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 STEPHEN B. WEEKS 
 
 CLASS OF 1886; PHD. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF TTME 
 
 HE WEEKS OQHIECTfflDN 
 
 OF 
 
 970/15:-? 13 
 
SUISSE 
 
 CO 
 
 LLECFO 
 
 FOBT FISHER. 
 
FORT FISHER. 
 
 Foet Fisher -was stoemed on Jantjaey 15th, 1865, at 3J p. m. At 
 
 10 at night, the foet, gaeeison of 2200 men and the 
 
 mateeial of "wae weee sueeendeeed to major 
 
 Gen. Teeey, commanding the United States 
 
 FOECES. 
 
 FEINTED FOE THE AUTHOE, 
 18 6 5. 
 
KSOWLES ANTHONY & CO., PRINTERS. 
 
FOKT FISHEK. 
 
 
 A PEACEFUL nation roused to deeds of arms 
 Has proved its love of Liberty and Home. 
 From northern cities and from western farms, 
 At country's call, the people cried, " We come !" 
 
 The unlettered man whose simple wisdom swayed 
 The public mind, and bore us through the storm, 
 Has left a name which never more shall fade 
 Whilst human hearts to manly worth are warm. 
 
 Poets and orators combined, 
 
 Have praised his wisdom and declared his worth : 
 The nation wept as we at length consigned 
 His mouldering body to the arms of earth. 
 
 But of the crowning victory of the strife 
 Which closed the gate to stealthy foreign aid, 
 The brightest triumph that adorned his life, 
 No lasting record has as yet been made. 
 
FORT FISHER. 
 
 Yet here alone did fleet and army join 
 
 In noble emulation to subdue 
 
 Traitors, who hoped a country to purloin, 
 
 And make our boasted Freedom prove untrue. 
 
 Who would not linger fondly o'er a page 
 Of history, which himself has helped to make ! 
 Who would not wish that each succeeding age 
 Should learn his sufferings for his country's sake ! 
 
 Then, though my muse may lack the genuine fire 
 Which Heaven bestows on some more gifted son, 
 Bear with me, comrades, whilst I tune my lyre 
 And tell how Fisher's fort was nobly won. 
 
 'T was in midwinter that we left 
 The dear delights of home, 
 And as the raging waves we cleft, 
 Those mountains of white foam 
 Tossed us like feathers in the air, 
 And parting left a chasm bare 
 Where thousand monsters lay in wait, 
 To treat us all to Jonah's fate. 
 
 Prone lay the warriors whom in fight 
 No danger could appall, 
 Helpless as babes whilst all in sight 
 Was that great watery wall. 
 
 But when the third night passed away, 
 The smiling sun broke forth ; 
 
 r. 
 
FORT FISHER. 
 
 And anchoring in the tranquil bay, 
 The army of the North 
 Beheld the wished for land. 
 
 There the defiant fortress stood, 
 And stretching miles ahead, 
 Were sandy fields and stunted wood, 
 Waiting the coming dead. 
 
 Could that lone earth-work be the fort 
 
 Which kept a fleet at bay, 
 
 And treated like a thing of naught 
 
 Each monitor that lay 
 
 Shielded with iron, from her gunners 
 
 Who shoot with deadly aim, 
 
 Shielding herself the blockade-runners 
 
 That nightly went and came. 
 
 Not such the forts of which I read 
 In school-books when a boy ; 
 Not such the walls which Homer said 
 Protected ancient Troy. 
 
 But since the time of Ilium's fall, 
 And after Errard's day, 
 Came Vauban to break down the wall, 
 Inventing ricochet. 
 
 Next Todtleben reared banks of earth 
 And wooden palisades, 
 To conquer which our land gave birth 
 To Mac, the king of spades. 
 
FORT FISHER. 
 
 A hundred boats now seek the beach, 
 By skillful oarsmen plied ; 
 Full fifty soldiers stowed in each, 
 Leap in the surging tide. 
 
 Unharmed the General gained the shore, 
 And Captain Lockwood, too ; 
 But me the rough waves tumbled o'er 
 And wet me through and through. 
 
 Thus Neptune warned me of the fate 
 Which I must undergo, 
 For timely warnings always wait 
 On those foredoomed to woe. 
 
 That night, whilst sitting in our tent, 
 Watching the flickering flames, 
 I saw a stranger omen sent 
 By Fate to General Ames : 
 
 A soldier, who at break of day 
 Was wandering near the fort, 
 Met with a tame deer, in the way, 
 Determined to be caught. 
 
 With eye that almost seemed to speak 
 This heaven inspired fawn 
 Pointed to where the fort was weak, 
 Then instantlv was gone. 
 
 But bounding through the devious way, 
 It sought the General's tent, 
 
FORT FISHER. 
 
 And at his feet exhausted lay, 
 Its strength and courage spent. 
 
 The mules are flung into the waves 
 
 And quickly swim to shore, 
 
 Where crowds of liberated slaves 
 
 Grin at the cabin door, 
 
 And of the lash no more in dread, 
 
 Drag forth mattress and feather bed 
 
 And all the treasures most esteemed 
 
 Of their late planter lords, 
 
 To bivouac the " Northern hordes." 
 
