Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

by Herman Melville

BATTLE-PIECES

AND

ASPECTS   OF   THE WAR.

BY

HERMAN MELVILLE.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1866.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six, by

H A R P E R   &   B R O T H E R S,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of
New York.

THE BATTLE-PIECES

 

IN THIS VOLUME ARE DEDICATED

 

TO THE MEMORY OF THE

 

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND

 

WHO IN THE WAR

 

FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE UNION

 

FELL DEVOTEDLY

 

UNDER THE FLAG OF THEIR FATHERS.

  [With few exceptions, the Pieces in this volume originated in an impulse imparted by the fall of Richmond. They were composed without reference to collective arrangement, but, being brought together in review, naturally fall into the order assumed.
  The events and incidents of the conflict—making up a whole, in varied amplitude, corresponding with the geographical area covered by the war—from these but a few themes have been taken, such as for any cause chanced to imprint themselves upon the mind.
  The aspects which the strife as a memory assumes are as manifold as are the moods of involuntary meditation—moods variable, and at times widely at variance. Yielding instinctively, one after another, to feelings not inspired from any one source exclusively, and unmindful, without purposing to be, of consistency, I seem, in most of these verses, to have but placed a harp in a window, and noted the contrasted airs which wayward winds have played upon the strings.]

Contents.

 

---

 

PAGE

Chapters (not listed in original)

The Portent ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

xi

Misgivings ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

13

The Conflict of Convictions ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

14

Apathy and Enthusiasm ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

19

The March into Virginia ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

22

Lyon ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

24

Ball's Bluff ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

28

Dupont's Round Fight ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

30

The Stone Fleet ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

31

Donelson ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

33

The Cumberland ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

53

In the Turret ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

55

The Temeraire ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

58

A utilitarian View of the Monitor's Fight ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

61

Shiloh ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

63

The Battle for the Mississippi ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

64

Malvern Hill ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

67

The Victor of Antietam ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

69

Battle of Stone River ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

73

Running the Batteries ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

75

Stonewall Jackson ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

79

Stonewall Jackson (ascribed to a Virginian) ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

81

Gettysburg ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

84

The House-top ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

86

Look-out Mountain ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

88

Chattanooga ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

90

The Armies of the Wilderness ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

93

On the Photograph of a Corps Commander ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

105

The Swamp Angel ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

107

The Battle for the Bay ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

110

Sheridan at Cedar Creek ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

116

In the Prison Pen ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

118

The College Colonel ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

120

The Eagle of the Blue ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

122

A Dirge for McPherson ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

124

At the Cannon's Mouth ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

126

The March to the Sea ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

128

The Frenzy in the Wake ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

133

The Fall of Richmond ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

135

The Surrender at Appomattox ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

137

A Canticle ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

138

The Martyr ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

141

"The Coming Storm" ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

143

Rebel Color-bearers at Shiloh ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

144

The Muster ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

146

Aurora Borealis ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

148

The released Rebel Prisoner ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

150

A Grave near Petersburg, Virginia ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

153

"Formerly a Slave" ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

154

The Apparition ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

155

Magnanimity Baffled ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

156

On the Slain Collegians ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

157

America ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

160

 

VERSES INSCRIPTIVE AND MEMORIAL.

On the Home Guards who perished in the Defense of Lexington, Missouri ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

165

Inscription for Graves at Pea Ridge, Arkansas ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

166

The Fortitude of the North under the Disaster of the Second Manassas ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

167

On the Men of Maine killed in the Victory of Baton Rouge, Louisiana ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

168

An Epitaph ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

169

Inscription for Marye's Heights, Fredericksburg ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

170

The Mound by the Lake ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

171

On the Slain at Chickamauga ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

172

An uninscribed Monument on one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

173

On Sherman's Men who fell in the Assault of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

174

On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

175

A Requiem for Soldiers lost in Ocean Transports ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

176

On a natural Monument in a Field of Georgia ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

178

Commemorative of a Naval Victory ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

180

Presentation to the Authorities by Privates of Colors captured in Battles ending in the Surrender of Lee ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

182

The returned Volunteer to his Rifle ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

183

The Scout toward Aldie ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

187

Lee in the Capitol ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

217

A Meditation ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

239

Notes ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

245

Supplement ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

259