Happy are they and charmed in life Who through long wars arrive
At peace.
To such the wreath be given,
If they unfalteringly have striven — In honor, as in limb, unmarred.
Let cheerful praise be rife, And let them live their years at ease,
Musing on brothers who victorious died — Loved mates whose memory shall ever please. And yet mischance is honorable too — Seeming defeat in conflict
Whose end to closing eyes is hid from view.
The will, that never can relent —The aim, survivor of the bafflement, Make this memorial due.
The Battle of Chickamauga was fought on September 19 through 21, 1863, just south of Chattanooga,
Tennessee.
The forces of Confederate General Braxton Bragg defeated Federal troops under General William Rosecrans in a ferocious battle that claimed a combined total of almost 35,000 lives.
As was so often the case, the victorious Confederates were unable to take advantage of their success and allowed the Federals to retire to Chattanooga unmolested.
Melville's poem is a tribute to those who gave their lives in a contest the outcome of which they were never to know.
