, and that the Monitor and Merrimac, which had waged so gallant
and so terrible a battle, were the first ships of the new era, and that
as such their names would be forever famous.

THE FLAG-BEARER

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are
stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never beat retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
--Julia Ward Howe.

In no war since the close of the great Napoleonic struggles has the
fighting been so obstinate and bloody as in the Civil War. Much has
been said in song and story of the resolute courage of the Guards
at Inkerman, of the charge of the Light Brigade, and of the terrible
fighting and loss of the German armies at Mars La Tour and Gravelotte.
The praise bestowed, upon the British and Germans for their valor, and
for the loss that proved their valor, was well deserved; but there were
over one hundred and twenty regiments, Union and Confederate, each of
which, in some one battle of the Civil War, suffered a greater loss than
any English regiment at Inkerman or at any other battle in the Crimea,
a greater loss than was suffered by any German regiment at Gravelotte or
at any other battle of the Franco-Prussian war. No European regiment in
any recent struggle has suffered such losses as at Gettysburg befell the
1st Minnesota, when 82 per cent. of the officers and men were killed and
wounded; or the 141st Pennsylvania, which lost 76 per cent.; or the 26th
North Carolina, which lost 72 per cent.; such as at the second battle
of Manassas befell the 101st New York, which lost 74 per cent., and
the 21st Georgia, which lost 76 per cent. At Cold Harbor the 25th
Massachusetts lost 70 per cent., and the 10th Tennessee at Chickamauga
68 per cent.; while at Shiloh the 9th Illinois lost 63 per cent., and
the 6th Mississippi 70 per cent.; and at Antietam the 1st Texas lost
82 percent.