_“Look down upon the battlefield,
Oh Thou, Our Heavenly Friend,
Have mercy on our sinful souls.”
The soldiers cried, “Amen.”
There gathered ’round a little group,
Each brave man knelt and cried.
They listened to the drummer boy,
Who prayed before he died._
_“Oh, Mother,” said the dying boy,
“Look down from heaven on me.
Receive me to thy fond embrace,
Oh, take me home to thee.
I’ve loved my country as my God.
To serve them both I’ve tried!”
He smiled, shook hands—death seized the boy,
Who prayed before he died._
_Each soldier wept then like a child.
Stout hearts were they and brave.
They wrapped him in his country’s flag
And laid him in the grave.
They placed by him the Bible,
A rededicated guide
To those that mourn the drummer boy
Who prayed before he died._
_Ye angels ’round the throne of grace,
Look down upon the braves,
Who fought and died on Shiloh’s plain,
Now slumbering in their graves.
How many homes made desolate,
How many hearts have sighed.
How many like that drummer boy,
Who prayed before he died._
—Will S. Hays.
The years intervening between the Battle of Shiloh and the present have
softened the harshness of the engagement and wrapped it in a shroud of
sentimental romanticism. Most twentieth-century writers are content to
view the battle from that perspective. Occasionally a realist, such as
Shelby Foote in his historical novel, “Shiloh,” penetrates the rosy glow
and brings forth interesting and all-but-forgotten facts. Dr. Merrick F.
McCarthy, another twentieth-century writer, presents an accurate and
vivid picture of the battle in the following poem: