Excerpt from The Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop Among the first of that cloud of witnesses who made history for us in those days (so late, yet so long ago) Theodore Winthrop fell at Great Bethe], in Vir ginia, on June 10th, 1861, before our country was half awakened to the mighty work before it, or knew the strength, born of sorrow, that was to come in time of need. Love of country, where it becomes a passion, may have smouldered through years of quiet and safety, but when the hour strikes, and danger threatens the Mother Land, it leaps into a blaze, and becomes a beacon on the hill top, a prairie fire, that runs over the broad land from East to West. The story of Theo dore Winthrop's life, and of his death, coming as it did at the opening of the war, and making him a type and ideal for the ardent youth of that day, are among the nobler things that should not be forgotten. He was the representative man of the hour, the representa tive of the promise, beauty, culture, and patriotism that were crowding to the front. To some he had seemed a dreamy poet only, to others a man of society, to others a wandering, aimless traveler. Few knew his love for his country till he died for Her. Then they believed it, and the belief grew like a creed, like a new religion, in the warm air of that summer of 1861. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.