BALLADS OF AMERICAN BRAVERY

EDITED, WITH NOTES BY CLINTON SCOLLARD AUTHOR OF “OLD AND NEW WORLD LYRICS,” “SONGS OF SUNRISE LANDS,” “THE HILLS OF SONG,” ETC.

SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY New York BOSTON Chicago Copyright, 1900, By SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY

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PREFATORY WORD

While it has been, in the main, the purpose of the Editor to include in the present collection only such poems as commemorate some signal act of valor historically verified, it has seemed best to widen the scope sufficiently to admit a few selections that must have been excluded were the lines rigorously drawn. To appeal to the student of American history has been the primary aim; yet, inasmuch as the chord played upon—that of heroism—finds a responsive echo in every heart, it is hoped that the book may prove of interest to the general public as well. Though there has been no attempt at an exhaustive selection, a natural desire to cover as wide a field as possible has led to the admission of some ballads of lesser literary value, though it is believed that none will be found that has not sufficient merit to warrant its presence.

The Editor desires to make grateful acknowledgment to Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Harper & Brothers, Charles Scribner’s Sons, The Funk & Wagnalls Company, The J. B. Lippincott Company, The Century Company, Herbert S. Stone & Company, John Lane, The Lothrop Publishing Company, and the Youth’s Companion, for courtesies extended, and also to thank most heartily the various authors whose work is included, or those representing them, for their cordial coöperation.

Clinton, New York, March, 1900.{v}{iv}

BALLADS OF AMERICAN BRAVERY

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In Time of Strife

1 PAUL REVERE’S RIDE

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

2 MARY BUTLER’S RIDE

3 THE SURPRISE OF TICONDEROGA

(By special permission of the author, and of The Youth’s Companion.)

4 MONTGOMERY AT QUEBEC

5 THE MARYLAND BATTALION

(By special permission of the author.)

6 ARNOLD AT STILLWATER

(By special permission of the author, and of Harper and Brothers.){27}

7 THE YANKEE MAN-OF-WAR

8 THE RIDE OF JENNIE M’NEAL

(By special permission of the author, and of Harper and Brothers.)

9 SONG OF MARION’S MEN

10 HOW WE BURNED THE “PHILADELPHIA”

(By special permission of the author.){40}

11 THE “SHANNON” AND THE “CHESAPEAKE”

(By special permission of the author, and of The Youth’s Companion.)

12 THE FIGHT OF THE “ARMSTRONG” PRIVATEER

(By special permission of the author, and of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

13 THE MEN OF THE ALAMO

(By special permission of the author, and of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

14 THE FIGHT AT THE SAN JACINTO

(By special permission of the author, and of Herbert S. Stone and {54}Company.)

15 MONTEREY

16 THE DEFENSE OF LAWRENCE

(From Poems, by Richard Realf. Copyright, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1898. By special permission.)

17 BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

(By special permission of the author.)

18 BETHEL

19 THE CHARGE BY THE FORD

(By special permission of the author, and of Harper and Brothers.)

20 THE LITTLE DRUMMER

(By special permission of the author.)

21 THE CUMBERLAND

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

22 JOHNSTON AT SHILOH A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER’S STORY

23 THE RIVER FIGHT

24 KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES

(By special permission of the author, and of Houghton, Mifflin and {83}Company.)

25 AN UNKNOWN HERO

26 BARBARA FRIETCHIE

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

27 THE EAGLE OF CORINTH

28 READY

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

29 BATTLE OF CHARLESTON HARBOR

(By special permission of William Hamilton Hayne, and of The Lothrop Publishing Company.)

30 KEENAN’S CHARGE

(From Dreams and Days; Copyright, 1892, Charles Scribner’s Sons. {97}By special permission.)

31 THE HERO OF THE GUN

(By special permission of Dr. George J. Preston.){99}

32 AN INCIDENT OF WAR

(By special permission of the author, and of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

33 THE BLACK REGIMENT

34 GREENCASTLE JENNY

(By special permission of the author.)

35 JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

36 HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG

(By special permission of the author, and of The Century Company.){113}

37 THOMAS AT CHICKAMAUGA

(By special permission of the author.){117}

38 THE SMALLEST OF THE DRUMS

(By special permission of the author.)

39 LITTLE GIFFEN

(By special permission of Mrs. Rosa N. Ticknor.){121}

40 ULRIC DAHLGREN

(By special permission of the author.)

41 FARRAGUT

(By special permission of The Century Company.)

42 LEE TO THE REAR

43 CRAVEN

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company, and of John Lane.)

