George Cochran Lambdin, American
Union Soldier Wondering If He Should Brave the Latrine, Or Try To Hold It Until the War’s Over, 1866
Oil on canvas
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/// Union officer broods At the Front.
For the rebs he will not have to hunt.
Soldiers, just out of sight,
are preparing to fight.
Front-line troops will be bearing the brunt.
/// He’d been told that this war would be brief.
Until now that had been his belief.
But the truth he had learned
is that victory’s earned
at the cost of gore, pain, death and grief.
/// They’re outnumbered and he has concerns.
For his wife and young children he yearns.
Summarized in the note
which, this morning, he wrote.
(Read aloud in a film by Ken Burns.)
/// He cannot stop obsessing on fate.
Will his tombstone contain today’s date?
The attack should come soon
on his tired platoon,
and there’s nothing to do now but wait.