Charles L. Weatherford

~ Soldier Of The South ~
Part 6: APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE

We stacked our guns on this day.
Robert Lee surrendered his sword.
We’re Rebel soldiers no longer.
It’s for peace we’ve given our word.

Our hard-fought cause is lost to us,
and the Yankees are our masters.
My home state is dead and conquered
now ruled by those foreign bastards.

But can I go to fight no more,
defeated by greater numbers
and their capacity for war?
With this loss are we encumbered.

I will go home to see my love
and play with my children once more.
I lived through the bloody battles,
although I’ve come out of it poor.

We few are left after it all,
who must pick up shattered pieces
of a genteel world wracked and destroyed.
We alone fight fate’s caprices.

We have worked hard to keep our lives,
but those old lives clearly are done.
To save the little we have left,
that job has not even begun.