From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 18, 1865:
Saturday Morning…march 18, 1865.
The news.
As regards military matters, there is no news. All is quiet at Petersburg and in front of Richmond.
The enlistment of negroes in Richmond goes bravely on.
The Confederate Senate, on yesterday, concurred in the resolution of the House relative to an address to the country.
Observations in the North:Eight Months in Prison and on Parole. By Edward A. Pollard. Published by E. W. Ayres. This book, which has been looked for with interest, not only by the friends of the writer, who felt interested in his personal experience, but by the public at large, has been brought out in very good style by Mr. Ayres, the publisher. The work is entertaining, both in the personal narrative and general reflections of the writer, and will be, we think, largely sought after. The vicissitudes and uncertainty of a prison-life, in an enemy’s country, are graphically described. The book is for sale at all the bookstores.
The paper then reviwed a poem – Betchenbrook.A Rhyme of the War. By Mrs. Margaret J. Preston. One of the excerpts honored the relatively anonymous bravery of privates:
Then follow other scenes of the war, ending in another battle scene, nearer home, where a young soldier falls, whose dying thoughts are given in a song that will no doubt be set to suitable music, of which we give the two last verses:
“Only a private;–and yet I know,
When I heard the rallying call,
I was one of the very first to go,
And…I’m one of the many who fall:
But as here I lie, it is sweet to feel,
That my honor’s without a stain;–
That I only fought for my Country’s weal,
And never for glory or gain.
“Only a private;–Yet he who reads
Through the guises of the heart,
Looks not at the splendor of the deeds,
But the way we do our part;
And when He shall take us by the hand,
And our small service own,
There’ll a glorious band of privates stand,
And victors, around the throne!”
