonton's
eyes
For an instant--clear, and cool, and still;
Then,
with a smile, he said: "I will."
"Cavalry, charge!"
Not a man of them shrank.
Their sharp, full cheer, from
rank on rank,
Rose joyously, with a willing breath--
Rose like a greeting hail to death.
Then forward they
sprang, and spurred and clashed;
Shouted the officers,
crimson-sash'd;
Rode well the men, each brave as his
fellow,
In their faded coats of the blue and yellow;
And above in the air, with an instinct true,
Like a bird
of war their pennon flew.
With clank of scabbards and
thunder of steeds,
And blades that shine like sunlit
reeds,
And strong brown faces bravely pale
For fear
their proud attempt shall fail,
Three hundred
Pennsylvanians close
On twice ten thousand gallant foes.
Line after line the troopers came
To the edge of the
wood that was ring'd with flame;
Rode in and sabred and
shot--and fell;
Nor came one back his wounds to tell.
And full in the midst rose Keenan, tall
In the gloom,
like a martyr awaiting his fall,
While the circle-stroke
of his sabre, swung
'Round his head, like a halo there,
luminous hung.
Line after line; ay, whole platoons,
Struck dead in their saddles, of brave dragoons
By the
maddened horses were onward borne
And into the vortex
flung, trampled and torn;
As Keenan fought with his men,
side by side.
So they rode, till there were no more
to ride.
But over them, lying there, shattered and
mute,
What deep echo rolls?--'Tis a death salute
From
the cannon in place; for, heroes, you braved
Your fate
not in vain: the army was saved!
Over them now--year
following year--
Over their graves, the pine-cones fall,
And the whip-poor-will chants his spectre-call;
But they
stir not again: they raise no cheer:
They have ceased.
But their glory shall never cease,
Nor their light be
quenched in the light of peace.
The rush of their charge
is resounding still
That saved the army at
Chancellorsville. |
By
George Parsons Lathrop (1851 - 1898)
Listed August 14, 2012Note:
May 2, 1863
During the second day of the battle of
Chancellorsville, General
Pleasonton was trying to get
twenty-two guns into a vital position
as Stonewall
Jackson made a sudden advance. Time had to be bought;
so
Pleasanton ordered Major Peter Keenan, commanding the Eighth
Pennsylvania Cavalry (four hundred strong), to charge the
advancing
ten thousand of the enemy.
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