Beginning with the storm clouds of 1860 and ending in the aftermath of victory, these poems follow the Civil War battle by battle: Ball’s Bluff, Donelson, the ironclads in their turrets, Shiloh, and the assassination of Lincoln on Good Friday 1865. Melville writes less of glory than of loss, doubt and the strange new machinery of war.
Published in 1866, this is among the most searching poetry the war produced, and a revelation for readers who know Melville only as a novelist. Download the free EPUB.