Ohio Patriot’s Dream or Wife’s Loving Response

Ohio Patriot’s Dream and his lonely Wife’s Loving Response, is a timeless remembrance of the heartache and seeming futility, of families separated during a wars never-ending nightmare. Alfred Burnett, embedded with the Union Army in Tennessee, shared the following verse from an anonymous trooper and his sweetheart’s response,

A Soldier’s Dream of Home”

“You have put the children to bed, Alice— Maud and Willie and Rose; They have lisped their sweet “Our Father,” And sunk to their night’s repose.

Did they think of me, dear Alice? Did they think of me, and say, “God bless him, and God bless him, Dear father, far away?”

O, my very heart grows sick, Alice, I long so to behold Rose, with her pure white forehead, And Maud, with her curls of gold; And Willie, so gay and sprightly, So merry and full of glee—, O, my heart yearns to enfold ye, My smiling group of three.

I can bear the noisy day, Alice— The camp life, gay and wild, Shuts from my yearning bosom The thoughts of wife and child; But when the night is round me, And under its starry beams I gather my cloak about me, And dream such long, sad dreams!

I think of a pale young wife, Alice, Who looked up in my face When the drum beat at evening And called me to my place. I think of three sweet birdlings, Left in the dear home-nest, And my soul is sick with longings, That will not be at rest.

O, when will the war be over, Alice? O, when shall I behold Rose, with her pure white forehead, And Maud, with her curls of gold; And Will, so gay and sprightly, So merry and full of glee, And more than all, the dear wife Who bore my babes to me?

God guard and keep you all, Alice; God guard and keep me, too, For if only one were missing, What would the others do? O, when will the war be over, And when shall I behold Those whom I love so dearly, Safe in the dear home-fold?”

“The Wife’s Reply”

“You say you dream of us, Willie, When fall the shades of night, And you wrap your cloak around you By the camp-fire’s flickering light; And you wonder if our little ones Have bowed their curly heads, And asked a blessing for you, Before they sought their beds!

It was but this very night, Willie, That our Willie came to me, And looking up into my face, As he stood beside my knee, He said, “Mamma, I wonder When will this war be o’er, For O, I long so much to see My dear papa once more.”

My heart was full of tears, Willie, But I kept them from my eyes, And the answer that I made him Opened his with sad surprise—? “Suppose he should never come, Willie!” “But, mamma, I know he will, For I pray to Jesus every night To spare my father still.”

I clasped him in my arms, Willie, I pressed him to my breast; His childish faith it shamed me, And my spirit’s vague unrest; And I felt that our Heavenly Father, From his throne in the “City of Gold,” Would watch you and guard you and bring you Safe back to the dear home-fold.

We think of you every night, Willie; We think of you every day; Our every prayer wafts to Heaven the name Of one who is far away. And Rose, with her pure white forehead, And Maud, with her curls of gold, Are talking in whispers together, Of the time when they shall behold

The father they love so dearly; And Willie, with childish glee, Is bidding me “not to forget to tell Papa to remember me.” So we think of you every night, Willie By the camp-fire’s fitful gleams, Until the war shall be over, Let us mingle still in your dreams.”

Union and Confederate soldiers missed and longed for their sweethearts, children, hearth and home. The loneliness could be crushing and the temptation to flee and be with their families was nearly overwhelming. This missive between husband and wife is a common thread and indicative of how the Civil War not only divided the Union, but especially a Ohio Patriot and his loving wife and family.

Bummer