POEMS OF JAMES RYDER RANDALL
But presently the Wizard’s brow
Grew calm. “I’ll try you, anyhow,”
He said, and from that setting sun
Morton and Forrest were as one.
Nigh four tremendous, bloody years,
Full of combat, smiles, and tears;
O’er miles of land in battles grand,
Forrest and Morton went hand in hand.
With sword and pistol the Wizard slew,
While Morton’s guns mowed men in blue.
If mortal man could ever have freed
The South from the foeman’s grasp and greed,
That man was Forrest, but we see
It was not destined so to be.
II.
Long years have gone, the grass is spread
Above the bivouacs of the dead.
The mighty Wizard’s wand is still
Like his heart; but from every Southern hill,
And mount and stream and vale bedight,
With sun and moon and star alight,
He lives in glorious deeds, alway,
Baffling the onset of decay.
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