My Heroes
A Civil War Poem honoring the Grand Army of the Republic
By Miss Ethal Gammon
I’ve been reading today of some heroes true
Of Sherman and Grant and Sheridan too,
And their fame is ringing throughout the land,
And we’re bringing flowers with loving hand
And fair gleaming monuments point to the sky,
To show all the world where these heroes lie.
I’ve been thinking today of some heroes, too,
Who wore for their country the Union blue.
Their uniforms have no shoulder straps,
No trimmings of gay gold lace;
But they marched to the front when their country called
And met Death face to face.
At Chancellorsville and Antietam, too,
In the thickest of strife,
These heroes stood ready for the flag
To lay down their very life.
In Libby Prison and in Andersonville,
That awful rebel hell,
These heroes met a far worse death
Than that sent by shot and shell.
No monument marks their resting place,
Out there in the Southern sod.
In unknown graves, their bodies lie,
But their souls are with our God.
And some of the heroes are with us yet,
Bearing many a wound and scar;
Heroes that we too oft forget,
The men of the G.A.R.
Yes, Sheridan won at Cedar Creek,
And Sherman marched to the sea,
And General Grant won the victory
Over haughty General lee.
But what would Grant and Sherman
And the other generals have done
If it hadn’t been for the private —
The man behind the gun?
On battlefield, in prison pen,
Their lives they freely gave.
Can we honor them too much,
Who died this land to save?
Do you think that we have paid them,
For those four long years of strife,
When on this Country’s alter,
They laid their all, their life?
That man who says the soldier
Has been paid for what he’s done
Is one of the biggest cowards
That walks beneath the sun.
Paid! Why we couldn’t pay them
If we gave without a stint,
Of all the gold and silver,
That’s coined in our country’s mint.
But we can keep Memorial Day
In reverence and in love,
Til the last dear gray-haired veteran
Has been mustered-in, above.
And then we’ll keep their mem’ry still,
While over them doth wave,
The dear old Stars and Stripes for which
They gave their lives — their all — to save.
Ah yes, our generals were heroes,
Let us tell it near and far;
But my heroes, my dear friends,
Are the privates — the boys of the G.A.R.
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