I came accross a book called AMERICAN WAR SONGS ("privately printed" in Philadelphia in 1925 by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America). It's an interesting book (193 pages) that songs are organized as follows: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, and World War.


I, for some reason, am particularly drawn to this song, and I'd like to learn it and sing it, but I don't have a tune. Does this look familiar to anyone??



TWILIGHT ON SUMTER
(Richard Henry Stoddard)

Still and dark along the sea
Sumter lay;
A light was overhead,
As from burning cities shed,
And the clouds were battle-red,
Far away.
Not a solitary gun
Left to tell the fort had one
Or lost the day!
Nothing but the tattered rag
Of the drooping rebel flag,
And the sea birds screaming round it in their play.

How it woke one April morn,
Fame shall tell;
As from Moultrie, close at hand,
and the batteries on the land,
Round its faint but fearless band
Shot and shell
Raining hid the doubtful light;
But they fought the hopeless fight
Long and well
(Theirs was the glory, ours the shame!)
Till the walls were wrapped in flame,
Then their flag was proudly struck, and Sumter fell!

Now––oh, look at Sumter now,
In the gloom!
Mark its scarred and shattered walls,
(Hark! The ruined rampart falls!)
There's a justice that appalls
In its doom;
For this blasted spot of earth
Where rebellion had its birth
Is its tomb!
And when Sumter sinks at last
From the heavens, that shrink aghast,
Hell shall rise in grim derision and make room!