Here's a country that's half free,
And it waits for you and me
To say what its fate shall be;
Put it through!
While one traitor thought remains,
While one spot its banner stains,
One link of all its chains,—
Put it through!
Hear our brothers in the field,
Steel your swords as theirs are steeled,
Learn to wield the arms they wield,—
Put it through!
Lock the shop and lock the store,
And chalk this upon the door,—
"We've enlisted for the war!"
Put it through!
For the birthrights yet unsold,
For the history yet untold,
For the future yet unrolled,
Put it through!
Lest our children point with shame
On the fathers' dastard fame,
Who gave up a nation's name,
Put it through!
Edward Everett Hale.
Grant was made lieutenant-general, and prepared to advance on Richmond, while the task of taking Atlanta was intrusted to Sherman. Sherman began his advance without delay, and was before Atlanta by the middle of July, 1864. On the 20th the Confederates made a desperate sally, but were driven back.
A VETERAN'S STORY
[July 20, 1864]
You know that day at Peach Tree Creek,
When the Rebs with their circling, scorching wall
Of smoke-hid cannon and sweep of flame
Drove in our flanks, back! back! and all
Our toil seemed lost in the storm of shell—
That desperate day McPherson fell!
Our regiment stood in a little glade
Set round with half-grown red oak trees—
An awful place to stand, in full fair sight,
While the minie bullets hummed like bees,
And comrades dropped on either side—
That fearful day McPherson died!