The Shasta courier., 1869-04-10
GFoR THE CoURIER.]
FORT SUMTER--APRIL IL, lS0Is


Of how our flag was first assailed,
When old Fort Sumter fell.
Twas eight long years ago to day.
With mortar and petard,
The rebels raised the orifamme
OF the Gascon, Beauregard.
Dark days had Ger our people spread;
The curse foretold of yore
By patriot fathers hallowed lips,
Had smote the nation sore;
The Federal Unions hallowed chain
To fetters harsh had turned,
And the pent-up fires OF treason rage
In many a bosom burned
Still loyal hearts were praying TOD,
Who did our nation form,
To interpose omnipotence
And turn aside the storm.
In vain were prayers; the multitude
Were clamorous for strife;
And the doughty slave-lords cried for war
War to the very knife
And eight long years ago this morn,
Upon a foreign strand,
A patriot stood weeping as
lie thought of our dear land:
Ny country, oh, my country
Banner red, white and blue
When I forget America
May God forget me too !''
Eight years ago this morning,
hundred loyal souls
Tramped Snmter's storied battlements
Beneath Old Glory's folds. r
They saw the flash of Moultrie's guns,
From rebel casemates start
They knew full welf that Beauregard
Had fired the Southern heart.
Then out spoke Robert Anderson:
MY gallant lads, to-day
Well fight like freemen stauneh and true,
And still maintain ous sway;
Our country gave that fair flag,
With hue of mornings sky,
Blended with clouds and sunshine,-
Well stand by it or die.'
But all day long the traitors guns
Assailed that banner fair;
The whizzing bomb and shrapnel
Shrieked thro' the midnight air;
For forty long and weary hours,
While shot and shell rained down,
The scanty hundred bore their cross;
nation wears the crown.
AT last, worn out and weary,
These true and loyal sons
Of Freedom fell exhausted
Beside their shattered guns;
While Anderson's bold face grew sad
With painful, bitter frown,
As he called the trusty boys in blue
To haul =" Old Glory" down.
Loud pealed the bells of Charleston,
Cannon thundered at Mobile,
They thought the Yankees neck was crushed
By the traitors iron heel
They needed not proverb,
hich ages has survived,
That whom the angry gods destroy
They first to madness drive.
Twas most chivalrous, by my faith
hundred soldiers crushed
By twenty times their number,
But that the Southrons hushed.)
Loud laughed the Gascon, Beauregard,
When Anderson did yield.
But Beauregard remembered him
On Shiloh's crimson field.
Beaten, but yet unconquered,
Crushed, but to rise again,
That banner dropped a moment,
Undimmed and free from stain.
Up rose ten million voices
From out the loyal North
We're coming, Father Abraham"
Their valor-song rang forth.
Rhode Island gave us Burnside,
To tower above the fight,
And Illinois bade noble Grant
"Go, battle for the rights"
Miss our gave us Sherman,
Thank God, have him still
The Buckeye State sent Sheridan,
And don't he Phil the bill?
From fair Willamette's bright cascade,
Where mantling rainbows arch,
"By Freedoms side," Gray Eagle cried,
" NV mauhood's proud to march -
And CaliforRia, sunset queen,
Whose golden mantle shrouds
Pacific waves, sent Fighting joe
To conquer 'bove the clouds
Four long years they fought, and then
The sounds of slaughter cease,
There came in grim Belona's stead
The white-winged angel, Peace
Twas none too soon the mourning bells
On hill, and plain, and wave,
Told us that beauty's starry eyes
We're r-dimmel for the brave
The soldier proud has sheathed his blade,
The cannon hushed its roar,
And GRANT, the silent warrior sits
Where JACKSON sat before:
The lesson taught in eighteen twelve,
Still guides the nations school;
That man whose courage saved our flag
Is good enough to rule.
No more shall Wagner's brazen throats
The tale of carnage tell,
Nor pour on Sumter's battlements
The lurid rain of hell !;
For Freedoms star-wrought mantle robes
Old Carolinas sod,
To teach no power of man can break
Union born of God.
God bless our common country
Her noble sons so free,
Who fought at Sumter, bear the praise
Of centuries to be.
One broad, unbroken empire,
One tongue from shore to shore,
One hope, one heart, one flag, one God,
One UNION eyermore. T.B.M.