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[166]

Swear upon your country's altar
Never to submit or falter,
Till the spoilers are defeated,
Till the Lord's work is completed!
Halt not till our Federation
Secures among earth's powers its station!
Then at peace, and crowned with glory,
Hear your children tell the story!

If the loved ones weep in sadness,
Victory soon shall bring them gladness,— To arms!
Exultant pride soon vanish sorrow;
Smiles chase tears away to-morrow.
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
Advance the flag of Dixie!
Hurrah! hurrah!

For Dixie's land we take our stand,
And live or die for Dixie!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Dixie!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Dixie!

Albert Pike.

Sherman's March to the sea

The song that made Sherman's March famous, acording to the General, who remarked to George Cary Eggleston:
it was this poem, with its phrase “March to the sea,” that threw a glamor of romance over the movement which it celebrates. The movement was nothing more than a change of base, an operation perfectly familiar to every military man. But a poet got hold of it, gave it the captivating title, “the March to the sea,” and the unmilitary public made a romance out of it.

the author was regimental adjutant of the Fifth Iowa Infantry when he was captured in a charge at the battle of Missionary Ridge, November 24, 1863. he was confined successively in six Southern prisons, escaping three times and being each time recaptured. While imprisoned at Columbia, South Carolina, one chilly morning in a little wedge tent he wrote the song here reprinted. Meagre reports of Sherman's leaving Atlanta had come through a daily paper, which a kindly disposed negro stuffed into a loaf of bread furnished to a mess of the Union prisoners who were fortunate enough to have a little money to pay for it. Through


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