- description
- # Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.
## Overview
"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War." is a poetry collection by Herman Melville, published in 1866. This collection is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) and was extracted from the digital file [battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt](arke:01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8). The poems within this volume primarily reflect on the American Civil War, with many pieces originating from the impulse imparted by the fall of Richmond.
## Context
The collection was composed without a pre-determined collective arrangement but was later organized into the sequence presented. The preface notes that the poems were inspired by various events and incidents of the conflict, covering a wide geographical area. Melville describes his creative process as placing "a harp in a window, and noted the contrasted airs which wayward wilds have played upon the strings," indicating a reflective and varied approach to the war's themes. The work is dedicated to the "THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND who in the war for the maintenance of the Union fell devotedly under the flag of their fathers."
## Contents
The collection includes an [Introduction](arke:01KG8AJJNPQZQ5GQ16Q6834ZGQ), [Dedication](arke:01KG8AJJNPKVVM25AG36TBSHR3), and [Preface](arke:01KG8AJJNKP7P5DWBXVEGZF4A3), followed by numerous poems that chronicle various battles, figures, and aspects of the Civil War. Key poems include:
* "The Portent." (1859)
* "Misgivings." (1860)
* "The Conflict of Convictions." (1860-1)
* "Apathy and Enthusiasm." (1860-1)
* "The March into Virginia, Ending in the First Manassas." (July, 1861)
* "Lyon. Battle of Springfield, Missouri." (August, 1861)
* "Ball’s Bluff. A Reverie." (October, 1861)
* "Dupont’s Round Fight." (November, 1861)
* "The Stone Fleet. An Old Sailor’s Lament." (December, 1861)
* "The Old Stone Fleet."
* "Donelson." (February, 1862), which includes segments like [LATER FROM THE FORT.](arke:01KG8AJKCSSBJ0JZFF9XYBQFAQ), [FURTHER.](arke:01KG8AJKCQXPFPDA279EN2YZQE), [FRIDAY’S GREAT EVENT!](arke:01KG8AJKCSFPGGGE7T8FNE7E1S), [LATER.](arke:01KG8AJKCSKR8RQG2XRNFGPW6Y), [STORY OF SATURDAY AFTERNOON.](arke:01KG8AJKCS6DZ3QG2VTR1KT6ST), [VICISSITUDES OF THE WAR.](arke:01KG8AJKCS0NT3J9543CTQ39AH), [3 P.M.](arke:01KG8AJM1NNNK11CMVQBKK3KWR), and [LATER AND LAST.](arke:01KG8AJM22JYY7HNG0Z6P2E8VJ).
* "The Cumberland." (March, 1862)
* "In the Turret." (March, 1862)
* "The Temeraire." (March, 1862)
* "A Utilitarian View of the Monitors Fight."
* "Malvern Hill." (July, 1862)
* "Shiloh. A Requiem." (April, 1862)
* "The Battle for the Mississipppi." (April, 1862)
* "The Victor of Antietam." (1862)
* "Battle of Stone River, Tennessee. A View from Oxford Cloisters." (January, 1863)
* "Running the Batteries, As observed from the Anchorage above Vicksburgh." (April, 1863)
* "Stonewall Jackson." (May, 1863)
* "Gettysburg. The Check." (July, 1863)
* "The House-top. A Night Piece." (July, 1863)
* "Look-out Mountain. The Night Fight." (November, 1863)
* "Chattanooga." (November, 1863)
* "The Armies of the Wilderness."
* "On the Photograph of a Corps Commander."
* "The Swamp Angel."
* "The Battle for the Bay."
* "Sheridan at Cedar Creek." (October, 1864)
* "In the Prison Pen." (1864)
* "The College Colonel."
* "The Eagle of the Blue."
* "A Dirge for McPherson, Killed in front of Atlanta." (July, 1864)
* "At the Cannon’s Mouth." (October, 1864)
* "The March to the Sea." (December, 1864)
* "The Frenzy in the Wake. Sherman’s advance through the Carolinas." (February, 1865)
* "A Canticle: Significant of the national exaltation of enthusiasm at the close of the War."
* "The Fall of Richmond." (April, 1865)
* "The Surrender at Appomattox." (April, 1865)
* "The Martyr."
* "“The Coming Storm:”"
* "A Grave near Petersburg, Virginia."
* "“Formerly a Slave.”"
* "The Apparition."
* "Magnanimity Baffled."
* "On the Slain Collegians."
* "Rebel Color-bearers at Shiloh:"
* "America."
* "The Muster:"
* "Aurora-Borealis. Commemorative of the Dissolution of Armies at the Peace." (May, 1865)
* "Verses Inscriptive and Memorial"
* "The Released Rebel Prisoner." (June, 1865)
* "Inscription for Graves at Pea Ridge, Arkansas."
* "The Fortitude of the North under the Disaster of the Second Manassas."
* "On the Men of Maine killed in the Victory of Baton Rouge, Louisiana."
* "An Epitaph."
* "Inscription for Marye’s Heights, Fredericksburg."
* "The Mound by the Lake."
* "On the Slain at Chickamauga."
* "An uninscribed Monument on one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness."
* "On Sherman’s Men who fell in the Assault of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia."
* "On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia."
* "A Requiem for Soldiers lost in Ocean Transports."
* "On a natural Monument in a field of Georgia."
* "Commemorative of a Naval Victory."
* "Presentation to the Authorities, by Privates, of Colors captured in Battles ending in the Surrender of Lee."
* "The Returned Volunteer to his Rifle."
* "The Scout toward Aldie."
* "The Surgeon"
* "Devil take Mosby!"
* "Lee in the Capitol."
* "A Meditation: Attributed to a northerner after attending the last of two funerals from the same homestead--those of a national and a confederate officer (brothers), his kinsmen, who had died from the effects of wounds received in the closing battles."
The collection concludes with [Footnotes](arke:01KG8AJS1YZ9QWGH80MPQQXFZK), a [Supplement](arke:01KG8AJS27A3Z2HZQRVBN5D6GZ), and an [Author's Note](arke:01KG8AJS22SQ9XB07EMSJ5NFC7).
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