44 GRACIE OF ALABAMA

(By special permission of Mrs. Rosa N. Ticknor.){131}

45 THE BALLAD OF A LITTLE FUN

(By special permission of the author, and of The Century Company.)

46 SHERIDAN’S RIDE

(By special permission of J. B. Lippincott Company.)

47 DOWN THE LITTLE BIG HORN

(By special permission of Dr. Almon Brooks.)

48 THE BOND OF BLOOD

(By special permission of the author, and of The Century Company.)

49 A BALLAD OF MANILA BAY

(By special permission of the author, and of Harper and Brothers.)

50 DEWEY AT MANILA

Envoy

(By special permission of the author.)

51 THE MEN OF THE “MERRIMAC”

52 THE CHARGE AT SANTIAGO

(By special permission of the author.)

53 SPAIN’S LAST ARMADA

(By special permission of the author.){155}

54 BALLAD OF PACO TOWN

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In Time Of Peace

55 PEACE HATH HER VICTORIES

(By special permission of the author.)

56 IN THE TUNNEL

(By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.){165}

57 THE BALLAD OF CALNAN’S CHRISTMAS

(By special permission of the author, and of The Century Company.)

58 HOW HE SAVED ST. MICHAEL’S

(By special permission of the author.)

59 THE RIDE OF COLLIN GRAVES

(By special permission of Miss Mary Boyle O’Reilly.)

60 JIM BLUDSO

(By special permission of the author, and of Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)

61 GEORGE NIDIVER

62 A MAN’S NAME

(From Poems, by Richard Realf. Copyright, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1898. By special permission.)

63 THE MAN WHO RODE TO CONEMAUGH

(By special permission of Edward A. Bowen, Esq., and of Harper and Brothers.)

64 JOHNNY BARTHOLOMEW

(By special permission of the author, and of Harper and Brothers.)

65 HIS NAME

(By special permission of Dr. George J. Preston.)

66 OLD BRADDOCK

(By special permission of the author.)

67 IN APIA BAY (Morituri vos salutamus)

(By special permission of the author, and of The Youth’s Companion.)

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NOTES

[For information incorporated in the notes the Editor is indebted to many of the authors represented in the volume. He has also, in several instances, received valuable suggestions from Mr. Francis F. Browne’s “Bugle Echoes.” The notes are intended to be suggestive rather than in any sense exhaustive.]

In Time of Strife

1. Paul Revere’s Ride. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most widely read and most beloved American poet, was born in Portland, Maine, February 27, 1807, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had long resided, March 24, 1882.

Paul Revere, who was a self-taught engraver upon copperplate, and who at the time of the Revolution was one of the four engravers in America, rendered his first important service as a messenger in connection with the throwing overboard of the tea in Boston harbor. Before he took his most famous ride he had traveled several thousand miles in the interest of the “patriot” cause, and after

continued to act as a bearer of dispatches. He was one of the committee of upwards of thirty formed in Boston to watch the movements of the British soldiers. On the memorable evening of April 18th, troops were observed marching toward the bottom of the Common. About ten o’clock Revere was apprised of this fact, whereupon he at once repaired to the house of Dr. Joseph Warren (afterward General Warren), one of the committee. There he discovered that an “express,” one William Dawes, had already been sent by land to Lexington.{194} Hurriedly seeking his friend, Robert Newman, the sexton of the “Old North Church” (Christ Church, Salem Street), and arranging for the display of the signal previously agreed upon, Revere set out. He succeeded in reaching Lexington before Dawes, who joined him about half an hour after his arrival. The two, together with Dr. Prescott, “a high Son of Liberty,” started in company for Concord, but were intercepted at Lincoln by a party of British. Revere and Dawes were captured, but Prescott managed to escape by

jumping his horse over a stone wall. It was he who rode on to Concord, alarming the countryside as he went.

Of Dawes’s part in the enterprise of the night, Helen F. More wrote thus humorously in the Century Magazine for February, 1896:

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Paul Revere was born within sight of the “Old North Church,” and almost under its shadow he lived and died (1735-1818). It is fitting, then, that to-day the passer should see, imbedded in the solid masonry of the tower, a tablet bearing this inscription:

THE SIGNAL LANTERNS OF PAUL REVERE DISPLAYED IN THE STEEPLE OF THIS CHURCH APRIL 18, 1775, WARNED THE COUNTRY OF THE MARCH OF THE BRITISH TROOPS TO LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.

2. Mary Butler’s Ride. By Benjamin Franklin Taylor.

Benjamin Franklin Taylor was born in Lowville, New York, July 19, 1819. He was best known as a lecturer. He died in Cleveland, Ohio, February 24, 1887.

