And many a brave, stout fellow,
Whose limbs with strength were rife,
Was torn and crushed and shattered,—
A hopeless wreck for life.
But yet the boats moved onward;
Through fire and lead they drove,
With the dark, still mass within them,
And the floating stars above.
So loud and near it sounded,
I started at the shout,
As the keels ground on the gravel,
And the eager men burst out.
Cheer after cheer we sent them,
As only armies can,—
Cheers for old Massachusetts,
Cheers for young Michigan!
They formed in line of battle;
Not a man was out of place.
Then with levelled steel they hurled them
Straight in the rebels' face.
"Oh, help me, help me, comrade!
For tears my eyelids drown,
As I see their smoking banners
Stream up the smoking town.
"And see the noisy workmen
O'er the lengthening bridges run,
And the troops that swarm to cross them
When the rapid work be done.
"For the old heat, or a new one,
Flames up in every vein;
And with fever or with passion
I am faint as death again.
"If this is death, I care not!
Hear me, men, from rear to van!—
One more cheer for Massachusetts,
And one more for Michigan!"
George Henry Boker.