Five Zouaves killed! — one thousand in all —
Five from a thousand? Then he may be one.
If in the havoc of bayonet and ball,
So many were killed, one may be my son.
And death, to the boy, all the glory he won.
Death! Yes — a life wasted — warm blood spilled in vain —
God! that a coward should lead on the brave
To the jaws of destruction, where balls fell like rain.
"They made the charge steady!", well, what was to save
The gallant Zouaves from defeat and the grave?
O! that is what hurts me. I know he was bold.
And in his last letter he spoke of the hope
Of saving his country - and cheerfully told
How he bore his privations - was anxious to cope —
With the enemy's force at the battery's slope —
That to die for one's country is glorious and good,
And he grudged not one drop of his blood that must flow —
And no more did I, if I knew that he stood
With a leader as brave, face to face with the foe —
But to follow a coward! O God! It hurts so.
"They had taken the battery," so read the dispatch —
One moment of victory, then to retreat
From the backs of the foe they were ready to catch —
O! fool of a leader — dishonored — to cheat
Those brave men by making their triumph defeat.
Well, what is a soldier? A tool, a machine —
To be marched — to be fought — to be killed —
When the hot cannon balls come crashing, between
The ranks of our sons, dealing death, is it not
A worse doom than defeat to stand still and be shot?
Another dispatch from Great Bethel — thank God —
He is safe. But what then? Those Zouaves fell,
And the footstep of sorrow on some hearts has trod.
If not mine. If our country to save they must spill
The blood of their sons, why not my son's as well?
Notes
In the spring of 1861, a scant month after Southern forces had fired on Fort Sumter to open the War Between the States, General Benjamin F. Butler was sent to reinforce the garrison at Fort Monroe, Virginia. As part of his effort to hold the area for the Union, Butler ordered General E.W. Pierce to attack a Confederate outpost at Big Bethel Church, eight miles north of Hampton. Pierce made his first move in the early morning hours of June 10, sending the 5th New York (also known as Duryea's Zouaves) to occupy a critical bridge on the road between Hampton and Big Bethel.
Pierce's attack was poorly planned and even more poorly executed. Confusion reigned, as six Federal regiments in two columns approached a crossroads from different directions and fired into each other by mistake (two were killed and 21 wounded). Confederate forces (including the 1st North Carolina under Colonel D.H. Hill, Stonewall Jackson's brother-in-law) carried the day and thus laid claim to victory in the first major land battle of the War.
This poem appeared in The Poughkeepsie Telegram on July 30, 1861, accompanied by the following text: "The writer of the following lines has a son in Duryea's Regiment of Zouaves. He was in the action at Great Bethel - the disastrous termination of which engagement seems to be universally laid to the imbecility if not cowardice, of Brig. Gen. Pierce."
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