Fighting Joe Hooker
once said
with that tart unbridled tongue of his
that made so many needless enemies
“Who ever saw a dead cavalryman”
the phrase stings
with a needle sharpness
just or not
but even he was never heard to say
“Who ever saw a dead congressman”
and yet he was a man
with a sharp tongue.…

—STEPHEN VINCENT BENET
commenting on the dead at the First Battle of Bull Run in the poem “The Congressmen”