- description
- # The Battle for the Mississipppi.
## Overview
This is a segment of the poetry collection [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9), extracted from the file [battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt](arke:01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8). It consists of lines 1253-1367 of the source text. The segment contains two poems, "The Battle for the Mississipppi" and "Malvern Hill," both related to Civil War battles. It was manually extracted as part of structure extraction.
## Context
This segment is part of a larger collection, [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). It appears in sequence after the poem "[Shiloh.\nA Requiem.](arke:01KG8AJM22K2YD5FYJ75WYJHP8)" and before "[The Victor of Antietam.](arke:01KG8AJM22738NTDE8TVA26N9B)".
## Contents
The segment contains two poems:
1. "The Battle for the Mississipppi" - This poem commemorates the Union naval victory at the Battle of New Orleans in April 1862. It describes the naval battle, highlighting the actions of the ships Varuna and Manassas, and the subsequent occupation of the city by Farragut. The poem concludes with a reflection on the cost of victory and the need for prayer and remembrance.
2. "Malvern Hill" - This poem reflects on the Battle of Malvern Hill (July 1862) during the Peninsula Campaign. It recalls McClellan's troops at bay and the heavy losses suffered. The poem uses the imagery of the elms on Malvern Hill to represent memory and the cyclical nature of life, even amidst the carnage of war.
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.930Z
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- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- The Battle for the Mississipppi.
- end_line
- 1367
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:35.910Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1253
- text
- The Battle for the Mississipppi.
(April, 1862.)
When Israel camped by Migdol hoar,
Down at her feet her shawm she threw,
But Moses sung and timbrels rung
For Pharaoh’s standed crew.
So God appears in apt events--
The Lord is a man of war!
So the strong wind to the muse is given
In victory’s roar.
Deep be the ode that hymns the fleet--
The fight by night--the fray
Which bore our Flag against the powerful stream,
And led it up to day.
Dully through din of larger strife
Shall bay that warring gun;
But none the less to us who live
It peals--an echoing one.
The shock of ships, the jar of walls,
The rush through thick and thin--
The flaring fire-rafts, glare and gloom--
Eddies, and shells that spin--
The boom-chain burst, the hulks dislodged,
The jam of gun-boats driven,
Or fired, or sunk--made up a war
Like Michael’s waged with leven.
The manned Varuna stemmed and quelled
The odds which hard beset;
The oaken flag-ship, half ablaze,
Passed on and thundered yet;
While foundering, gloomed in grimy flame,
The Ram Manassas--hark the yell!--
Plunged, and was gone; in joy or fright,
The River gave a startled swell.
They fought through lurid dark till dawn;
The war-smoke rolled away
With clouds of night, and showed the fleet
In scarred yet firm array,
Above the forts, above the drift
Of wrecks which strife had made;
And Farragut sailed up to the town
And anchored--sheathed the blade.
The moody broadsides, brooding deep,
Hold the lewd mob at bay,
While o’er the armed decks’ solemn aisles
The meek church-pennons play;
By shotted guns the sailors stand,
With foreheads bound or bare;
The captains and the conquering crews
Humble their pride in prayer.
They pray; and after victory, prayer
Is meet for men who mourn their slain;
The living shall unmoor and sail,
But Death’s dark anchor secret deeps detain.
Yet glory slants her shaft of rays
Far through the undisturbed abyss;
There must be other, nobler worlds for them
Who nobly yield their lives in this.
Malvern Hill.
(July, 1862.)
Ye elms that wave on Malvern Hill
In prime of morn and May,
Recall ye how McClellan’s men
Here stood at bay?
While deep within yon forest dim
Our rigid comrades lay--
Some with the cartridge in their mouth,
Others with fixed arms lifted South--
Invoking so
The cypress glades? Ah wilds of woe!
The spires of Richmond, late beheld
Through rifts in musket-haze,
Were closed from view in clouds of dust
On leaf-walled ways,
Where streamed our wagons in caravan;
And the Seven Nights and Days
Of march and fast, retreat and fight,
Pinched our grimed faces to ghastly plight--
Does the elm wood
Recall the haggard beards of blood?
The battle-smoked flag, with stars eclipsed,
We followed (it never fell!)--
In silence husbanded our strength--
Received their yell;
Till on this slope we patient turned
With cannon ordered well;
Reverse we proved was not defeat;
But ah, the sod what thousands meet!--
Does Malvern Wood
Bethink itself, and muse and brood?
_We elms of Malvern Hill
Remember every thing;
But sap the twig will fill:
Wag the world how it will,
Leaves must be green in Spring._
- title
- The Battle for the Mississipppi.