The Ghost of the Battlefield
An old veteran mistakes the sound of land clearing for the roar of cannon fire.
A man of years and grizzled beard, Upon whose breast a brazen star Hung clutched within an eagle's claw— A man whose look was sad and far— Stood yester-een within these gates, A stranger, silent and alone, And while he stood a roaring, sullen sound Came like a deep-mouthed cannon's tone. The ancient war-dog quickly bristled up, And sudden grasped his tangled beard, 'What was that gun?' he asked a passerby, 'The heavy gun just now I heard?' 'That gun, old man?—you heard no gun,' The other said—'You must be tight. The noise you heard was workmen, on the hill, Blowing up stumps with dynamite.'
“The noise you heard was workmen, on the hill, Blowing up stumps with dynamite.”
In 1890, the sounds of industrial expansion—dynamite clearing land for new developments—frequently startled those who carried the trauma of the Civil War. Today, similar jarring noises often trigger veterans of modern conflicts, serving as a reminder that the 'Magic City' of Fairhaven was built on land freshly blasted and stripped by the machinery of the boom era.
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