They are but shades who once were men.
We shall not see their like again.
Stonewall Jackson, Grant and Lee,
Men of courage, Men of faith,
honorable men from an honorable age.
In the chapel at Fort Hamilton
They met and prayed.
Let no man mute their story.
Perhaps they prayed
That their cup would pass
And that the Union would endure.
Their cup, brimming full with blood.
Would not pass,
Until every drop shed by slave was matched
By blood a soldier shed
But the Union would endure.
Let no man deny their glory.
Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg
"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."
Abraham Lincoln (2nd Inaugural)… “Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
May 31, 2017
May 31, 2017 at 9:44 PM UTC
They are but shades who once were men.
We shall not see their like again.
Stonewall Jackson, Grant and Lee,
Men of courage, Men of faith,
honorable men from an honorable age.
In the chapel at Fort Hamilton
They met and prayed.
Let no man mute their story.
Perhaps they prayed
That their cup would pass
And that the Union would endure.
Their cup, brimming full with blood.
Would not pass,
Until every drop shed by slave was matched
By blood a soldier shed
But the Union would endure.
Let no man deny their glory.
Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg
"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."
Abraham Lincoln (2nd Inaugural)… “Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
The title is part of a quote from the novelist L.P. Hartley. The chapel mentioned in stanza #1 is the famous chapel of the Generals at Fort Hamilton Brooklyn
The second stanza is inspired by a line from Lincoln's 2nd innaugural
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