[In his admirably edited collection of poems of the civil war, entitled
“Bugle Echoes,” Mr. Francis F. Browne introduces this poem with the
following note:
“There has been no little dispute as to the authorship
of this poem. The _Philadelphia Press_, in 1861, said it
was ‘written by a private in Company G, Stuart’s engineer
regiment, at Camp Lesley, near Washington.’ But it may now
be stated positively that it was written by a Confederate
soldier, still living. The poem is usually printed in a
very imperfect form, with the fourth, fifth, and sixth
stanzas omitted. The third line of the fifth stanza affords
internal evidence of Southern origin.”--EDITOR.]
[Illustration]