shining.
Stars of strange and faint illuming,
Reads the national magician;
Stripes of gory hue adorning,
All the mammoth constellation;
Stripes extending down the shadow
Of the shifting, warning picture.
What broad stream pursues its flowing,
Through the fateful, dark camera?
What bedews the starry emblem,
With the startling shade of crimson?
'Tis, alas! the fearful shadow,
Of contention and of vengeance;
'Tis the strife of human passion,
In the hapless land of freedom;
'Tis the clash of angry foemen,
Steel to steel in fierce encounter;
'Tis the symbol of a struggle,
In the brave, aspiring nation.
Not the tramp of foreign armies,
On the soil we bought with bloodshed,
Not the aid to captive strangers,
In the distant, unknown countries;
But the war at home and fireside,
The assault of friend and brother,
The array of kith and kindred,
In one grand, domestic quarrel.
And the soldiers went in legions,
Went in tens and tens of thousands,
Swarmed upon the fields of battle,
Crowded tent and camp and barrack.
And the city of Lancaster,
Ever foremost in her duty,
Gave her mite of men and warriors
To the ranks and to the hardships,
Gave her fighting men to suffer
In the civil war that deluged
All this mighty West Republic
In eighteen hundred one and sixty.

First we note the conquering armies,
With their brave, victorious leaders,
Who enlisted in the service,
From the county of old Garrard.
General Landram was promoted,
In the rising scale of glory,
From the easier gradations,
To the topmost roll of honor.
Born within the hillside city,
Architect of his own fortunes,
Native industry and talent
Led him up to high position.
Poet, pensman, and musician,
Writer, editor, and lawyer,
Social leader and controller
Of the city's hours of leisure,
He put by these modest duties,
To adorn the post of soldier;
He ascended as commander,
In the conquering Union armies.
His command--"Nineteenth Kentucky,"
Of the Infantry--the footmen,
Was the charge at first entrusted,
Numbered eighty men from Garrard
Of the officers and privates,
Company H. begins the roll-call.
Morgan Evans, first a Captain,
Was promoted soon to "Major,"
And was killed when bravely fighting,
Fell before the Vicksburg trenches,
Fell in May (the twenty-second)
Eighteen hundred three and sixty;
And his bod