Lyr. Add: BURIAL OF THE TOUGH BEEF IN GALVESTON
(attrib. to Col. A. M. Hobby, CSA)

The Sabbath sun shown bright and fair,
The earth rejoiced in gladness:
But soon, ah, soon! the balmy air
Was pierced with sounds of sadness.

The measured tread of feet was heard:
Then came the mourning column;
And hearts of all were deeply stirred
At sounds and sights so solemn.

The dead came first, a mangled mass,
A poor old cow's fore shoulders;
(Who died, they said, for want of grass,)
It frightened all beholders.

Some rushed away in wildest fright,
And all agreed in saying
They ne'er had seen just such a sight!
And some fell down to praying.

The muffled drum its mournful tale
Breathed o'er this beefy Mummucks:
But sadder, deeper, came the wail
From soldiers empty stomachs.

Then next came on, with arms reversed,
The troops; all thoughtful, slow and sad-
No money in their hungry purse,
No dinner to be had.

Their manly tears fell at their feet;
(The dead was not a sinner,)
But tears will flow o'er bread alone; no MEAT
For supper, breakfast- dinner.

They buried the dead with sober brow,
And thought of tomorrow's fast-
Thus rests the ancient gentleman cow,
(His fatless ribs) at last.

"Died, in the Butcher's Pen, at Galveston, on Saturday night, march 5, 1864, an ancient Gentleman Cow, in the 129th year of his age. Disease. Poverty. His remains were issued to the troops and buried by Col. Hobby's Regiment, in the Public Square, with military honors." Printed as an introduction to the poem.

Allan, the editor, comments: "The above verses celebrate the burial of some beef issued to Hobby's Regiment for rations- unfit for food. The soldiers buried it with humorous pomp on the Public Square, and Col. A. M. Hobby, who wrote some of the finest poems of the South during the war, is charged with having extemporized these lines."

Allan, Francis D., 1874, "A Collection of Southern Partiotic Songs Made During Confederate Times," pp. 169-170. Burt Franklin New York. Reprinted 1970, Lenox Hill; Burt Franklin: Research & Source Works Series 578. American Classics in History and Social Science 153.

This ranks with other great funerals, such as that of Miss Flora, in Dodge City, 1880s.