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Ben Butler called Fisher too solid.
Grant fired him, which Ben thought was squalid.
…He showed a committee
…His proof, wanting pity.
They listened, their faces all stolid.
But news came, and streets filled with cheering.
Fort Fisher had fallen; the hearing
…Was filled with great laughter
…Which Butler joined after,
Concluding that Ord was unfearing.
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After the Union’s General Benjamin Butler was removed by Grant and replaced by Ord, Butler went before a Congressional Committee to plead his case. In the midst of that hearing, while Butler was explaining with charts and graphs and maps that Fort Fisher was impregnable, newspaper boys began shouting the headline that Fort Fisher had fallen and cheering began in the street. “Impossible!” was Butler’s first response but a message was soon sent into the room confirming it. Laughter spread through the room and Butler finally joined in. He concluded with, “Thank God for victory.”
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Another poem of mine about Fort Fisher:
https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/fort-fisher-sounds-by-dennis-allen-lange/
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© Dennis Allen Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2018.
The Bard on the Hill 