Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-02-25
BATTLE SONG.
BY BEXJANIS F. TAYLrE.

Break up the camp, drowsy World
For the sHRoUDs are unturled,
And the dead drummers beat the long roll thr"ug
..t.. And the bugle-blown orders
1Ayade the dumb borders
Where the grave-digger dreamed he had lain then
# forlorn,
From old Saratoga,
From HcOnderoga,
From Bennington Bunker. and Lexington Green
They have marched back sublime
To the Sentries OF Time, .,
And have passed triumphant, unchallenged be
tween.
can hear the Hint-locks-
The old click of the clocks
That timed Liberty's step 10 no pendulum SWING!
When the bullets sped.
Woman smilingly said,
Let charm the dull weights till they hy and the,
sing?
All, those old blaeken'd ladies
We're Glory own cradles =
Rocked red-coat to sleep with each birth from tn
And the old fashioned fire
Blazed hotter and higher.
Till it welded the new world aud walled out tn,
Old.
BY battalions they come,
To the snarl of the drum
bleeding Feet that turn beautiful. printing th'
For roses seem blowing
Where 'er they are gong,
As if June with her blushes were buried below
The Lords old Retainers!
Eighty winters on furlOugh, the tidings ye bring,
Of the old royal Georges
And the old Valley EOrges,
Our cannon are telling: the People are King
Clear and strong Thnt far taI@ and near. near;
and they lower their dim eoIors all shivered aud
And their swords red with rust,
And their guns grey with dust,
And then shoulder to shoulder, the Living anu
Dead.
The broad age is line
Past and Present entwlne-
WewiIi finish the work that the Fathers begun,
Then those to their sleeping,
and these 10 their EsepIngy
Sneak Helmsman the words
Half battles, half swords
Let the PRESIDENTS March" be resOunding abroad;
With thy pen on the page
Keeping time with the Age,
ALL thy words without seabbards na-h gfandiy lor
Then the rafting roll of the musketeers
And the rufaed drums and the rallying cheers,
And the rifles burn with q keen desire,
Like the cracking whips Of the Hemlock IRE
And the singing shot and the shrieklng shell
And the splintery fire OF the shattered hell.
As the growing guns by batteries spoke
IN sgilables dropped from the thunder of God
fhe' thrcb OF the cloud where me arpmmef-pso'
And the ragged gaps in the walls of blue
Where the iron surge rOleQ neaNlg
That the Colonel builds with breath again,
As he cleayes the din with his close up men !!
And the groan torn out from the blaeken'd d lips
And the prayer doled slowly with the crimson drips
Ind the heamy loekin the dying eye.
S under the cloud the STARS go by
But his Soul marched on. the Captain said.
For the Boy in Blue can never be dead!
And the troopers sit in their saddles ALL
As the statues carved in the ancient hall,
And they watch the whirl from their breathless
ranks,
And the fingers work. of the sabre hand
Oh TO bid them live and TO make them grand!
And the bugie sounds to the charge at last,
And away they plunge, and the front IS passed,
And the jackets blue grow red as they ride,
And the scahbards toO that clank by their side,
And the dead soldiers deaden the strokes iron shod
Right into the cloud all spectral and dim,
Right up to the guns black throated and grim,
Right down on the hedges bordered with steel,
Right through the dense columns then right about
Hurrsh a new sxath through the harvest again
Hurrah for the FlagI To the battle, amen.
Oh, glimpse of clear heaven.
-o1E ARTILLERY rivenl
The Fathers old fallow God seeded With stars
Thy burrows were turning
When ploHshares were burning, - ,
And the half of each bout Is redder than Mars
Flaunt forever thy story,
Oh, wardrobe of glOry
Where the fathers laid down their NANTES oi Diue,
-. And challenged the ages,
AQh, grahdest Of pages
IN covenant solemn, eternal and trqel
oh Flag glory rifted
To-day thunder -drifted
Like flower Of strange grace on the crest OF
on some Federal fold
new tale shall be told,
And the record immortal emblazOn thy yergel