....but it is a Line of Dead Men.

The Stonewall, Fredericksburg--
"Owen reached the Stratton House and looked for Hancock's line. "To my amazement," he reported, "the two lines which I was told to support I found to be almost totally annihilated." The Philadelphia Brigade recognized "some scattered companies and parts of regiments." Most soldiers however, recalled "one long line of battle, lying down two deep, but it is a line of dead men."

Twas in that hour his stern command
Called to a martyr's grave
The flower of his beloved land,
The nation's flag to save.
By rivers of their father's gore
His first-born laurels grew,
And well he deemed the sons would pour
Their lives for glory too.