We’re Almost Home

a Poem of the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864
 

by Daniel Mallock (February 2018)


The Green Hill, Winslow Homer, 1878

 

Such a sight I never saw and can never expect to see again . . . You could have walked all over the field upon dead bodies without stepping upon the ground . . . It was a wonder that any man escaped alive . . . I never saw anything like that field, and never want to again.Confederate Corps Commander Major General Frank Cheatham in a post war interview.

                                                                                                                 

Cool Springs’ and Franklin’s office blocks

Are lit up at night, waiting

 

Beyond time, troops marched close

And came so close to home

 

Down Winstead Hillstraight lines,

Banners, bayonets, bitter hopes.

 

Rabbits rush ahead into blue

Lines steeled, awed, waiting.

 

Cool winter breeze moves flags,

All dream of home, love, life

 

Night shadows move across Franklin

So calm, grand, almost home;

 

Blue and gray in the night light fire

Turning hot and cold and red;

 

Cannon, sword, lurid shriek,

Guns with sharp shrill flames

 

Last, and first prayers to God to

Mother father somewhere close and

 

Away, far from Franklin’s red fields

Where hare are alive.

 

At the works they die in straight lines,

On the top Adams’ horse

 

Like a monument; at the base

Are the dead.

 

Behind the works children scream,

From their cellars see hell

 

Hear it, smell it, are shattered,

Wounded, haunted forever.

 

They lay for days on Franklin’s

Winter fields close to home;

 

They lie in straight lines in Franklin

Ground, the lost in trenches

 

In Cool Springs’ morning

Old wars and dead heroes;

 

At Franklin dawn is there

in dim light-almost home now

 

Wind moves the barren trees

Like flags on Franklin’s fields.



 

__________________________________

Daniel Mallock is a historian of the Founding generation and of the Civil War and is the author of Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and a World of Revolution. He is a Contributing Editor at New English Review.
 

More by Daniel Mallock.

 

Help support New English Review.

image_pdfimage_print

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution.
                              — Bruce Bawer

Order here or wherever books are sold.

The perfect gift for the history lover in your life. Order on Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon or Amazon UK or wherever books are sold


Order at Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold. 

Order at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Send this to a friend