Lit only by the sudden, thundering flame,
As Union gunboats fired across the hill ...
All night they carried wounded back to town,—
By barge and boat,—and some they put to knife
In that small shack, near where the steps go down,
With screaming I’ll remember all my life!
Their General Grant just couldn’t stand the sound
The wounded made! He sat out by a tree
Under a little tent and nearly drowned
In rain; sitting as close as you to me!