Christ, bring us all to the Homeland
Of His eternal love.’
“Into the midst of the song came the engine on the little narrow track straight toward where he stood, and he had to step aside on to a pile of dirt to finish his song. The same captain went on ahead to the Homeland not long after when the epidemic of influenza swept over the world; and he was given the honor of a military funeral.”
Edward Marshall had an article in Scribner’s Magazine in 1898 which is here abbreviated, about the unique conditions under which the boys sang
“America” After the Battle
“There is one incident of the day which shines out in my memory above all others now as I lie in a New York hospital writing. It occurred at the field hospital. About a dozen of us were lying there. The surgeons, with hands and bared arms dripping, and clothes literally saturated with blood, were straining every nerve to prepare the wounded for the journey down to Siboney. It was a doleful group. Amputation and death stared its members in their gloomy faces. Suddenly a voice started softly,
‘My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.’
“Other voices took it up: