Out of sight, the foe, retreating,
Answered back no hostile greeting;
None could tell, as off he paddled,
Whitherward he had skedaddled.
Then the chief of all the asses
Cried: "Hurrah! I've got Manassas."

Future days will tell the wonder,
How the mighty Anaconda
Lay supine along the border,
With the mighty Mac to lord her:
Tell on shaft and storied brasses
How he took the famed Manassas.

McClellan, meanwhile, had decided that the proper way to take Richmond was to remove his army to Fortress Monroe and advance up the peninsula. The change of base was accomplished by April 3, 1862, and the advance began, the army encountering no obstacle save almost impassable mud. McClellan, however, firmly believed that an immense force of Confederates was massed before him and proceeded so cautiously that he scarcely moved at all, and the impatience of the people deepened into anger and disgust.

WANTED-A MAN

BACK from the trebly crimsoned field
Terrible words are thunder-tost;
Full of the wrath that will not yield,
Full of revenge for battles lost!
Hark to their echo, as it crost
The Capital, making faces wan:

"End this murderous holocaust; Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!

"Give us a man of God's own mould,
Born to marshal his fellow-men;
One whose fame is not bought and sold
At the stroke of a politician's pen;
Give us the man of thousands ten,
Fit to do as well as to plan;

Give us a rallying-cry, and then,
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!

"No leader to shirk the boasting foe,

435

And to march and countermarch our brave, Till they fall like ghosts in the marshes low,

And swamp-grass covers each nameless

grave;

Nor another, whose fatal banners wave Aye in Disaster's shameful van;

Nor another, to bluster, and lie, and rave; Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!

"Hearts are mourning in the North,
While the sister rivers seek the main,
Red with our life-blood flowing forth
Who shall gather it up again?
Though we march to the battle-plain
Firmly as when the strife began,

Shall all our offering be in vain?
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!

"Is there never one in all the land,
One on whose might the Cause may lean?
Are all the common ones so grand,

And all the titled ones so mean?
What if your failure may have been
In trying to make good bread from bran,
From worthless metal a weapon keen?
Abraham Lincoln, find us a MAN!

"Oh, we will follow him to the death, Where the foeman's fiercest columns are! Oh, we will use our latest breath,

Cheering for every sacred star! His to marshal us high and far; Ours to battle, as patriots can

When a Hero leads the Holy War! Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!"

EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.

Finally, after infinite preparation, McClellan's batteries were ready to open on the Confederate works at Yorktown, but on May 4, 1862, it was discovered that the works had been abandoned. Hooker's and Kearny's cavalry began a vigorous pursuit of the Confederates, caught up with them at Williamsburg and captured the works there, after a severe engagement.

Singing, hurrah, hurrah, for Hooker's boys,

The gallant Fighting Joe, We'll follow him with heart and hand, Wherever he does go.

JAMES STEVENSON.

The advance continued slowly, and on May 31, 1862, a portion of the army reached Fair Oaks. Here the Confederates attacked with force, and would have won a decisive victory but for the timely arrival of dashing " Phil" Kearny, who rallied the Union forces, led them forward, and swept the Confederates from the field.

KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES

[May 31, 1862]

437

For nearly a month after this battle, the Army of the Potomac lay along the Chickahominy, within a few miles of Richmond, while the Confederates concentrated their forces, under Robert E. Lee, for the defence of the city. On June 14, 1862, General J. E. B. Stuart, with a force of fifteen hundred cavalry, circled the Union position, destroyed stores, seized mules and horses, took nearly two hundred prisoners, and returned leisurely to Richmond. Captain Latané was killed in a skirmish during this expedition.

THE BURIAL OF LATANÉ

[June 14, 1862]

THE combat raged not long, but ours the day; And, through the hosts that compassed us

around,

Our little band rode proudly on its way, Leaving one gallant comrade, glory-crowned, Unburied on the field he died to gainSingle of all his men, amid the hostile slain.

One moment on the battle's edge he stood Hope's halo, like a helmet, round his hair;

A little child strewed roses on his bier —
Pale roses, not more stainless than his soul,
Nor yet more fragrant than his life sincere,
That blossomed with good actions - brief,
but whole;

The aged matron and the faithful slave Approached with reverent feet the hero's lowly grave.

No man of God might say the burial rite Above the "rebel" - thus declared the foe That blanched before him in the deadly fight; But woman's voice, with accents soft and low,

Trembling with pity-touched with pathos read

Over his hallowed dust the ritual for the dead.

""Tis sown in weakness, it is raised in power!"

Softly the promise floated on the air,
While the low breathings of the sunset hour
Came back responsive to the mourner's prayer.
Gently they laid him underneath the sod,
And left him with his fame, his country, and
his God!

Let us not weep for him, whose deeds endure!
So young, so brave, so beautiful! He died
As he had wished to die; the past is sure;
Whatever yet of sorrow may betide
Those who still linger by the stormy shore,
Change cannot harm him now, nor fortune
touch him more.

JOHN R. THOMPSON.

Meanwhile, McDowell's corps had been ordered forward from the Shenandoah valley to cooperate with McClellan, but was harassed by the Confed