Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Roll-Call
By Nathaniel Graham Shepherd (18351869)“C
“Here!” was the answer loud and clear,
From the lips of a soldier who stood near,—
And “Here!” was the word the next replied.
This time no answer followed the call;
Only his rear-man had seen him fall:
Killed or wounded—he could not tell.
These men of battle, with grave, dark looks,
As plain to be read as open books,
While slowly gathered the shades of night.
And down in the corn, where the poppies grew,
Were redder stains than the poppies knew;
And crimson-dyed was the river’s flood.
That day, in the face of a murderous fire
That swept them down in its terrible ire;
And their life-blood went to color the tide.
Two stalwart soldiers into the line,
Bearing between them this Herbert Cline,
Wounded and bleeding, to answer his name.
“Hiram Kerr!”—but no man replied.
They were brothers, these two; the sad wind sighed,
And a shudder crept through the corn-field near.
“Deane carried our regiment’s colors,” he said,
“When our ensign was shot; I left him dead
Just after the enemy wavered and broke.
I paused a moment and gave him to drink;
He murmured his mother’s name, I think,
And Death came with it and closed his eyes.”
For that company’s roll, when called at night,
Of a hundred men who went into the fight,
Numbered but twenty that answered “Here!”