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”.

BATTLE OF MARATHON, Greece, 490 BC

In 490 BC, the famous Battle of Marathon
began when strong Persia invaded Greece.
Darius the Great, Persian King, also ruled
likewise Egypt, India, Babylon.
But, seeking ever more power increase
Persia was defeated, the Greeks not fooled.
The Greek’s smaller army won, regained peace,
and Persian domination overruled.

This battle is oft remembered today,
not due just to the underdog’s conquest,
but for the legend of the lithe young man
who ran the news to Athens, 26 miles away.
Upon relaying his joyous attest,
collapsed and died within a minute’s span.
Today, “marathon”, as we know it best,
means a 26 mile footrace, the distance he ran.

BATTLE OF ZAMA, Africa, 202 BC

The Carthaginians and Romans fought
sixty years for control of world power.
Carthage’s famed, risk taking general
Hannibal, for 16 of those years ably sought
to crush Rome’s troops, and did to near demise.
Hannibal’s downfall began cerebral,
by devising a plan he thought quite wise,

a blunder known today, atemporal.
‘Twas in North Africa, Zama the town,
in 202 BC Hannibal’s plan bought Carthage’s fate.
With 15,000 less men, he implemented his scheme,
sprung 80 elephants free to run Rome’s men down,
terror and panic the ill plotted slate.
The beasts took the easy route to extreme
and ran the wrong way, Hannibal irate.

Carthage lost battle, war, and world esteem.
BATTLE OF HASTINGS, England, 1066
Edward the Confessor, King of England,
having no sons to inherit his throne,
promised on death his crown would belong
to William of Normandy as per plan.
Calmly waiting for the day he’d be known
as potent King of a country so strong,
William was thrown a figurative stone,
smashing the dream he had dreamed for so long.

In late Jan.1066 King Edward, on his deathbed,
reneged on his promise and chose Harold,
the Earl of Wessex, as his successor.
Enraged, William prepared to fight instead,
seize his crown, English army in peril,
his French Normans would be the aggressor.
They invaded Hastings, arrows barreled,
and fooled Harold, a mistaken guesser.

At battle’s height the Normans pretended
to flee. The English, thinking a sure win,
gave chase to finish off the Norman’s quest
who split forces, turned, and at last ended
all English hope when they’re attacked again.
King Harold was sent to eternal rest,
an arrow in his face leaving him slain,
and the Norman Conquest was nothing less.

Following King Harold’s battlefield death,
William had ascended to England’s throne,
“William the Conqueror” to be known hence.
For 21 long years, until he took his last breath,
he ruled with cruelty as commonly known.
His evil ways led to payback immense,
when fighting French, in a land once his own,
a 1087 war accident made his life past tense.

BATTLE OF AGINCOURT, France, 1415

A clear misnomer, the Hundred Years War
found England and France battling for 116 years,
but a famous part lasted a mere day.
King Henry V of England, seeking more
revenue and new lands for England’s sphere,
in 1415 lead his army to their common prey.
In France, their early losses were severe,
disease claiming more than the French could slay.

Although England had won the first conflict,
French troops outnumbered English 4 to 1 or more,
which gave Henry a reason to defer.
Deciding to move his army he picked
Calais, English stronghold on the French shore,
where they could re-equip, or else transfer
to ships and sail back home with little chore.
They trudged toward Calais through rainy blur.

Near half his army sick, wounded or dead,
Henry led on, exhausted, through the mud,
to be intercepted by French swoops,
eager for battle to the English’s dread.
Expecting to spill their collective blood,
the weakened English army prayed in groups.
But the blood was French that fell like a flood,
the final result surprising both troops.

Agincourt and Tramecourt, in north France,
framed a thin strip of open, muddy land.
There, October 25, the battle was fought
with numbers poor English doubting their chance.
But the English longbows, as they had planned,
kept French archers at bay, led them to naught
as, using short crossbows, they failed to land
arrows in English lines urgently sought.

The French decided to charge to close in
but, weighed down by full armour, sinking deep
in soft mud with every step slower,
they were sitting ducks for English bowmen.
Though the English had been outnumbered steep,
their losses were many thousands lower.
England won the battle in a clear sweep,
one unwanted, but enhancing power.

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD,
Massachusetts, 1775

“The British are coming!” yelled Paul Revere,
galloping on his famous midnight ride,
to warn the American colonists
of some 700 troops from Boston advancing near.
The colonist’s unrest had made them decide
breaking from Britain was first on their list.
The Redcoats knew this, planned to stem the tide,
stifle an uprising before it exists.

The Patriots were storing munitions
that, April 19, 1775, the Brits set out to destroy,
heading for Concord, northwest of Boston.
Revere had spread word of their positions,
and rebel militia quickly deployed
to meet them at Town Green of Lexington,
where one route to Concord must be employed.

At dawn the “Minutemen” would be outdone.
The British column reached Lexington Green
in morning’s first light, to see about 70 armed
militia lined across in formation,
and ordered them to disarm at the scene.
The minutemen’s leader wasn’t charmed,
his order to “Run!” the realization,
followed by the well known shot that alarmed
the world, and changed it’s orientation.

