This poem, which lays out with grim starkness the reaction of a mother upon discovering that her only son has fallen in battle, recreates a scene played out in countless homes North and South during the War. Some women reacted stoically; others, like the mother portrayed herein, broke down under the weight of their grief and simply refused to believe the terrible news. Since God has bereft her of her son, He has (as the poem's title implies) taken her reason as well.

The call for "three hundred thousand more" volunteers was issued by Abraham Lincoln in the summer of 1862, when it had become apparent to all that the War was not going to be a short-lived affair.

Many thanks to Chuck Ten Brink of the Third Battery, First Michigan Light Artillery, for this poem...and for everything else.

"While God He Leaves Me Reason, God He Will Leave Me Jim"