Now night her course began, and over heaven
Inducing darkness, grateful truce, impos’d
Her silence on the odious din of war;
Under her cloudy covert hath retired
Victor and vanquish’d.
~ Milton

Hark! the death – denouncing trumpet sounds
The fatal charge, the shouts proclaim the onset;
Destruction rushes dreadful to the field,
And bathes itself in blood; havoc let loose
Now undistinguish’d rages all around,
While ruin, seated on her dreary throne,
Sees the plain strewed with subjects truly hers,
Breathless and cold.
~ Harvard

That awful pause, dividing life from death,
Struck for an instant on the hearts of men,
Thousands of whom were drawing their last breath!
A moment all will be life again.
* * * * * one moment more,
The death-cry drowning in the battles roar.
~ Byron

This day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scatter’d on the bleeding ground;
Many a widow’s husband groveling lies,
Coldly embracing the discolor’d earth.
~ Shakespeare