“The Battleground Dead.”

John Claggett Proctor's original poem, to be read during the (1922 Memorial Day) exercises, is as follows:

Sleep thy sleep, oh patriot!
Citizen and soldier brave;
War and strife disturb thee not
In the silence of thy grave.

Free from life's contentions now—
God, with peace hath thee endowed;
Whispering branches to-thee bow—
Earth, thy pillow and thy shroud.

Harmony will ever reign;
Troubles can disturb thee not;
Free from labor, free from pain.
In this holy, hallowed spot.

Well thy duty thou didst do.
Dearly thou didst gladly pay
With the life God gave to you
Handed back this noble way.

With thy blood the crimson bars
Of old glory brighter grew.
And the field of precious stars
More entrancing to our view.

Made it stand for that much more.
And a greater people we;
Made its children more adore
Loyalty and liberty.

Made each patriotic son
More completely understand
What your sacrifice has done
For our fair united land.

And the Constitution for
Which our fathers gladly died—
Even made us love it more—
Hold for it a greater price.

Made those stones which dot the green—
Sublime in their modesty—
To a grateful nation mean
More than tombs of kings we see.

For these men, who wore the blue.
Died defending Washington,
As their sires, brave and true.
Gave their all at Lexington.

Kept intact for you and I
Our beloved U. S. A.,
Saved it—who will dare deny—
From destruction and decay.

What remains beneath this sod
Temporary, after all—
Will return on high to God
When that last great trump shall call.

And the Savior of mankind
Who, Himself, for Justice bled.
In His precious arms will bind
And enfold our soldier dead.

And when war shall be no more?
And all earth has ended, too
They shall lead, on yonder shore.
That eternal Grand Review.

Closing Program of Memorial Day, The Washington Evening Star, Tuesday May 30, 1922, page 3.(PDF)

Landmarks