July Twentieth
The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
The soldier’s last tattoo;
No more on life’s parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.
Theodore O’Hara
[It is remarkable that the memorial inscriptions of Federal cemeteries are taken from stanzas written by a “rebel” soldier-poet. Grand Army Posts have also made use of “anonymous” lines by Major Wm. M. Pegram, C. S. A., (quoted May 26th), when decorating Confederate graves. Both uses are unconscious but eloquent tributes to the genius of Southern expression.—Editor]
Burial in Frankfort of Kentuckians killed in the Mexican War, 1847
July Twenty-First
We thought they slept!—the sons who kept
The names of noble sires,
And slumbered while the darkness crept
Around their vigil fires!
But, aye, the “Golden Horseshoe” knights
Their Old Dominion keep,
Whose foes have found enchanted ground,
But not a knight asleep.
Francis O. Ticknor
First Battle of Manassas, 1861
July Twenty-Second