Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/85

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Leaves of Grass.
77

Large, turbulent, generous, brave, handsome, proud,
and affectionate,
Bearded, sunburnt, dressed in the free costume of
hunters,
Not a single one over thirty years of age.

226.The second First Day morning they were brought out
in squads and massacred—it was beautiful early
summer,
The work commenced about five o'clock, and was over
by eight.

227.None obeyed the command to kneel,
Some made a mad and helpless rush—some stood
stark and straight,
A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart—the
living and dead lay together,
The maimed and mangled dug in the dirt—the
newcomers saw them there,
Some, half-killed, attempted to crawl away,
These were despatched with bayonets, or battered with
the blunts of muskets,
A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till
two more came to release him,
The three were all torn, and covered with the boy's
blood.

228.At eleven o'clock began the burning of the bodies:
That is the tale of the murder of the four hundred
and twelve young men.

229.Did you read in the sea-books of the old-fashioned
frigate-fight?

7 *