Of the poem the author says: “The story of ‘Mary Butler’s Ride’ is unembellished truth. To one of her grandsons, J. M. Taylor, Esq., of New York, I am indebted for the incident. To hear men say,—those far-away boys of hers, and yet busy in life’s affairs,—‘many a time I have heard her tell the story!’ brings the gray-eyed Mary Butler strangely near. It is like raising a dead century to instant resurrection.”

1. 39. Stark (John, 1728-1822), a Continental brigadier-general who distinguished himself at Bunker Hill and Bennington.

1. 84. Putnam (Israel, 1718-1790), a Continental major-general, active at Bunker Hill and in various other engagements until stricken by paralysis in 1779. His daring escape from the British soldiers by riding down a flight of stone steps in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, occurred in March, 1779.

3. The Surprise at Ticonderoga. By Mary Anna Phinney Stansbury.

Mary Anna Phinney Stansbury, a magazine writer who resides in Appleton, Wisconsin, was born in Vernon, New York, October 5, 1842.

Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, though born in Litchfield, Connecticut (January 10, 1737), early removed to Vermont. He participated in the invasion of Canada under General Schuyler, and was there captured and sent a prisoner to England, where he suffered many privations. It was largely through his instrumentality that Vermont was{196} recognized as an independent State. He died in Burlington, February 13, 1789.

The fortress of Ticonderoga (a corruption of the Iroquois “Cheonderoga,” meaning “rushing waters”) was erected by the French, in 1755, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, near the outlet of Lake George. It was originally called Fort Carillon (chime of bells) from the neighboring waterfall (see stanza 6). It was here that the French under Montcalm (stanza 13) repulsed the English under Abercrombie, on the 8th of July, 1758.

Allen’s bold capture was effected on the morning of May 10, 1775.

At the time of the taking of Ticonderoga by Allen, the garrison consisted of but forty-eight men under the command of Captain Delaplace. The Continental Congress, which Allen invoked at the time of the surrender, had not yet organized. It held its first session six hours later on that very day.

Stanza 11. King David. See 2 Samuel v., 23, 24.

The Vermont “Green Mountain Boys,” mentioned so prominently in a number of engagements in the Revolution, were first organized in 1772 to resist the civil power of New York.

In connection with Mrs. Stansbury’s poem it may be interesting to read Robert Louis Stevenson’s ballad, “Ticonderoga.”

4. Montgomery at Quebec. By Clinton Scollard.

Clinton Scollard, born in Clinton, New York, September 18, 1860.

Richard Montgomery was a native of the North of Ireland. He entered the British army at the age of twenty, and served with distinction under Wolfe, and later in the campaign against the Spanish West Indies. Marrying a daughter of Robert R. Livingston, and settling upon the Hudson, at Rhinebeck, he espoused the cause of the colonists at the opening of the war. In the expedition against Canada he was second in command under Schuyler, with the rank of brigadier-general. The attack upon Quebec was made early in the morning of the 31st of December, 1775. Montgomery’s death was regarded as a great public calamity. Congress passed resolutions of regret and condolence, and Chatham and Burke eulogized the dead leader on the floor of the British Parliament. At the time of his death he was thirty-eight years of age.

Stanza 6. Wolfe (James), the “hero of Louisburg” and the conqueror of Quebec, fell upon the Plains of Abraham in his thirty-second year. He is to this day regarded as one of the half dozen most noted generals that England has produced. Quebec was taken on the 13th of September, 1759.{197}

5. The Maryland Battalion. By John Williamson Palmer.

John Williamson Palmer, a Baltimore physician, the author of the famous lyric, “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” and Bret Harte’s forerunner in “breaking the virgin soil of California in the field of American letters,” was born in the city of Baltimore, April 4, 1825.

This ballad celebrates the heroism of the “Maryland Battalion” at the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, where they checked the advance of Cornwallis, and saved a portion of Stirling’s command from capture. Two hundred and fifty-nine were left dead on the field.

Stanza 2. It was in the Flatbush district, on the American left, that General Sullivan was driven back by the Hessians and flanked by Clinton’s light infantry and dragoons.

Martense’s lane was a “pass,” or road, on the southern border of Greenwood Cemetery. Freeke’s Mill (stanza 4) stood upon Freeke’s mill-pond at the head of Gowanus Creek.

Stanza 4. Grant, the British general who commanded the left wing in the battle of Long Island. It was he who declared in the House of Commons that the Americans could not fight, and said he would undertake to march from one end of the continent to the other with five thousand men.

