Dec 2011
How can I write the story
of a battle fought and won,
when lying close beside me
Is the body of my son?
He was ordered to this field,
a place where his unit bled.
Wounded, left to die,
when even surgeons fled.
The sole object of my interest
Is this, my oldest son.
Does it matter Lee was beaten?
That the Union forces won?
All around me is death’s harvest.
for him, a fruitful one.
I will send you home to mother
and be cursed for what I’ve done.
The photographers are roaming
Through the fields of blood and gore
Taking pictures of the fallen.
They are bringing home the war.
of a battle fought and won,
when lying close beside me
Is the body of my son?
He was ordered to this field,
a place where his unit bled.
Wounded, left to die,
when even surgeons fled.
The sole object of my interest
Is this, my oldest son.
Does it matter Lee was beaten?
That the Union forces won?
All around me is death’s harvest.
for him, a fruitful one.
I will send you home to mother
and be cursed for what I’ve done.
The photographers are roaming
Through the fields of blood and gore
Taking pictures of the fallen.
They are bringing home the war.
(This is the true story of George Wilkenson, a correspondent for the New York Times and his son, Lt. Bayard Wilkenson, late of the army of the Potomac. It is based in part on the article he wrote for the New York Times on 7/4/1863. This day saw Lee defeated and retreating from Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg. It was the decisive turning point of the Civil War)
