"Will not these days be by thy poets sung": Poems of the Anglo-African and National Anti-Slavery Standard, 1863–1864
Edited by Elizabeth Lorang and R. J. Weir![]() |
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THE SECOND LOUISIANA.[1]
MAY 27TH, 1863.
Dark as the clouds of even,
Ranked in the western heaven,
Waiting the breath that lifts
All the dread mass, and drifts
Tempest and falling brand
Over a ruined land;—
So still and orderly,
Arm to arm, knee to knee,
Waiting the great event,
Stands the black regiment.
Down the long dusky line
Teeth gleam and eyeballs shine;
And the bright bayonet,
Bristling and firmly set,
Flashed with a purpose grand,
Long ere the sharp command
Of the fierce rolling drum
Told them their time had come,
Told them what work was sent
For the black regiment.
"Now," the flag-sergeant cried,
"Though death and hell betide,
Let the whole nation see
If we are fit to be
Free in this land; or bound
Down, like the whining hound—
Bound with red stripes of pain
In our old chains again!"
Oh! what a shout there went
From the black regiment!
"Charge!" Trump and drum awoke;
Onward the bondmen broke;
Bayonet and saber-stroke
Vainly opposed their rush.
Through the wild battle's crush,
With but one thought aflush,
Driving their lords like chaff,
In the guns' mouths they laugh;
Or at the slippery brands
Leaping with open hands,
Down they tear man and horse,
Down in their awful course;
Trampling with bloody heel
Over the crashing steel,
All their eyes forward bent,
Rushed the black regiment.
"Freedom!" their battle-cry—
"Freedom! or leave to die!"[2]
Ah! and they meant the word,
Not as with us 'tis heard,
Not a mere party-shout:
They gave their spirits out;
Trusted the end to God,
And on the gory sod
Rolled in triumphant blood.
Glad to strike one free blow,
Whether for weal or woe;
Glad to breathe one free breath,
Though on the lips of death.
Praying—alas! in vain!—
That they might fall again,
So they could once more see
That burst to liberty!
This was what "freedom" lent
To the black regiment.
Hundreds on hundreds fell;
But they are resting well;
Scourges and shackles strong
Never shall do them wrong.
O, to the living few,
Soldiers, be just and true!
Hail them as comrades tried;
Fight with them side by side;
Never, in field or tent,
Scorn the black regiment!
Notes
- The First and Third Regiments of Louisiana Native Guards bravely attacked Port Hudson on May 27, 1863. Some newspaper correspondents mistakenly reported that it was the Second Regiment which had taken part in the assault. In the summer of 1863 Boker's poem circulated in the antislavery press under the title "The Second Louisiana" (see also "The Second Louisiana" in the Christian Recorder, June 13, 1863, and "The Second Louisiana" in the Anglo-African, June 27, 1863). Boker probably wrote the poem in response to early reports, then changed the title to "The Black Regiment" when the mistake became apparent."Col. Daniel's Second Louisiana negro regiment distinguished itself . . . especially in charging upon the enemy's siege guns, losing killed and wounded over 600," reported the Boston Daily Evening Transcript of June 6, 1863 (quoted by James G. Hollandsworth, The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience during the Civil War [Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995], 63). "Nobly done, Second Regiment of Louisiana," proclaimed the Liberator a fortnight later. General Nathaniel Banks's official report praised the First and Third Regiments. The Anglo-African of June 13, 1863, brushed aside reporters' confusion as to which Louisiana regiments had taken part in the battle: "It is immaterial which statement is true, so long as the great fact remains; that no such fighting has been seen since the war began.""The Second Louisiana" had appeared in the National Anti-Slavery Standard of June 20,1863, and it is likely that the Anglo-African reprinted the poem from the Standard. The texts of the Standard and Anglo-African printings are virtually identical; in line 47, the Anglo-African's "battle-cry" appears as "battle cry" in the Standard, and the Anglo-African text offers colons in place of two semicolons in the Standard text (see lines 25 and 57).
- Here—and at several other points in the poem—Boker all but quotes Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
(1854). These deliberate references situate the Louisiana soldiers as an African American "Light Brigade" of equal and indisputable
bravery. Boker's contemporaries drew the same parallel: a "special" for the Boston Journal reported that "We never saw a more literal rendering of Tennyson's famous 'Charge of the Light Brigade' [than] on the upper
works of Port Hudson" (reprinted in the Anglo-African, June 27, 1863).
- Philadelphian George Henry Boker (1823–1890) gave up the law for a literary life in the 1840s. He wrote several plays, but
success on the stage proved elusive; nevertheless, his household included several servants by 1860 (census records list his
occupation as "Gent"). When the war broke out, Boker turned from drama to patriotic verse. He also cofounded Philadelphia's
Union League in the winter of 1862; in addition to serving as the league's secretary, he used public poetry to promote Unionist
sentiment in and beyond the city. His tribute to the "The Second Louisiana" was probably part of this larger mission. The
poem was a hit in abolitionist circles. Oliver Wendell Holmes went into ecstasies: "I thank God, dear Mr Boker, that he has
disposed you to consecrate your fine gifts to the cause of freedom and humanity" (quoted in Edward Sculley Bradley, George Boker: Poet and Patriot [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1927], 211).