MUSTERED OUT.
“A soldier of the Union mustered out,”
Is the inscription of an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt sea wave,
Nameless and dateless ; sentinel or scout
Shot down in skirmish or disastrous rout
Of battle, when the loud artillery drave
Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave
And doomed battalions, storming the redoubt.
Thou unknown hero sleeping by the sea
In thy forgotten grave—with secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn,
When I remember thou hast given for me
All that thou hast, thy life, thy very name.
And I can give thee nothing in return!
COVER THEM OVER.
Cover them over with beautiful flowers;
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours;
Lying so silent, by night and by day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away;
Years they had marked for the joys of the brave,
Years they must waste in the sloth of the grave.
All the bright laurels that promised to bloom
Fell to the earth when they went to the tomb.
Give them the meed they have won in the past;
Give them the honors their merits forecast;
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife;
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
Cover them over—yes, cover them over—
Parent and husband and brother and lover;
Crown in your heart these dead heroes of ours,
And cover them over with beautiful flowers!
Cover the faces that motionless lie.
Shut from the blue of the glorious sky;
Faces once lighted with smiles of the gay—
Faces now marred by the frown of decay;
Eyes that beamed friendship and love to your own,
Lips that sweet thoughts of affection made known,
Brows you have soothed in the day of distress,
Cheeks you have flushed by the tender caress;
Faces that brightened at war’s stirring cry.
Faces that streamed when they bade you good-by;
Faces that glowed in the battle’s red flame,
Paling for naught till the Death Angel came.
Cover them over—yes, cover them over—
Parent and husband and brother and lover;
Kiss in your hearts these dead heroes of ours,
And cover them over with beautiful flowers.
