This poem, written by a woman through the eyes of a soldier at the Battle of For Wagner, expresses the heroism and continued bravery in the face of insurmountable odds that occurred at the Battle.

The most powerful part of it is the end in which the white, presumably, soldier is attempting to continue and notices a dying black soldier and tries to avoid him. But the soldier says that the man should continue on, use him as a step, and carry on the fight. While dying, this black man wished for the Cause of freedom to go on. He was proud to be fighting for the Union, under it's flag and wishes for the meaning of it to go on.

The Hero of Fort Wagner

Fort Wagner! that is a place for us
       To remember well, my lad!
For us, who were under the guns, and know
        The bloody work we had.

I should not speak to one so young,
       Perhaps, as I do to you;
But you are a soldier's son, my boy,
        And you know what soldiers do.

And when peace comes to our land again,
        And your father sits in his home,
You will hear such tales of war as this,
        For many a year to come.

We were repulsed from the Fort, you know,
        And saw our heroes fall,
Till the dead were piled in bloody heaps
        Under the frowning wall.

Yet crushed as we were and beaten back,
        Our spirits never bowed;
And gallant deeds that day were done
        To make a soldier proud.

Brave men were there, for their country's sake
        To spend their latest breath;
But the bravest was one who gave his life
        And his body after death.

No greater words than his dying ones
        Have been spoken under the sun;
Not even his, who brought the news
        On the field at Ratisbon.

I was pressing up, to try if yet
        Our men might take the place,
And my feet had slipped in his oozing blood
        Before I saw his face.

His face!  it was black as the skies o'erhead
        With the smoke of the angry guns;
And a gash in his bosom showed the work
        Of our country's traitor sons.

Your pardon, my poor boy!  I said,
        I did not see you here;
But I will not hurt you as I pass;
        I'll have a care; no fear!

He smiled; he had only strength to say
        These words, and that was all:
"I'm done gone, Massa; step on me;
        And you can scale the wall!"

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