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Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894) Sherman's in Savannah!

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01218 Author/Creator: Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph manuscript signed Date: 5 January 1865 Pagination: 2 p. ; 17.7 x 11.3 cm. Order a Copy

Four stanza poem glorifying General William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea." Was originally three stanzas and then the date and the word "Postscript" was crossed out and a fourth stanza added. Makes a correction in pencil in the second line of the fourth stanza. First stanza: Like the tribes of Israel / Fed on quails and Manna / Sherman and his glorious band / Journeyed through the rebel land, / Fed from Heaven's all bountious hand, / Marching on Savannah!

Oliver Wendell Holmes the elder was a Boston-based physician by profession but achieved fame as a writer; he was one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th century. His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., became a famous Supreme Court Justice.

Sherman's in Savannah!

"Like the tribes of Israel
Fed on quails and manna
Sherman and his glorious band
Journeyed through the rebel land,
Fed from Heaven's all-bounteous hand,
Marching on Savannah!

As the moving pillar shone
Streamed the starry banner,
All the day in rosy light
Flaming glory all the night
Till it swooped in eagle flight
down on doomed Savannah!"

Glory be to God on high!
Shout the loud Hosanna!
Treason's wilderness is past,
Canaan's shore is won at last,
Peal a Nation's trumpet blast,
Sherman's in Savannah!

[struck: Jan 5th 1865
Postscript]
Soon shall Richmond's tough old hide
Feel our tough old tanner!
[written above Feel our tough: Find a tough]
Soon from every rebel wall
Shall the rag of treason fall
Till our banner flaps oe'r all
As it crowns Savannah!

Jan. 5th
1865 Oliver Wendell Holmes

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