 Concealed within the tranquil sky, 
 
 The muse of history comes, 
 
 To mark out those pre-doomed to die 
 
 And decorate their tombs : 
 
 Comes, too, in less etherial dress, 
 
 The penman of her daughter, 
 
 Known as the Associate Press, 
 
 Omnipotent reporter ! 
 
 No badge of office he requires, 
 
 No stars, nor bars, nor silvery leaf; 
 
 But flashing lightning o'er the wires, 
 
 He stamps a hero or a thief. 
 
 He knows that millions of fond eyes 
 
 A few hours hence will read 
 The record his own pen supplies 
 
 Of every gallant deed. 
 Yet as you see him smoking there, 
 
 Or moving tranquilly along, 
 
; FORT FISHER. 
 
 You'd hardly think that he was heir 
 To Scio's gifted child of song. 
 
 "lis the day when our blessed Redeemer arose ! 
 
 'Tis the day when all christians assemble in prayer ! 
 
 Up, sons of the North, drive the treacherous foes 
 Like sheep from their vaunted, impregnable lair ! 
 
 The better the day makes the better the deed ; 
 Ere sundown our flag must wave over that fort : 
 
 The souls of the heroes in battle who bleed 
 
 Go straightway to heaven, our preachers have taught. 
 There is luck in odd numbers, we often are told, 
 And three was the number selected of old, 
 When the S. P. Q. R.* of Rome was unfurled, 
 And the armies of Rome once conquered the world. 
 Three generals assembled, hold council to-day, 
 To decide if the fort we can take, and the way. 
 Terry, Comstock and Ames, this trinity form, 
 Whilst Butler is proving the fort we can't storm. 
 Says Terry : " My whole reputation I'll stake 
 That that fort by assault I can certainly take." 
 Says Comstock : " I think the fact is most clear, 
 And so Grant informed me when he sent me here." 
 Then Adelbert answered : " I only can say, 
 I perish, or conquer the rebels to-day." 
 
 Now Curtis has marshaled his gallant brigade ; 
 
 A hundred sharpshooters advance before these ; 
 Pennybackers's and Bell's next in order arrayed, 
 
 And two thousand sailors commanded by Breese, 
 
 * Senatus populusque Eomanus, 
 
FORT FISH Eli. 
 
 Amidst whom, in vaior inferior to none, 
 Was Bartlett, Rhode Island's invincible son. 
 
 See ! Lamb, like warrior clad in mail, 
 Now thunders forth his iron hail ; 
 And as our force approaches nigher, 
 He pours his enfilading fire 
 Upon their unprotected flanks, 
 And decimates the staggering ranks. 
 
 The tars, unused to tented field, 
 Reluctant, seem about to yield : 
 But whilst within bomb-proof secure 
 
 The Southern soldiers lie, 
 From rifled cannon, swift and sure, 
 
 The hissing bullets fly. 
 The strongest guns, dismounted now, 
 
 Cannot, in time, be set : 
 'Tis certain death to show one's brow 
 
 Above the parapet. 
 Protected by the deathful shield, 
 
 Boldly our troops advance ; 
 And, when the final gun has pealed, 
 
 The leader's practiced glance 
 Sees that the gunners only halt 
 To give us signal for assault. 
 
 Now, manly courage claims the right 
 To cope with deeds performed of yore 
 
 Now brave as any christian knight 
 Europe or Palestine e'er saw, — 
 
10 FORT FISHER. 
 
 Heedless of bullet, sword or flames, 
 Stood forth our leader, General Ames. 
 
 Two hundred yards in front we see 
 
 The minie rifles gleaming ; 
 He draws his sword, cries " Follow me," 
 
 And none of flight is dreaming. 
 We rush into the palisade ; 
 
 The traverse soon we clear, 
 From whence the Stars and Stripes displayed, 
 
 Call forth a rousing cheer. 
 
 Nine other traverses remain, 
 
 Where, fighting hand to hand, 
 We leave amongst the slain 
 
 One-third of our command. 
 
 Then General Curtis lost his eye ; 
 
 Then Bell was swept away ; 
 And Pennybacker's wounded thigh 
 
 Caused him to leave the fray. 
 
 The Hundred and Seventeenth New York, 
 
 Of her seventeen officers, true, 
 Sees strewn along that bloody walk 
 
 The whole excepting two. 
 
 From traverse to traverse, over the dead, 
 
 Our general quickly advances, 
 Whilst harmlessly round and above his head, 
 
 The enemy's bullet glances. 
 
FORT FISHER. 11 
 
 Two of his aids, put hors du combat, 
 
 Lie stretched upon the ground ; 
 And Dawson, who faithfully followed his star, 
 
 Received here his fatal wound. 
 
 But the fort which they said could never be taken, 
 
 At ten o'clock was ours ; 
 And the Southern cause at once forsaken 
 
 By the treacherous foreign powers. 
 
 No more shall our country employ 
 
 Its powers for self-immolation ; 
 No more its own harbors destroy, 
 
 For Columbia again is a nation. 
 
 Enthroned beside Washington, now 
 
 Shall Lincoln, for ages to come, 
 Wear the patriot's wreath on his brow, 
 
 And smile on the land of his home ! 
 
; ■ . • .. 
 
 Vv 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032744406 
 
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 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION