How the “Lost Cause” sheds a gloaming

On the erst illumed horizon!

All about the stricken region

Hangs the doom of vanquished power;

All throughout the conquered country

Sounds the knell of fruitless bloodshed.

Mothers mourn their slaughtered first-born,

Wives lament their martyred husbands,

Sisters guard the worn grey jackets,

Maidens prize the blood-stained tresses.