Stanza 5. Stirling (William Alexander), commonly called Lord Stirling, was the eldest son of James Alexander Stirling, heir presumptive to the earldom of Stirling, who fled to America in 1716 after having been actively involved in the Jacobite conspiracy of the previous year. Lord Stirling was born in New York City in 1726. He was aide-de-camp and secretary to General Shirley in the French and Indian War, and received a commission as brigadier-general in the Continental army in 1776. After the battle of Long Island, Congress made him a major-general. He died at Albany in January, 1783.

Mordecai Gist was a major in the “Maryland Battalion” who subsequently rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He was a native of Baltimore.

6. Arnold at Stillwater. By Thomas Dunn English.

Thomas Dunn English, a physician of Newark, New Jersey, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1819. Since early life Dr. English has been a contributor to the periodicals of the day. His popular ballad, “Ben Bolt,” appeared in 1842.

Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut, January 3, 1740. He was in command of a volunteer company at the outbreak of the Revolution, and marched at once to Cambridge. He served with great{198} bravery on Lake Champlain, in Canada, and at Stillwater. After his treason he received a brigadier-general’s commission in the British army. At the close of the war he went to England, where he resided most of the time until his death, June 14, 1801. The second battle of Stillwater (sometimes called Bemis’s Heights and sometimes Saratoga) was fought October 7, 1777. Of Arnold’s part in this battle George William Curtis says, in his Centennial Oration: “The British, dismayed, bewildered, overwhelmed, were scarcely within their redoubts, when Benedict Arnold, to whom the jealous Gates, who did not come upon the field during the day, had refused a command, outriding an aide whom Gates had sent to recall him, came spurring up: Benedict Arnold—whose name America does not love,—whose ruthless will had dragged the doomed Canadian expedition

through the starving wilderness of Maine, who, volunteering to relieve Fort Stanwix, had, by the mere terror of his coming, blown St. Leger away, and who on the 19th of September had saved the American left. Benedict Arnold, whom battle stung to fury, now whirled from end to end of the American line, hurled it against the great redoubt, driving the enemy at the point of the bayonet; then flinging himself to the extreme right, and finding there the Massachusetts brigade, swept it with him to the assault, and streaming over the breastworks, scattered the Brunswickers who defended them, killed their colonel, gained and held the point which commanded the entire British position, while at the same moment his horse was shot under him, and he sank to the ground wounded in the leg that had been wounded at Quebec. Here, upon the Hudson, where he tried to betray his country; here, upon the spot where, in the crucial hour of the Revolution, he illustrated and led the American valor that made us free and great, knowing well that no earlier service

can condone for a later crime, let us recall for one brief instant of infinite pity the name that has been justly execrated for a century.”

Horatio Gates, who commanded the American forces at the battle of Stillwater, was an Englishman by birth, and had served under Braddock. He was made adjutant-general at the opening of the Revolution, and accompanied Washington to Cambridge when “the great Virginian” went thither to take charge of the army. Just before the battle of Stillwater Gates superseded General Schuyler in the command of the army of the north. He suffered a disastrous defeat at Camden, when at the head of the southern forces. His patriotism was undoubted, but he lacked the judgment of a great commander.

Burgoyne (John, 1723-1792), who commanded the British forces at{199} the battle of Stillwater, had distinguished himself in Portugal, and had also been a member of the British Parliament before coming to America. Much was expected of his expedition. It was intended to cut the colonies in twain, and thus crush the rebellion. Burgoyne was at one time commander-in-chief in Ireland. During the closing years of his life he devoted himself to literature.

Stanza 5. Poor (Enoch), a New Hampshire brigadier-general who served with distinction in the Continental army until 1780, when he died at Hackensack, New Jersey.

Learned (Ebenezer), a Massachusetts brigadier-general who had served in the French and Indian War.

Stanza 6. Cilley (Joseph), a New Hampshire colonel who was later in the commands of General Wayne and General Sullivan.

Stanza 7. Major Ackland, of the Grenadier corps, a most gallant British officer, was shot through both legs in this battle. He recovered, but after his return to England he was slain in a duel into which he was drawn through his defence of the bravery of the Americans.

Stanza 12. Armstrong (John), a Pennsylvania major, at first attached to the staff of General Hugh Mercer, and later to that of General Gates, with whom he remained until the close of the war.

Stanza 16. Brooks (John), a Massachusetts colonel who afterward became adjutant-general.

Wesson (James), a Massachusetts colonel who commanded a regiment in Learned’s brigade.

Livingston (James), a New York colonel who commanded a regiment in Learned’s brigade.