To this day no one knows who first fired
the immortalized “shot heard ’round the world”.
But, hearing it, the quick British reply
was to shoot as their orders required,
killing 8 Minutemen, as musket balls hurled,
the first of the Revolution to die.
The rest retreated as combat unfurled,
and the Brit’s mission at Concord drew nigh.

The Redcoated troops advanced to Concord,
and accomplished their original goal,
to find and destroy the munitions store.
In leaving, they encountered a small horde
of armed militia, four hundred in whole,
at Concord North Bridge on the southern shore.
The Minutemen fought hard, taking control,
and the Brit’s retreated, not wanting more.

Back to Boston the English decided,
and their disastrous 16 mile return began.
Minutemen from all the surrounding towns
flanked the one road to Boston provided,
assaulting Redcoats the entire span,
hiding and constantly firing their rounds.
The Minutemen won with the crafty plan,
English in large numbers dead on the grounds.

BATTLE OF WATERLOO, Belgium, 1815

March 1815, Napoleon returned to power,
after his escape from island exile,
and again became Emperor of France.
It was indeed a most concerned hour
for allied states to which he’d been hostile.
The Vienna Congress chose to advance
their army, formed from nations versatile,
to the Belgium border with northeast France.

This ” Seventh Coalition”, as so known,
was formed to oppose Napoleon’s reign,
to invade France and end it evermore.
But Napoleon, with plans of his own,
the element of surprise to attain,
decided to move first to start this war.
Roaring into Belgium his army came,
near Waterloo, famous today in lore.

Napoleon’s army had far less men
than the stubborn coalition array,
who repeatedly withstood French attacks,
’till finally winning the battle when
a strong counterattack ended the fray.
The allies had won to the very max,
and Napoleon’s throne crumbled like clay,
while French domination melted like wax.

Among the bloodiest battles in time,
the famed Battle of Waterloo rewrote
the balance of European power.
Napoleon, aged 46, in relative prime,
was exiled to one more island remote,
remaining until 1821 and his last hour.
Today “Waterloo” is often a quote
for any defeat especially sour.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG,
Pennsylvania, 1863

The American Civil War laid claim
to well over 620,000 lives, Americans all,
the Battle of Gettysburg most deadly,
a fact questionably worthy of fame.
Results of the battle were nothing small,
some say they won the war decidedly.
Even today, others want a recall,
they say with tongue-in-cheek absurdity.

The Rebel’s General Robert E. Lee,
with an army outnumbering the Yanks,
led them across the Mason-Dixon line.
Learning of this, the Yank’s General Meade
rushed his army to encounter their ranks,
yet the battle occurred not by design.
A Southern brigade up to some high jinks
was hiking along, they couldn’t decline.

Plans to steal a supply of Union shoes
were interrupted by Yankee forces,
and musket shots readily filled the air.
Reinforcements came quickly with the news,
grass soon red from blood of men and horses,
the famous battle began then and there.
The Rebs won day one using all sources,
forcing the Yanks to retreat on a tear.

On the second day, July 2, 1863, neither side
actually gained any advantage,
but that evening Lee reveled in new might.
General George Pickett came to provide
some 15,000 rested men to inflict Yanks damage,
and the two laid plans until late that night.
Day 3, the Rebels began with a barrage
of artillery, but all erred in flight.

It was time for the famous “Pickett’s Charge”.
Pickett led his men in a line more than
a mile long. Fully exposed, in the heat
of July, they struggled on without urge,
toward the North’s ridge encampment per plan.
Only one-third reached the ridge top to meet
the Yanks, and only to fight hand to hand.
The rest dead or dying, some in retreat.

Though regarded as one of the greatest
generals in the annals of warfare,
Lee’s decision for Pickett to proceed
with his long “charge” is one of the biggest
blunders in war history anywhere.
It cost the South any chance to succeed,
losing the battle and war in despair.
In 1870, Lee died peacefully at home, Godspeed.

BATTLE of BRITAIN, England, 1940

In summer of 1940, after the fall of France,
only Great Britain stood in Hitler’s way.
With ground forces stymied by the English
Channel, Germany took another stance,
launching a massive air attack by day
on England, where life became quite hellish.
Germany soon switched the bombings away
from day to night with more deaths to relish.

Beginning on September 7, 1940, the German
Luftwaffe rained bombs on London for 57 nights,
using an average of 200 bombers each time,
killing some 43,000, exact count undetermined.
But the Royal Air Force rose to great heights,
and shot down 1,887 Luftwaffe with courage sublime.
The first battle fought with only air fights,
in “Britain’s finest hour” RAF was prime.

The decisive British victory led
Germany to give up invasion plans,
and the failure of Nazi Germany
to destroy Britains air defense or shred
British morale and continued war plans
is considered Germany’s first loss by many.
The war raged on for 4 more long yearly spans,
British think this battle sweet as any.

CONCLUSION :

Battles have seen their share of turning points
over the course of human existence.
Battles won by the underdog that seemed
to have no look at winning, not a glint.
But sometimes resistance, or persistence,
or just luck has brought the victory dreamed.
A chance to win may need another chance,
a loss at anything might be redeemed.