1861, The First Battle

Dixie and The Battle Hymn of the Republic
reverberate as evanescent soldiers,
a cadre awakened by moonlight
walk along fallow fields that once saw battle.

In a place called Bull Run,
a conflagration of summer,
wool uniforms, pride and politics
ignited the first sparks of hell.

Inexperience ruled the day, so too retreat.
After a sluggish start war began in earnest.
Henry Hill echoed with rebel yells,
bayonets charged, a battleground was born.
Stonewall was christened.

Manassas becomes forever etched
in the memory of a nation.
A day when picnickers fled.
and casualties climbed.

The wounds of war were real
and blood was not blue or gray but red.

Fresh graves Death's calling card.
5,000 died that July 21, 1861.

(first published in The Dead Mule School of Southern Poetry)