  Dedicated to Col. R. W. Brown, of the Louisville Times. The rage and the chaos of battle, The carnage and anguish are o’er, The wrath and the rout of Manassas, The death-knell of Gettysburg’s roar; And softly, round Nashville and Richmond, Descends, like Christ’s mercy, the dew Where sleep, till the angel of Judgment Shall wake them, the Gray and the Blue. From the gray of the balm-breathing morning The mists of the night flee away Till the sun, in his orient splendor, Paints the vault with the clear blue of day; As those colors in Heaven commingle, O, hearts that are faithful and true! Blend now in affection together By your love of the Gray and the Blue. Earth wondered when fought the gray legions Round Johnston and Cleburne and Lee, When the Blue followed Grant, Meade, and Thomas And Sherman marched down to the sea; And Stuart’s and Sheridan’s horsemen In scorn smote the war-dragon’s mouth, A stone wall of granite the Northland, A stone wall of marble the South. Strew roses, the sweetest of Summer, For brave and magnanimous Lee, For Lincoln, the merciful victor, For the slain on the land and the sea, And the States in communion forever Like eagles their strength shall renew, And the Star of our Union shine brighter In the concord of Gray and of Blue. Not vainly you perished, O brothers! For the land of your deathless devotion, The torch-bearing maid of Bartholdi Is kindling with splendor the ocean. One flag over Northland and Southland, Shall rally the faithful and true, While ocean rolls gray in the morning, Or mirrors the stars in its blue. |
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