Ohio History Journal


288 Ohio Arch

288        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

U. S. GRANT

ONE OF OUR BOYS

BY BERTYE Y. WILLIAMS

One of our boys! In the long ago

He trudged along through the winters' snow

To the old school-house that you see there still.

Oft' he went with grist to the White Oak mill

When the days of summer were long and fair,

Met the other boys, and went swimming there.

0, he knew these woods and hills and streams,

And 'twas here he dreamed his boyhood dreams,

One of our boys,

Just one of our boys!

One of our boys! When the crisis came,

And our land was scorched by the battle's flame,

When the small faith died, and the weak heart quailed,

And the cause of the Union almost failed,

There was one whose hand held the foe at bay;

One whose courage grim saved the losing day;

One who, loving peace, faltered not in war

Till our flag was saved with its every star.

One of our boys,

Just one of our boys!

- From the Georgetown Gazette.

AT GRANT'S TOMB AFTER THE CENTENARY

BY ADDA HIGGINS TATMAN

The pomp and pageantry are o'er,

The music and the shouting stilled;

The voice of orator no more

With eulogy and praise is filled.

No longer wave the stripes and stars,

The flowers, wreaths and bunting gay

From arches, masts and steamboat spars

Along the great triumphal way.

So quiet now each little town,

Each little corner of the earth

That claims a share in your renown,

Your homes, and humble place of birth.

Back to its desk, its plough, its mill

Has turned a busy world again;

But your brave spirit moves us still,

O rarest, truest, best of men.

Not all the praise, the blame, the power,

That came to you in your sad day,

Could swerve you even for an hour

From the firm purpose of your way.

O hero! though no lesson new

Is blazoned in your modest story

To conscience and to country true,

You found the way to fame and glory.

-From the Georgetown News Democrat.