The Colonel has received a letter from his Southern Belle telling him about his new born son.
And he returns home...

As a man not blessed with eloquent words,
forced, my innermost feelings for you to write;
with everybody asleep in the house and dew
from the early morning falling on my hands,
too much happened, too sudden in the chaos
left by a war that made a Nation going wild,
a letter telling me of you and the birth of a son
where the spurs needed to make my horse to fly.

From Charlottesville, there wasn’t a short cut,
traveling with twenty two able men day and night,
just churning ahead, returning home, going across
that piece of our devastated and tortured land,
until the Santee Rivers greeted us with its waves
perhaps happy to see that Southerners were back,
and the long alley bordered with magnolia trees
which would end, of the house, on its front yard.

Tired but exited to be home we approached and saw,
your massive Rose-Mae standing with crossed arms
it that dilapidated porch, a formidable guardian force,
watchfully eyes scouting at us from the distance,
until she recognized me and with a twister of aprons
shouting your name and waving hands she went inside,
as young Mamee saw behind me her faithful Jeremiah
proudly riding home wearing on his face a big smile.

Then, my sweet little thing, out on the porch you came,
and I could see the shining of tears in your eyes
you wished to believe it for so long, and yet, couldn’t,
until my horse stopped in front of your house at last,
I don’t really remember what happened next because
it was an explosion of such joy pouring out of my heart
that everything was hidden by a fog of happiness,
and memory did falter after you went inside my arms.

The men dismounted and went to put up the tents,
from looters we had confiscated two full heavy carts
with food that we all would share with our neighbors,
and each soldier returning home would get his part,
God bless all of them for having take care of me,
and should I be blessed because I did survive,
and can sit wrapped in peaceful silence at home
on an early morning, as magnolias perfume my life.