Title
The Burial of Latané
Creator
John R. Thompson
Description
John Thompson’s celebrated poem, “The Burial of Latané,” epically portrays a Confederate victory at Hanover Courthouse, Virginia. In June of 1862, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart led the 9th Virginia Calvary in a scouting mission that temporarily subverted the movements of Union General George McClellan and restored hope to the Confederacy. Despite the maneuver’s success, the Confederates sustained one loss: the attack’s leader, Captain William Latané. Because Union troops forbade a military burial. Latané’s brother had no choice but to leave his body in the care of the women, children, and slaves of nearby Westwood plantation.
Shortly after the battle, Virginia native and Southern Literary Messenger editor, John R. Thompson, wrote a tribute to the slain hero. Poor health prevented Thompson from soldiering, so he supported the cause with his words. Two years later, Thompson’s poem inspired William D. Washington’s oil painting of the same name. Both verse and canvas have enjoyed wide celebrity throughout the Confederate South, with many families honoring the memory of Latané by hanging Washington’s painting above their mantle.
Shortly after the battle, Virginia native and Southern Literary Messenger editor, John R. Thompson, wrote a tribute to the slain hero. Poor health prevented Thompson from soldiering, so he supported the cause with his words. Two years later, Thompson’s poem inspired William D. Washington’s oil painting of the same name. Both verse and canvas have enjoyed wide celebrity throughout the Confederate South, with many families honoring the memory of Latané by hanging Washington’s painting above their mantle.
Source
Southern Literary Messenger 34, no. 8 (July and August 1862): 475-476, on Making of America, accessed July 28, 2016, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/.
Date
1862-07
Coverage
Old Church, Hanover County, Virginia
Westwood plantation, Virginia
Text
The combat raged not long, but ours the day;
And through the hosts that compassed us around
Our little band rode proudly on its way,
Leaving one gallant comrade, glory-crowned,
Unburied on the field he died to gain,
Single of all his men amid the hostile slain.
One moment on the battle’s edge he stood,
Hope’s halo like a helmet round his hair,
The next beheld him, dabbled in his blood,
Prostrate in death and yet in death how fair!
Even thus he passed, through the red gate of strife,
From earthly crowns and palms to an immortal life.
A brother bore his body from the field
And gave it unto strangers’ hands that closed
The calm blue eyes, on earth forever sealed,
And tenderly the slender limbs composed :---
Strangers, yet sisters, who, with Mary’s love,
Sat by the open tomb and weeping looked above.
A little child strewed roses on his bier---
Pale roses not more stainless than his soul,
Nor yet more fragrant than his life sincere
That blossomed with good actions---brief but whole:---
The aged matron and the faithful slave
Approached with reverent feet the hero’s lowly grave.
No man of God might say the burial rite
Above the “rebel”---thus declared the foe
That blanched before him in the deadly fight,
But woman’s voice, in accents soft and low,
Trembling with pity, touched with pathos, read
Over his hallowed dust the ritual for the dead---
“’Tis sown in weakness, it is raised in power,”
Softly the promise floated on the air,
And the sweet breathings of the sunset hour
Came back responsive to the mourner’s prayer:
Gently they laid him underneath the sod,
And left him with his fame, his country and his God.
Let us not weep for him whose deeds endure,
So young, so brave, so beautiful, he died
As he had wished to die;---the past is sure;
Whatever yet of sorrow may betide
Those who still linger by the stormy shore,
Change cannot harm him now nor fortune touch him more.
And when Virginia, leaning on her spear,
Victrix ed vidua, the conflict done,
Shall raise her mailed hand to wipe the tear
That starts as she recalls each martyred son,
No prouder memory her breast shall sway,
Than thine, our early-lost, lamented Latané!
And through the hosts that compassed us around
Our little band rode proudly on its way,
Leaving one gallant comrade, glory-crowned,
Unburied on the field he died to gain,
Single of all his men amid the hostile slain.
One moment on the battle’s edge he stood,
Hope’s halo like a helmet round his hair,
The next beheld him, dabbled in his blood,
Prostrate in death and yet in death how fair!
Even thus he passed, through the red gate of strife,
From earthly crowns and palms to an immortal life.
A brother bore his body from the field
And gave it unto strangers’ hands that closed
The calm blue eyes, on earth forever sealed,
And tenderly the slender limbs composed :---
Strangers, yet sisters, who, with Mary’s love,
Sat by the open tomb and weeping looked above.
A little child strewed roses on his bier---
Pale roses not more stainless than his soul,
Nor yet more fragrant than his life sincere
That blossomed with good actions---brief but whole:---
The aged matron and the faithful slave
Approached with reverent feet the hero’s lowly grave.
No man of God might say the burial rite
Above the “rebel”---thus declared the foe
That blanched before him in the deadly fight,
But woman’s voice, in accents soft and low,
Trembling with pity, touched with pathos, read
Over his hallowed dust the ritual for the dead---
“’Tis sown in weakness, it is raised in power,”
Softly the promise floated on the air,
And the sweet breathings of the sunset hour
Came back responsive to the mourner’s prayer:
Gently they laid him underneath the sod,
And left him with his fame, his country and his God.
Let us not weep for him whose deeds endure,
So young, so brave, so beautiful, he died
As he had wished to die;---the past is sure;
Whatever yet of sorrow may betide
Those who still linger by the stormy shore,
Change cannot harm him now nor fortune touch him more.
And when Virginia, leaning on her spear,
Victrix ed vidua, the conflict done,
Shall raise her mailed hand to wipe the tear
That starts as she recalls each martyred son,
No prouder memory her breast shall sway,
Than thine, our early-lost, lamented Latané!