October 29, 1863: The Charge of the Mule Brigade

The battle of Wauhatchie featured in a post yesterday which may be read here, is primarily remembered in Civil War lore for a minor incident that occurred during the fight.  The Confederate Hampton Legion, led by General Wade Hampton, of Longstreet’s Corps, apparently was disordered briefly by a stampede of Union mules and that allowed the Union to plug a gap in the battle line.  Union troops waggishly suggested after the fight that the mules be breveted as horses.  Here is the poem by that endlessly prolific author Anonymous:

Half a mile, half a mile,
  Half a mile onward,
Right through the Georgia troops
  Broke the two hundred.
“Forward the Mule Brigade!
  Charge for the Rebs,” they neighed.
Straight for the Georgia troops
  Broke the two hundred.

“Forward the Mule Brigade!”
  Was there a mule dismayed?
Not when their long ears felt
  All their ropes sundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to make Rebs fly.
On! to the Georgia troops
  Broke the two hundred.

Mules to the right of them,
Mules to the left of them,
Mules behind them
  Pawed, neighed, and thundered.
Breaking their own confines
Breaking through Longstreet’s lines
Into the Georgia troops
  Stormed the two hundred.

Wild all their eyes did glare,
Whisked all their tails in air
Scattering the chivalry there,
  While all the world wondered.
Not a mule back bestraddled,
Yet how they all skedaddled  — 
Fled every Georgian,
Unsabred, unsaddled,
  Scattered and sundered!
How they were routed there
  By the two hundred!

Mules to the right of them,
Mules to the left of them,
Mules behind them
  Pawed, neighed, and thundered;
Followed by hoof and head
Full many a hero fled,
Fain in the last ditch dead,
Back from an ass’s jaw
All that was left of them, —
  Left by the two hundred.

When can their glory fade?
Oh, what a wild charge they made!
  All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Mule Brigade,
  Long-eared two hundred!

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