[Note: The following is one chapter of a larger work, entitled “1863”
an epic poem of the ‘Turn of Events’ at that time from the two major events that year: Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Several sources have been used and acknowledged.]
~
Eighteen Sixty-three
came with a bang,
but went, with a whimper, at last.
The turning point
for Robert E. Lee,
and a nation
with a very short past.
Liberty rang, in January,
semper libertas – Free!
as from that moment,
Emancipation!
end to all slavery,
by Executive Decree;
two years Later,
the thirteenth Amendment.
Lee’s star had now clomb
to the high apogee –
the zenith in heaven, alone.
Undefeated, was he,
up to the year;
but nearer the fear,
if Truth to be clear,
each battle, a Pyrrhic Victory.
Few such much more
victories at war
spelt an end to the cause
was in store.
The prolonged conflict,
defensively,
will end in the verdict
for his enemy –
fruitless endeavors
such victories.
One only recourse:
to take the aggression,
and move his whole force
on the offensive mission.
Take the war forth
to the enemy’s court –
Move North!
on a northern invasion.
Meanwhile, in Richmond,
concerns were at test:
Trouble was brewing
for the Confederate West.
Grant was the trouble
in the wars fought out west.
for Grant now incurred
some sudden success.
And now upon Vicksburg
whose fall could forecast
the severance and quick-end
the Gibraltar of the West.
Twice came the warnings,
twice from two men,
each had been forming
each one’s separate plan.
But Johnston just stood back,
from each of the plans,
to the point where correction
was all out of hand.
Where Johnston’s reaction,
“Just send me more men.”
and awaited the outcome
right down to the end.
“A strike to the North,”
Longstreet proposed.
“Ohio, of course,
would make him fallback,
abandon the source
of his current attack
on Vicksburg, the South,
and all that out West.”
Such was the action,
which Longstreet thought best.
And Seddon, he listened,
and liked what he heard
of Longstreet’s envision
to salvage Vicksburg.
And the plans for invasion
of North and the rest
in hopes to save
the Gibraltar of the West.
And such were the notions
behind the commotions
in Richmond, where Lee
he was there summoned.
To consider which options
of actions among them,
in mid-May, a conference,
in Richmond.
To all of the actions
Lee disagreed.
“To save the Mississippi
is too little, too late.
Two options only,
are left to partake:
to send reinforcements
out West, then fallback and take
defensive entrenchments
for Richmond’s own sake.
For then, we shall loose
one of the either:
the Trans Mississippi,
or all of Virginia.”
“But there is the other
choice to consider:
a strike to the heartland
of our enemy thither.
Washington has its internal foment
with those who support
the Northern Peace Movement.
And should we thus move
near to their government,
it just might behoove
to favor a settlement.”
Votes were then taken
on the northern invasion,
with a five to one favor
in General Lee’s mission.
The one vote “against”
was that of John Reagan,
who saw the real threat
out West and in Grant.
Lee, the first soldier
of the Confederacy;
Lee, the first soldier
in world history.
Unbeaten, the hero’s aura held fast –
Be done! what he says,
in Lee we shall trust.
God speed! General Lee.
And the die was thus cast.
~
©2013, Marvin Loyd Welborn
20July2013
Poem’s Score: 2.1
