But what is that which greets mine eye?
Is it Columbia's sons I spy?
Hark! hark! I hear their battle cry—
Their shouts of victory!
Still hotter does the conflict grow;
While dealing death in every blow,
McCook charged on the routed foe
His daring little band.
Rest, patriots, rest; the conflict's o'er,
Your erring brethren punished sore;
Oh, would they'd fight their friends no more,
And cease this bloody strife.
Cornelius C. Cullen.
The Confederate loss was very heavy, and in one respect irreparable, for General Felix K. Zollicoffer was killed while reconnoitring the Union position.
ZOLLICOFFER
[January 19, 1862]
First in the fight, and first in the arms
Of the white-winged angels of glory,
With the heart of the South at the feet of God,
And his wounds to tell the story;
For the blood that flowed from his hero heart,
On the spot where he nobly perished,
Was drunk by the earth as a sacrament
In the holy cause he cherished!
In Heaven a home with the brave and blessed,
And for his soul's sustaining
The apocalyptic eyes of Christ—
And nothing on earth remaining,