Malvern Hill
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.
The Battle of Malvern Hill was the last in the series of battles known collectively as "The Seven Days," a part of the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, which pitted George McClellan's Army of the Potomac against the Army of Northern Virginia and Robert E. Lee, its newly appointed commander. The aim of this campaign, the most ambitious ever mounted during the War Between the States, was nothing less than the capture of the Confederate capital city of Richmond.Fought on July 1 near the banks of the James River, within site of the spires of Richmond, this battle saw Confederate infantrymen attempt to take Union artillery emplacements, which held an almost unassailable position atop Malvern Hill. Although Federal troops were successful in beating back the Confederate charge, McClellan ordered a "change of base" (better known as a "retreat") immediately following the battle, and Richmond remained in Confederate hands until 1865.
