In Western battle long they lay
  So near opposed in trench or pit,
That foeman unto foeman called
  As men who screened in tavern sit: 
“You bravely fight” each to the other said—­
“Toss us a biscuit!” o’er the wall it sped.

And pale on those same slopes, a boy—­
  A stormer, bled in noon-day glare;
No aid the Blue-coats then could bring,
  He cried to them who nearest were,
And out there came ’mid howling shot and shell
A daring foe who him befriended well.

Mark the great Captains on both sides,
  The soldiers with the broad renown—­
They all were messmates on the Hudson’s marge,
  Beneath one roof they laid them down;
And free from hate in many an after pass,
Strove as in school-boy rivalry of the class.

A darker side there is; but doubt
  In Nature’s charity hovers there: 
If men for new agreement yearn,
  Then old upbraiding best forbear: 
“The South’s the sinner!” Well, so let it be;
But shall the North sin worse, and stand the Pharisee?

O, now that brave men yield the sword,
  Mine be the manful soldier-view;
By how much more they boldly warred,
  By so much more is mercy due: 
When Vickburg fell, and the moody files marched out,
Silent the victors stood, scorning to raise a shout.

Footnotes.

1.  The gloomy lull of the early part of the winter of 1860-1, seeming big with final disaster to our institutions, affected some minds that believed them to constitute one of the great hopes of mankind, much as the eclipse which came over the promise of the first French Revolution affected kindred natures, throwing them for the time into doubt and misgivings universal.

2.  “The terrible Stone Fleet on a mission as pitiless as the granite that freights it, sailed this morning from Port Royal, and before two days are past will have made Charleston an inland city.  The ships are all old whalers, and cost the government from $2500 to $5000 each.  Some of them were once famous ships.—­” (From Newspaper Correspondences of the day.)

Sixteen vessels were accordingly sunk on the bar at the river entrance. 
Their names were as follows: 

Amazon,
America,
American,
Archer,
Courier,
Fortune,
Herald,
Kensington,
Leonidas,
Maria Theresa,
Potomac,
Rebecca Simms,
L.C.  Richmond,
Robin Hood,
Tenedos,
William Lee.

All accounts seem to agree that the object proposed was not accomplished.  The channel is even said to have become ultimately benefited by the means employed to obstruct it.

3.  The Temeraire, that storied ship of the old English fleet, and the subject of the well-known painting by Turner, commends itself to the mind seeking for some one craft to stand for the poetic ideal of those great historic wooden warships, whose gradual displacement is lamented by none more than by regularly educated navy officers, and of all nations.