Last Order of War (April 9, 1865, Civl War Poem, with Commentary)

Last Order of War
(April 9, 1865, Civil War)



It was early spring, year of the war
Woke to my hearing of the river and small arms fire
And the cannon and the Gatling Gun
Deviled to find
The morning summons
With battle prayer and call of the bugle and horse
And the snap of a soldier’s salute, touch of his boots
Myself about to mount
The thud
In the nearby waking woods, and we set out.

My early day began with this battle—
Birds and the squirrels of the tall trees, mourned my name
Above the horse’s mane, a battle to be
And I rode into the deep
In chilly spring
And thought about the shower of all my days.
A low surge took my chest submerged in my own blood
Above the edge of death
Below the spectators
And the gates
Of this life closed, as the heavens opened.

A spring day full of birds in flight
Clouds and the riverside weeds and whistling crickets
Squirrels and the spring rains of April
Summery
In the war’s storeroom
Here is were we found death and soldiers singing
Their last battle hymns…!


No: 2660 (2-16-2010)

Commentary: On March 1865, a gentleman's agreement was struck to forgo fighting between Union and Confederate forces on the Rio Grande. In spite of this agreement, Col. Theodore H. Barrett, commanding forces at Brazos Santiago, Texas, dispatched 250 men of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lt. Col. David Branson, to the mainland, on May 11, 1865, to attack Rebel outposts and camps.