Poetry Archives

[The soldier was Louis Mitchell, of Co. 1, 1st Minn. Vols.,
killed in a skirmish, near Ball’s Bluff, October 22, 1861.]


“We’ve had a brush,” the Captain said,
 “And Rebel blood we’ve spilled;
We came off victors with the loss
  Of only a private killed.”
“Ah,” said the orderly—”it was hot,”—
  Then he breathed a heavy breath—
“Poor fellow!—he was badly shot,
  Then bayoneted to death.”

And now was hushed the martial din;
  The saucy foe had fled;
They brought the private’s body in;
  I went to see the dead;
For I could not think our Rebel foes—
  So valiant in the van—
So boastful of their chivalry—
  Could kill a wounded man.

A musket ball had pierced his thigh—
  A frightful, crushing wound—
And then with savage bayonets
  They pinned him to the ground.
One deadly thrust drove through the heart,
  Another through the head;
Three times they stabbed his pulseless breast
  When he lay cold and dead.

His hair was matted with his gore,
  His hands were clinched with might,
As if he still his musket bore
  So firmly in the fight.
He had grasped the foemen’s bayonets
  Their murderous thrusts to fend:
They raised the coat-cape from his face,
  And lo—it was my friend!

Think what a shudder chilled my heart!
  ’Twas but the day before
We laughed together merrily,
  As we talked of days of yore.
“How happy we shall be,” he said,
  “When the war is o’er, and when
With victory’s song and victory’s tread
  We all march home again.”

Ah little he dreamed—that soldier brave
  So near his journey’s goal—
How soon a heavenly messenger
  Would claim his Christian soul.
But he fell like a hero—fighting,
  And hearts with grief are filled;
And honor is his,—tho’ the Captain says
  “Only a private killed.”

I knew him well,—he was my friend;
  He loved our land and laws,
And he fell a blessed martyr
  To our Country’s holy cause;
And I know a cottage in the West
  Where eyes with tears are filled
As they read the careless telegram—
  “Only a private killed.”

Comrades, bury him under the oak,
  Wrapped in his army-blue;
He is done with the battle’s din and smoke,
  With drill and the proud review.
And the time will come ere long, perchance,
  When our blood will thus be spilled,
And what care we if the Captain say—
  “Only a private killed.”

For the glorious Old Flag beckons.
  We have pledged her heart and hand,
And we’ll brave even death to rescue
  Our dear old Fatherland.
We ask not praise—nor honors,
  Then—as each grave is filled—
What care we if the Captain say—
  “Only a private killed.”