Previous to the first battle of Manassas, when the troops under Stonewall Jackson had made a forced march, on halting at night they fell on the ground, exhausted and faint. The hour arrived for setting the watch for the night. The officer of the day went to the General's tent and said:
“General, the men are all wearied and there is not one but is asleep. Shall I wake them?”
“No,” said the noble Jackson. “Let them sleep, and I will watch the camp tonight.”
And all night long he rode around that lonely camp, the one lone sentinel for that brave, but weary, body of Virginia heroes. When glorious morning broke, the soldiers awoke fresh and ready for action, all unconscious of the vigil kept over their slumbers.
The Lone Sentry
by James Ryder Randall
'Twas at the dying of the day, The darkness grew so still The drowsy pipe of evening birds Was hushed upon the hill. Athwart the shadows of the vale Slumbered the men of might, And one lone sentry paced his rounds To watch the camp that night.
A grave and solemn man was he, With deep and somber brow; The dreamful eyes seemed hoarding up Some unaccomplished vow. The wistful glance peered o'er the plain Beneath the starry light, And with the murmured name of God, He watched the camp that night.
The future opened unto him Its grand and awful scroll— Manassas and the Valley march Came heaving o'er his soul; Richmond and Sharpsburg thundered by, With that tremendous fight That gave him to the angel host Who watched the camp that night.
We mourn for him who died for us With one resistless moan, While up the Valley of the Lord He marches to the Throne! He kept the faith of men and saints Sublime and pure and bright; He sleeps—and all is well with him Who watched the camp that night.
Brothers! The midnight of our Cause Is shrouded in our fate— The demon Goths pollute our halls With fire and lust and hate! Be strong, be valient, be assured— Strike home for Heaven and Right! The soul of Jackson stalks abroad And guards the camp tonight.
In his 1910 collection, The Poems of James Ryder Randall, Matthew Page Andrews, M.A., Randall's literary executor, noted that in his edition the final verse of this poem had been omitted:
This poem, as is the case with My Maryland, has been published without the last stanza, with this omission probably approved by Randall himself. Here the omission improves rather than detracts from the whole. The Lone Sentry is complete without the last stanza, which was probably intended as a temporary appeal to then-existing conditions; while Maryland! My Maryland! attains its climax of expression in its wrongfully omitted stanza. The omitted stanza of The Lone Sentry reads:
Brothers! The midnight of our cause
Is shrouded in our fate —
The demon Goths pollute our halls
With fire and lust and hate!
Be strong, be valiant, be assured—
Strike home for Heaven and right
The soul of Jackson stalks abroad
And guards the camp to-night.
The Lone Sentry, Maryland, My Maryland and Other Poems, by James Ryder Randall, 1908, Page 36. (PDF)