Up from the south at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain’s door,
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more—
And Sheridan twenty miles away!
And wilder still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon’s bar;
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold
As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
With Sheridan twenty miles away!
But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good broad highway leading down;
And there, through the flash of the morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight.
As if he knew the terrible need,
He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hills rose and fell, but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away!
Still sprang from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon’s mouth,
Or the trail of a comet sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away!
The first that the General saw was the groups
Of stragglers, and then—the retreating troops!
What was done—what to do—a glance told him both;
And, striking his spurs, with a terrible oath
He dashed down the line ’mid a storm of huzzahs,
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because
The sight of the Master compelled it to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was grey;
By the flash of his eye and his red nostril’s play
He seemed to the whole great army to say
“I have brought you Sheridan, all the way
From Winchester town to save the day!”
Hurrah, hurrah, for Sheridan!
Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man!
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky
—The American soldier’s Temple of Fame—
There, with the glorious General’s name,
Be it said in letters both bold and bright,
“Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,
From Winchester—twenty miles away!”