Soldiers of the light

The tramp and the rumble of Longstreet’s Corps;

The bands were blaring “The Bonny Blue Flag,”

And the banners borne were a motley many;

And watching the gray column wind and drag

Was a slip of a girl—we’ll call her Jenny.

A slip of a girl—what needs her name?—

With her cheeks aflame and her lips aquiver,

As she leaned and looked with a loyal shame

At the steady flow of the steely river:

Till a storm grew black in the hazel eyes

Time had not tamed, nor a lover sighed for;

And she ran and she girded her, apron-wise,

With the flag she loved and her brothers died for.

Out of the doorway they saw her start

(Pickett’s Virginians were marching through),

The hot little foolish hero-heart

Armored with stars and the sacred blue.

Clutching the folds of red and white

Stood she and bearded those ranks of theirs,

Shouting shrilly with all her might,

“Come and take it, the man that dares!”

Pickett’s Virginians were passing through...FROM THE BOOKS.