His Last Word

Mary Bayard Devereux Clarke (1827—1886) of North Carolina, was educated at home by her father, a Yale graduate. She was able to travel widely and began writing early. Her first book was Wood-Notes (1854), after which she contributed poems prolifically to American and European periodicals. She was gifted in languages and
did much translation from European poets, including Victor Hugo’s verse. Her plainspoken and down-to-earth writing has often been noted. Her husband was William J. Clarke, a gallant officer in the Mexican War, judge, railroad president, and colonel of the 24th North Carolina Regiment, CSA. They were introduced and married by her uncle Leonidas Polk. Col. Clarke’s health was destroyed by a Yankee prison and their later years were difficult. Her comments from a publication of her family papers, Live Your Own Life, are often quoted by historians. She continued after the war to be a prolific poet on Christian faith and other themes, and her work will appear again in a later volumes of this series.

​A few moments before Stonewall Jackson's Death, a sweet smile overspread his face, and he murmured quietly, with an air of relief: ‘Let us cross the river and rest under the shade of the trees’.
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COME, let us cross the river, and rest beneath the trees,
And list the merry leaflets at sport with every breeze;
Our rest is won by fighting, and Peace awaits us there.
Strange that a cause so blighting produces fruit so fair!
Come, let us cross the river, those that have gone before,
Crush’ d in the strife for freedom, await on yonder shore;
So bright the sunshine sparkles, so merry hums the breeze,
Come, let us cross the river, and rest beneath the trees.
Come, let us cross the river, the stream that runs so dark:
‘Tis none but cowards quiver, so let us all embark.
Come, men with hearts undaunted, we’ll stem the tide with ease,
We’ll cross the flowing river, and rest beneath the trees.
Come, let us cross the river, the dying hero cried,
And God, of life the giver, then bore him o’er the tide.
Life’s wars for him are over, the warrior takes his ease,
There, by the flowing river, at rest beneath the trees.

This poem and accompanying commentary appear in ​Confederate Poets & Poems, Volume I
The Land They Loved, Volume 2 available from Shotwell Publishing.