The Shasta courier., 1864-12-10
THE IRISH BRIGADE.
BIZ nren F. n'DERnorr

There are sounds in the camp, ON the shore of d,v
Each brave heart handled his rifle;
Aad he thought of the loved ones far away.
And he thought on his life as a trife
knceiing down to the earth the soldier prayed
mother bad taught him that prayer
But the urging strife made brief what he said,
And he gave to his God his cure.
Now from the ground, at the warning notes,
Five thousand heroes spring to arms,
And quick at their feet the curbing coats
Are flung. with the first alarms.
Impatient they wait their Chiefs command,
szsAndeuendcrN Nhy~<ieeps the morning star;
Its eclipse, behold Is now ut hand
planet in heaven is hailed in MEAeHER-
And the air is rent with wild huzzah
For the Stars and Stripes and Erin-go-Bragh!
His sword is drawn. and high in hand
By fronts arrayed he sweeps along;
% Foraeardi' is hailed rs the command,
And g Erin's Flag" the battle song
And the green plumes nod to the rising sun,
As it leads the way to each bristling gun;
And the soldiers soul is harp of joy,
Tuned to the glory of Fontenoy.
Solid In mass, as woods of oak,
Fierce for fray, as lions awoke,
Column and column, with martial tread,
Column and column march over the dead.
With shout and yell, and stunning peal,
Their vengeance leapt upon their steel
With shock and dash, and plunge and stroke,
Mid roaring seas of fire and smoke,
Their desperate talor shook the earth,
When the foe cried out, =" Who yare them birth 2"
Each heart was steel, each eye was fire,
With reeling cash from son and sire,
The pulse SO held the breath with might,
Each vein was soldier in the fight.
With rage, and wroth, and rushing tread,
Again they charge the rain of lead,
And vie with those who went before
To deck their brows with ribbon-gore;
When soul to soul they pressed attack,
The laundering cannon swept them back.
As more they saw red currents flow,
More fiercely on they charged the foe;
And as the dying gasped for life
Their spirit still impelled the strife
Like wounded pinions poising high,
The first to soar-the last to die.
Now cheering with his bugle blast,
The gallant MEAGHER fleets swiftly past;
Through teeming groans, and clash and jar,
His trumpet-voice thus sounds afar:
again to the charge, old Erin's sons
Again to the charge, and mount their guns;
Behold the Green! Think of its fame
Think how your sires baptized its name p
His courser's slain-on foot he fights,
And leads the way to Frederick Heights.
Again they charged-it was their last
On battled mounds their die was cast;
They sunk as meath the simoon's blast
In lonely dell, on hill and plain,
Where fade the slain and blooms the sod, -------
Memory shall DWELL with pride and pain,
While freedom lives the soul of God;
And poets strike joyous lay
And plaintive dirgc for its refrain
When Savery's power hath passed away,
And Natures laws shall rule again.
And now they've won. at noble price,
A shamrock with device:
Their Faith shall rest Malvern Hill,
And Antietam their Hope shall bear;
And Frederick Heights will have a rill,
Whose burden Charity shall wear.
This the device of the shamrock gem,
And MEAGHER, as Freedom, shall make the stem.
0 God, how grand In battles rage
Despising life, defying death,
Victory alone could those assuage
Whose names expired with parting breath.
Fame blushed for Fame, as heroes fell
They died for glory more sublime;
While Freedom struck their funeral knel,
Which rings for aye on the ear Of Time.