Person:Wesley Perkins (2)

Wesley enlisted in the army during the Civil War in Jul 1863. After one year of service, he died in a Union hospital and was buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tennessee. When the message came with the sad news to Maria Perkins, that her son had passed away, she turned to her pen and wrote the following lines in memory of him:

In Memory of Wesley Our Wesley had gone to the tomb

  Beneath the soft evergreen sod, 

But his spirit was borne by the angesl home

  To the city and palace of God. 

That sweet face and sparkling eye

  Will greet us nevermore

Till the glad day when we mount on high

  And meet on the bright golden shore.

Yes, that smiling face betoking the love

  Of his heart for friends, so dear, 

Far hid from our view in yon heaven above

  And never shall return to us here. 

Then farewell dear Wesley, our innocent boy

  Thou child of sympathy and love

Till we meet thee again in heavenly joy

  And sign with the blood washed above. 

                               1864 - Maria Forwood Perkins