Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Feb 2013
My cohort is shattered, the regiment reels,
from the lead of the merciless foe.
I'm wearing the blue, Fredericksburg,62'.
I''m a conscript from County Tyrone.
Saint Mary's Heights is a most fearful sight:
****** acres of men who won't fight again,
Our wounded are dying alone.
The devout say a prayer, others blaspheme and swear.
I just wish I was back in Tyrone.
Up on that hill wearing Butternut grey
are Irish like me from back home.
Sure they gave out a cheer when Meagher first appeared,
with our banner of green, on his Roan.
What mortal flesh can, we did in the end
Some died just in sight of the wall.
In the cold dark of night we survivors take flight;
Rappahannock, protect us I pray.
I'll never forget the screams of that night
or the butcher's bill we had to pay.
The union suffered 10,000 casualties in a ****** day of fighting at Fredericksburg,Va in1862   A series of frontal assaults were ordered against a hill defended by a well entrenched foe supported by artillery.  the likely results were obvious to all except Union General Burnside.
John F McCullagh
Written by
John F McCullagh  63/M/NY
(63/M/NY)   
Please log in to view and add comments on poems