PoetryMine Poetry Mine

It was the darkest  period in American chronicle,
brothers pitted against brothers clearly ironical.
The side fought for depending largely on birth,
they donned gray or blue to prove their side’s worth.

From the North and the South, Americans all,
thousands of brave young men answered the call
of the grim and gruesome days of the Civil War.
And thousands died in the blood and the gore.

Some weren’t even of age, merely boys
who not so long ago still played with toys.
But these were ghastly times of innocence lost,
and for far too many on both sides, life was the cost.

The number of Civil War battles is of dispute
but, counting skirmishes, 10,000 seems astute.
None more deadly and bloody by any degree,
than the famous Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863.

The South’s General Robert E. Lee, on a scorching day,
crossed the Mason-Dixon line with his army in gray.
Into Pennsylvania they marched with persistence,
hoping they could crumble all Northern resistance.

When the North’s General Meade learned of Lee’s plan,
his Army of the Potomac was far south in Maryland.
Without hesitation Meade’s Yankees clad in blue,
marched quickly northward, with Lee’s Rebels to subdue.

A little known fact of the bloody conflict soon at hand,
is the Battle of Gettysburg was neither general’s plan.
A Confederate brigade, with an order they couldn’t refuse,
was hiking to Gettysburg to steal a supply of Union shoes.

Blundering into a Yankee cavalry unit much by surprise,
musket shots filled the air, smoke rose to the skies.
Both sides rushed reinforcements quickly to the scene,
as the first grass of the battle turned blood red from green.

This initial day of the famous battle, on a hot July one,
the Confederates had taken Gettysburg, and decidedly won.
Meade’s Union forces retreated south of the small town,
and made intricate plans for July 2 and the second round.

The next morning the North assembled in two blue flanks,
widely separated, but both just a mile from Rebel ranks.
General Lee launched several attacks doing little damage
and on day two neither side really gained any advantage.

But that evening Lee reveled in a new source of might,
when General Pickett rode in with men rested for the fight.
The fresh Confederate soldiers totaled some 15,000 strong,
and Lee and Pickett planned day three for several hours long.

Robert E. Lee had a feeling, a sort of premonition if you will
that day three would be decisive, that buckets of blood would spill.
General Pickett, with determined resolve, eyes hard and steady,
assured Lee that he and his men were up to the task and ready.

Dawn’s light o’er Seminary Ridge and the Rebel’s encampment
found Lee’s cannons, 159 of them, lined up axle to axle adjacent,
all pointed toward Cemetery Ridge, the Union’s figurative heart.
On the third day of the battle, Lee was certain he’d plotted it smart.

Among the South’s artillery waited General Pickett and his men,
the thousands recently away from war and eager to fight again.
Lee held back for hours until he felt the timing was just right,
and when the sun pasted its high point, Rebel shells took their flight.

Unfortunately for those wearing gray that day, fortunate indeed if blue,
the cannon shells all missed their mark, o’er heads of the Yanks they flew.
Generals Lee and Pickett met for two hours to decide how now to strike,
and agreed on the ill fated charge Southerners even today dislike.

In the Northern camp, General Meade’s plan was to wait for Lee’s attack,
take his cue from the Rebs, learn precisely how to counterattack back.
A bit past three o’clock, the South’s Pickett asked if he should make his move,
and another General, Longstreet, nodded his head though he didn’t really approve.

Longstreet had opposed the famed “Pickett’s Charge” from its inception,
but Lee had ordered it, and his orders must be followed with no exception.
With the nod, General Pickett began the charge history can’t forget,
the faces of men and boys behind him surely streaked with sweat. 

 It was more than sweltering July heat that gave cause to perspire
as they struggled toward Cemetery Ridge under Union cannon fire.
Fully exposed, they must have thought of love ones and imminent death
as they stepped over friends who had taken their very last breath.

But orders were orders, and with unimaginable courage and determination,
those living and able to walk kept pressing forward in their dwindling formation.
With two-thirds left laying in the field, severely wounded or dead,
one-third reached the top of the ridge to encounter the Yankees ahead.

It was clear they had only three options, fight for their life, surrender or run,
the most important decision of their young lives, one that couldn’t be undone
Some ran, some surrendered, and many fought brutally hand to hand,
but most that did were repulsed, ran behind the others after their stand.

Meade perhaps had a good heart, and allowed the Confederates to flee
not pursuing a single one, and soon all were reconnected with General Lee.
Lee was left with no choice now but to admit defeat and mournfully retreat,
taking the remnants of his army to Virginia where safety was complete.

General Meade has often been criticized, today as in decades before,
for not pursuing the weakened Rebels, perhaps ending the slaughterous war.
As it was, Americans continued killing Americans for an additional 2 years
and families North and South continued their fears and tears.

Four months after the battle, President Lincoln gave his famed address
to consecrate the new Gettysburg cemetery where heroes eternally rest.
His Gettysburg Address was short but eloquent, and listeners felt the pain,
“We here highly resolve” he said, “that these dead shall not have died in vain”.

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