"The Children of the Battle Field" (1864)
Poetry and Music by James Gowdy Clark
Respectfully dedicated to
J. Francis Bourns, M.D.,
of Philadelphia, PA
honored for his living patriotism and philanthopy,
this song is most cordially and respectfully dedicated by
THE AUTHOR

SKETCH
------
  Few readers of the public journals will fail to remember
that, after the battle of Gettysburg, a dead soldier was
found lying on the field, clasping in his hand an ambrotye of his
three little children. No other incident of the present fra-
ticidal war is known to have so touched the heart of the 
nation. For months after the battle, the soldier's name,
and the home of his family, were a mystery. The ambro-
type found within his clasped hands was obtained by J.
Francis Bourns, M. D., of Philidelphia, who had the picture
photographed, in the hope the the circulation might lead to
the discovery of the family and the soldier's own recogni-
ion, and, at the same time, that the sales of the copies
might result in the funds for the support and education of the
little ones thus left fatherless. Publicity was also givin to
the incident in many newspapers throughout the country.
From various quarters letters of affecting inquiry were soon
received; but still the mystery of the soldier was unsolved.
At length, in the month of November, a letter arrived with
the intelligence that a soldier's wife at a little town on the
Allegheny River, in Western New York, had seen the ac-
count of the picture in a religious paper, the _American Pres-
byterian_, of Philadelphia,--a copy of which was taken
in the place. She had sent her husband such a picture, and
had not heard from him since the sanquinary struggle at
Gettysburg. With trembling anxiety she awaited the reply
and the coming of the picture. A copy of it came, and was
the identical likeness of her own children, and told the
painfull story that she was a widow and her little ones were
orphans. The unknown soldier was this ascertained to be
AMOS HUMISTON, late of Portville, Cattaraugus county,
New York, sargeant in the 154th N. Y. Volunteers.
  REV. ISAAC G. OGDEN, pastor of the Presbyterian church
at Portville, wrote respecting the deceased, that "he was
a man of noble impulses, a quiet citizen, a kind neighbor,
and devotedly attached to his family. When the rebellion
first took the form of open war upon the country, he was
anxious to enlist; but his duty to his family seemed then
to be paramount to his duty to his country. But after the
disastrous Peninsular campaign, when there was a call for
three hundred thousand more volunteers, and when he re-
ceived assurance from responsible citizens that his family
should be cared for during his absence, then, without the
prospect of a large bounty, he enlisted as a private in the
154th N.Y. State Volunteers. He was with his regiment in
the battle of Chancellorsville, and was promoted to the office
of orderly sargeant. At Gettysburg he fought with great
gallantry, and on its bloody field laid down his life for his
country."
  His children--FRANK, FREDERICK, and ALICE--are bright,
active, and intelligent, and, with their widowed mother, are
left a legacy to the country for which their patriot-father
died. It was certainly a remarkable providence which
made Sargeant HUMISTON's attachment to his children the
means of his recognition, and likewise the means of awaken-
ing so lively an interest in his bereaved family, if not also
in many families similarily stricken and cast upon the
contry.
  The fine lithograph on the title-page is an acurate copy
of the original picture which was found in the hands of the
dead hero, and a correct likeness of his children. The fol-
lowing simple, sweet verses originally appeared in the reli-
gious paper referred to above, having received the premium
awarded for a poem on the subject by the publisher. The
music as well as the song, is from the same gifted author.

------
COMMENDATIONS FROM THE REV. JOHN W. MEARS.
                                            Philadelphia, March 23, 1864.
  In view of the very humane and worthy object comtemplated in this publica-
tion, and in the hope that its wide circulation may stimulate patriotism and
help to keep alive in the national heart a sense of our suspeakable indebtness
to the families who have been reduced to dependence by the heroic devotion
and martyrdom of father, husbands, and sons, and in service of our common
country, I cheerfully give my testimony to the correctness of the foregoing
statement, and commend the "Children of the Battle-Field" to the patronage
of the loyal people.
                                               JOHN W. MEARS,
                                   Editor of the _American Presbyterian_.
No. 1334 Chestnut Street.

==> The net proceeds of the sale of this Music are reserved for the support
and education of the Orphan Children.

As sung by the Author, at his Ballad Entertainments.

1.
Upon the field of Gettysburg
  The summer was high,
When freedom met her haughty foe,
  Beneath a norhern sky;
Among the heroes of the North,
  Who swelled her grand array,
And rushed like mountain eagles forth
  From happy homes away.
There stood a man of humble fame,
  A sire of children three,
And gazed within a little frame,
  Their picture form to see.
And blame him not, if in the strife,
  He breathed a soldier's prayer:

REFRAIN
O FATHER, shield the soldier's wife,
And for his children care,
And for his children care.

2.
Upon the field of Gettysburg
  When morning shone again,
The crimson cloud battle burst
  In streams of fiery rain;
Our legions quelled the awfull flood
  Of shot, and steel, and shell,
While banners, marked with ball and blood,
  Around them arose and fell;
And none more nobly won the little frame
  That held his children three;
And none were braver in the strife
  Than he who breathed in the prayer:

(REFRAIN)

3.
Upon the Field of Gettysburg
  The full moon slowly rose,
She looked, and saw ten thousand brows
  All pale in death's repose,
And down beside a silver stream,
  From other forms away,
Calm as a warrior in a dream,
  Our fallen comrade lay;
His limbs were cold, his sightless eyes
  Were fixed upon the three
Sweet stars that rose in mem'ry's skies
  To light him o'er death's sea.
Then honored be the soldier's life,
  And hallowed be his prayer,

(REFRAIN)