The Charge At Gettysburg
For the Lord On the whirlwind is abroad; In the earthquake he has spoken; He has smitten with his thunder The iron walls asunder, And the gates of brass are broken! --Whittier

With bray of the trumpet, And roll of the drum, And keen ring of bugle The cavalry come: Sharp clank the steel scabbards, The bridle-chains ring, And foam from red nostrils The wild chargers fling!

Tramp, tramp o'er the greensward That quivers below, Scarce held by the curb bit The fierce horses go! And the grim-visaged colonel, With ear-rending shout, Peals forth to the squadrons The order, "Trot Out"! --Francis A. Durivage.


THE CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG

The battle of Chancellorsville marked the zenith of Confederate good fortune. Immediately afterward, in June, 1863, Lee led the victorious army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. The South was now the invader, not the invaded, and its heart beat proudly with hopes of success; but these hopes went down in bloody wreck on July 4, when word was sent to the world that the high valor of Virginia had failed at last on the field of Gettysburg, and that in the far West Vicksburg had been taken by the army of the "silent soldier."