WAR EXPERIENCES TOLD IN VERSE 221' 



to give up his command, which he did, again going into the 

 field when Morgan raided Ohio in the summer of '63. Of this 

 anticipated event he writes : " To-day there is a neat prospect 

 of a little episode of the Kirby Smith order; can't tell what 

 it portends, but unless all signs fail, my wife will be sewing 

 brass buttons on my coats and looking up my epaulettes. I 

 am in poor condition to do soldier's duty, but cannot set 

 private claims against the call to defend home and fireside. 

 Why the deuce don't the rascals keep t'other side of Cumber- 

 land?" 



Many of his personal experiences while in this campaign are 

 recorded in the volume of poems entitled, " From Old Fields." 

 "The Eager Muster," "East Tennesseans," "The Georgians," 

 "Madame B.'s Review," "The General's Yarn," "The Smug- 

 glers," are altogether reminiscent. In "A Midnight Venture" 

 he himself was the "lank youth," "with Fate's load on his 

 shoulders," who stood as captain. 



Type of lads 



In the hard wrestle of the Civil War, 

 Who 'fore their beards were grown and gristle set 

 Were burthened with the cares to weigh down men 

 Who 've grizzled in the trade. 



In the poem called "The Burial Place" it is he who, while in 

 the family burying-ground looking for the fairest place for one 

 more grave (his mother's), 



Where she shall bide 

 Who long hath striven faithfully to serve 

 God's will on earth, 



notices on the face of his grandfather's monument a deep 

 moss-grown scar made by heavy wheels, and tells the lad beside 

 him, forty years after the event, the tale of how it came about 

 when "swiftly and clear" rang the commands of "a master 

 of hard deeds " : 



But first of all to me, 

 To go upon the run upon this crest 



