On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia, and Later Elsewhere
The uniform is gray
Of bodies lying still.
The battle of that day
Is Chancellorsville.
Americans lie dead
An evening of May.
It hasn’t yet been said
They all were right that day.
From Hail, American Development (Definition Press)
© 1968 by Eli Siegel
Eli Siegel’s note to the poem:
On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia, and Later Elsewhere. 1967 …Some Americans, this poem says, must have been wrong at Chancellorsville, for only Americans fought there. This deeply questions the statement: America is fighting—this is all we need to know. How Americans disagreed with Americans in May 1863! The quatrains of the poem cannot conceal this at all.