VIRGINIA'S DEAD
by Cornelia J.M. Jordan

Proud mother of a race that reared
  The brave and good of ours,
Lo! on thy bleeding bosom lie
  Thy pale and perished flowers.
Where'er upon her own bright soil
  Hosts meet their blood to shed--
Where brightly gleams the victor's sword,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

And when upon the crimsoned field
  The cannon loudest roars,
And hero-blood for liberty
  A streaming torrent pours;
Where fiercest grows the battle's rage
  And Southern banners spread;
Where minions crouch and vassals kneel,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

Where bright Potomac's classic wave
  Rolls softly to the sea,
And Shenandoah's sweet valley smiles
  In her captivity;
Where Mississippi sullen rolls
  His foaming torrent bed,
And Tennessee's smooth ripples break,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

And where mid dreary mountain heights
  The Frost-king sternly sate,
As Garnett cheered his legion on
  And nobly met his fate;
Where Johnston, Lee and Beauregard,
  Their gallant armies led,
Through winter snows and tropic suns,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

And where through Georgia's flowery meads
  The proud Savannah flows,
As soft o'er Carolina's brow
  Atlantic's pure breeze blows;
Where Florida's sweet tropic flowers
  Their dewy fragrance shed,
And night-winds sigh through orange-groves,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

Where Louisiana's eagle eye
  Frowns darkly on her chains,
And proud New Orleans' noble streets
  The Despot's heel profanes--
Where Virtue shrinks in dread dismay
  And Beauty bows her head,
While Valor spurns th' oppressor's yoke.
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

'Neath Alabama's sunny skies.
  On Texas' burning shore,
Where blooming prairies brightly sweep
  Missouri's bosom o'er,
Where bold Kentucky's lion heart
  Leaps to her Morgan's tread,
And tyrants quail at Freedom's cry,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.

And where the Ocean's trackless waves
  O'er pallid corpses sweep,
As mid the cannon's deafening peal,
  Deep calleth unto deep;
Wherever Honor's sword is drawn
  And justice rears her head--
Where heroes fall and martyrs bleed,
  There sleep Virginia's dead.
  
August 13, 1862

Postwar Remembrances

This page is http://civilwarpoetry.org/confederate/postwar/va-dead.html
Last modified 18-April-2001