Published for the purpose of founding a BUILDING FUND for the who may be left unprovided for. Organ- ized May, 1861. Chartered by Act of Legislature, April, 1862. m And Christ said "Whosoever shall give unto NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE EDITOR. 13 PARK Row. 1863. fe ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1863, By J. HENRY HAYWARD, IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. T. R. DAWLEY, ELECTROTYPER AND PRINTER 13 PARK ROW, N. Y. 246107 Editor's Preface. In presenting this collection of Poems to the American Public it is not the intention of the Editor to claim for them the highest literary excellence, or offer them as the finished productions of the highest standard of poetical ability of the country, as a glance at the signatures affixed to each will at once show; for although we have selected as much as possible from our best writers, we have not confined ourself exclusively to that class, from the fact, that had we done so, our field would have been very limited, our collection very incomplete, and many productions of decided merit, would, in consequence, have been excluded; therefore, we do not offer them as the Ne Plus Ultra of literary excellence, but simply as a series of PenPictures of the War, such as have from time to time welled up from the great heart of the Nation, when deeply moved by some great national, or individual event; and, as such, we think we here offer all that could be desired even by the most fastidious. Every Nation, civilized and savage, have their war-songs, warhymns, war-anthems, and war-ballads,—and why not America? Even in the face of the assertion, made by the learned Editor of the "National Hymns," to the effect, that there was not a Poet in the land, who possessed sufficient ability to give one to the people, -an assertion which is refuted every hour of the day by the untutored voice of childhood along our streets, the bass of the mechanic in the workshop, as well as cultivated vocal strains, which proceed from the perfumed parlors of the higher circles of society! The great mistake of our contemporary, laid in the fact, that he was looking for a grand National Epic, one calculated to suit the refined ear, and exalted taste of the critic, instead of some sublime metrical harmony which would sweep like an angel's fingers over the sensitive spirit-string of the human heart, and produce those sympathetic strains which linger on the ear-which dwell in the memory and reverberate through the land, until at length a whole nation takes up the theme, and hymn it before the Nation's Altar! It is just such metrical harmonies as this that we have sought for, and |