Contents
Publication Information
Information about the source
Contents.
The titles in the original Contents pages for Battle-Pieces match the titles as they appear internally on the title pages of each poem, with only minor variations in punctuation and capitalization in eight poems; in addition, the word "Tennessee" is omitted from poem 9. In revising his personal copy of Battle-Pieces (Copy A), and probably after his revisions in his copy of bound sheets (Copy C), Melville put check marks next to three poems in his table of contents: "The Battle for the Mississippi," "Running the Batteries," and "The Battle for the Bay." The three checked poems (noted below) do not show evidence of revision. The editors of NN Published Poems use a version of the Battle-Pieces Contents page for their own edition's table of contents, and they emend the Contents titles to match those at the heads of poems. MEL does not emend the titles appearing on the Contents page but, instead, transcribes them here as they appear in the original. MEL's interactive table of contents—appearing in the margin to the left of the MEL reading text—is a set of digital links to the poems themselves and is not intended as an exact simulation of the first edition Contents page. More specifically, MEL's table of contents assigns numbers to each of the 72 poems, provides shortened titles in some cases, and removes the original page numbers.
[The Portent]REVISION NARRATIVE: "The Portent" does not appear in the original Battle-Pieces table of contents. One theory is that, since the poem (unlike all other "battle-pieces") appears entirely in italic on the recto of the first page of poetry with a blank verso, Melville may have seen "The Portent" as a kind of prelude to the volume. The fact that the poem's prophetic content and focus on the pre-war events involving John Brown supports this view but does not explain why it is not listed. A more likely possibility is that Melville added "The Portent" to his collection after the table of Contents had been set in type.
Misgivings [13]
The Conflict of Convictions [14]
Apathy and Enthusiasm [19]
The March into Virginia [22]
Lyon [24]
Ball's Bluff [28]
Dupont's Round Fight [30]
The Stone Fleet [31]
Donelson [33]
The Cumberland [53]
In the Turret [55]
The Temeraire [58]
A utilitarian View of the Monitor's Fight [61]
Shiloh [63]
The Battle for the Mississippi [64]Melville placed a check mark next to this page number.
Malvern Hill [67]
The Victor of Antietam [69]
Battle of Stone River [73]
Running the Batteries [75]Melville placed a check mark next to this page number.
Stonewall Jackson [79]
Stonewall Jackson (ascribed to a Virginian) [81]
Gettysburg [84]
The House-top [86]
Look-out Mountain [88]
Chattanooga [90]
The Armies of the Wilderness [93]
On the Photograph of a Corps Commander [105]
The Swamp Angel [107]
The Battle for the Bay [110]Melville placed a check mark next to this page number.
Sheridan at Cedar Creek [116]
In the Prison Pen [118]
The College Colonel [120]
The Eagle of the Blue [122]
A Dirge for McPherson [124]
At the Cannon's Mouth [126]
The March to the Sea [128]
The Frenzy in the Wake [133]
The Fall of Richmond [135]
The Surrender at Appomattox [137]
A Canticle [138]
The Martyr [141]
"The Coming Storm" [143]
Rebel Color-bearers at Shiloh [144]
The Muster [146]
Aurora Borealis [148]
The released Rebel Prisoner [150]
A Grave near Petersburg, Virginia [153]
"Formerly a Slave" [154]
The Apparition [155]
Magnanimity Baffled [156]
On the Slain Collegians [157]
America [160]
VERSES INSCRIPTIVE AND MEMORIAL.
On the Home Guards who perished in the
Defense of Lexington, Missouri [165]
Inscription for Graves at Pea Ridge,
Arkansas [166]
The Fortitude of the North under the
Disaster of the Second Manassas [167]
On the Men of Maine killed in the Vic-
tory of Baton Rouge, Louisiana [168]
An Epitaph [169]
Inscription for Marye's Heights, Freder-
icksburg [170]
The Mound by the Lake [171]
On the Slain at Chickamauga [172]
An uninscribed Monument on one of the
Battle-fields of the Wilderness [173]
On Sherman's Men who fell in the Assault
of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia [174]
On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer
killed in the Valley of Virginia [175]
A Requiem for Soldiers lost in Ocean
Transports [176]
On a natural Monument in a Field of
Georgia [178]
Commemorative of a Naval Victory [180]
Presentation to the Authorities by Privates
of Colors captured in Battles ending in
the Surrender of Lee [182]
The returned Volunteer to his Rifle [183]
The Scout toward Aldie [187]
Lee in the Capitol [217]
A Meditation [239]
Notes [245]
Supplement [259]