3. Rosecrans.
'Twas something to be a chieftain whenThe Chaldee hero fought,
For 'twas the battle-step of progress then,
When manhood's work was wrought.
And at the Pass, and Salamis, still higher
Waved the glorious crest,
When hero-warriors burned with patriot fire,
And won a country's rest.
And something 'twas, when Hamilcar's great son
Was hero under oath--
But in that contest 'twas not Rome that won,
For manhood conquered both.
And when across the Medial gulf we look
For radiant fields of glory,
The Cross and the imperial kingdoms took
The honors of the story.
But still the march of progress onward beat
Toward the glorious goal,
Where despot hosts and Freedom's legions meet
To try the world's control.
Then Liberty's flag was given to the strife,
Where nature's self is grand,
With rivers, lakes, with mountains and with life,
And billions, too, of land.
Triumphant, then, the banner of the free,
Over that curse and blight--
As chieftain then, thrice glorious was he
Who battled for the right.
[3] But, as testing the new birth, lurked there within
Full of a masked deceit--
False to all truth, in league with every sin--
A most villainous cheat.
Insolent and proud, he drew the red blade,
To turn aback the world
On the track of the ages of progress she'd made,
With the old banner furled.
“Then round the old flag let's rally again” --
Rang through the whole land,
“Though billions were lost and millions were. slain,
The great cause it shall stand.”
A continent and more — there's freedom to lose--
The present requires it--
The great Future demands and freemen must choose
As the ages invoke it.
Lo! thousands sprang forth from valley and plain,
And our Rosecrans was there--
The chief in the strife, and now we proclaim
His deeds also are there.
Hail! then, the great chief whose victories tell
What the hero has done--
Let's march to his step, and all rebels compel
To acknowledge that one,
From E Pluribus Unum proclaimed long ago,
Is the sole rendering patriots care know.
