Your medalled soldiers love you well,
McClellan!
Name your name, their true hearts swell;
With you they shook dread Stonewall's spell,
With you they braved the blended yell
Of rebel and maligner fell;
With you in fame or shame they dwell,
McClellan!
Antietam-braves a brave can tell.
And when your comrades (now so few,
McClellan,—
Such ravage in deep files they rue)
Meet round the board, and sadly view
The empty places; tribute due
They render to the dead—and you!
Absent and silent o'er the blue;
The one-armed lift the wine to you,
McClellan,
And great Antietam's cheers renew.
Herman Melville.
On October 1, 1862, President Lincoln issued to McClellan a peremptory order to pursue Lee. Twenty days were spent in correspondence before that order was obeyed. McClellan had exhausted the patience even of the President. On November 5 he was relieved from command, and General A. E. Burnside appointed to replace him. The latter paused to get the army in hand and then moved down the Rappahannock toward Fredericksburg, where Lee was strongly intrenched. On December 11 the Union army managed to cross the Potomac in the face of a heavy fire.
THE CROSSING AT FREDERICKSBURG
[December 11, 1862]
I lay in my tent at mid-day,
Too full of pain to die,
When I heard the voice of Burnside,
And an answering shout reply.
I heard the voice of the General,—
'Twas firm, though low and sad;
But the roar that followed his question
Laughed out till the hills were glad.
"O comrade, open the curtain,
And see where our men are bound,
For my heart is still in my bosom
At that terrible, mirthful sound.
"And hark what the General orders,
For I could not catch his words;
But what means that hurry and movement,
That clash of muskets and swords?"