A special *Thanks* to Mike S., for this information and for the Poem.

This poem can be found at ALL National Cemeteries.
It may be on a pillar, a stone wall, a special placard, but it will be there ,somewhere.
 

The Bivouac of the Dead

The muffled drums sad roll shall beat
The soldier's last tatoo,
No more on life' parade shall meet
the brave and fallen few.

The neighboring troop, the flashing blade,
The bugles stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout are past.

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead,
Dear as the blood ye gave.
No impious footstep here shall tread
The herbage of your grave.

On fame's eternal camping ground.
Their silent tents are spread.
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.

No visions of the morrow's strife
The warrior's dream alarms.
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.

No rumor of the foes advance
Now sweeps upon the wind,
No troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind.

Your own proud land's heroic soil
Must be your fitter grave;
She claims from war his richest spoil,
The ashes of the brave.

           ~ Theodore O'Hara

"They Ride"

Background & Graphics by: AnnieReb
Photo by AnnieReb 
 
           
Thanks Mike!

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