“But hark! the far bugles their warnings unite;
War is a virtue,—weakness a sin;
There’s a lurking and loping around us to-night;
Load again, rifleman, keep your hand in!”
[2] The above has been sometimes entitled “The Fancy Shot.” It appeared first in a London weekly and is commonly attributed to Charles Dawson Shanly, who died in the late seventies.
’ROUND SHILOH CHURCH
WITHIN Shiloh Church that fateful day of 1862, no sound of song or praise was heard. But all without the leaden missiles rang and sang in chorus of red death. Green blades of grass, dew-tipped, sprang up to greet the sun that April morn, but ere night fell were bowed to earth with weight of human blood. Ne’er before had little church looked out on such a scene. Ten thousand homes and hearts of North and South were there made desolate; and twice ten thousand men gave up their lives. The world looked on and wondered.
Albert Sidney Johnston, the hero of three wars, had staked his life and cause that April day, for victory or defeat.
He met—both.
It was recognized by both the Northern and Southern armies that Johnston was a formidable antagonist. That he was a man of most magnetic personality as well as a brave officer.
Where he led men followed.
The Black Hawk War made his name familiar throughout the country. In the War with Mexico he won distinction.