The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-06-25
GRANDMOTHERS STORY OF BUNKER HILL
BATTLE
As She Saw 1t from the BeIfry.

'Tis like stirring living embers. when at
eighty, one remembers
All the achings and the quakings of the times
that tried mems souls ;"
When I talk Of Wing and Tory, when tell the
To you the words ashes, but to me they're
burning Goals.
I had heard the muskets' rattle of the April
running battle;
Lord Percy's hunted soldiers, I can see their
red coats still;
But a deadly chill comes DER me, as the day
looms up before me,
When a thousand men lay bleeding on the
slopes of Bunker Hill.
Twas peaceful summers morning, when the
first thing gave warning
Was the booming of the cannon from the river
and the shore;
&" Child, says grandma, whats the matter
What Il all this noise and chatter?
Have those scalpiDg Indian devils come to
murder US once more ?"
Poor old soul! My sides were shaking in the
midst of all my quaking,
To hear her talk of Indians when the guns
began to roar;
She had seen the burning village, and the
slaughter and the piilage,
When the MChawks killed her father with
their bullets through the door.
Then I said, " Now, dear old granny, don't
you fret and worry any,
For III soon come back and tell you whether
this is work or play;
There can't be mischief IN it, so 1 won't be
gone minute
For minute then I started. l was gone the
IVe-Ong day.
No time for bodice-lacing or for looking-glass
Down my hair went as I hurried tumbling
halfway to my heels;
God forbid your ever knowing, when there's
blood around her flowing,
How the lonely, helpless daughter of a quiet
household feels!
In the street I heard a humping and I knew
it was the stumping
Of the corporal, our old neighbOr on that
wooden leg he wore,
With a knot of women round hint was
lucky I had found him,
So 1 followed with the Others and the corporal
marched before.
They were making for the steeple-the old
soldier and his people
The pigeons circled round us as we climbed
the creaking stair.
Just across the narrow riYer-oh, so close it
made me shiverl
Stood a fortress on the hilltop that but yes
terday was bare.
Not slow our eyes to find it well we knew who
stood behind it,
Though the earth-work hid them from us, and
the stubborn walls were dumb
Here were sister, wife and mother, looking
Wild upon each other,
And their lips were white with terror as they
said; '' The hour has come !"
The morning slowly wasted, not a morseI had
we tasted,
And our heads we're almost splitting with the
the cannOns' deafening thrill,
When figure tall and stately round the RAM
part strobe sedate'y:
1t was Prescott, one since told me he COM
manded on the hill.
Every wonan's heart grew bigger when we
his manly figure,
With the banyan buckled round it, standing
up so straight and tall;
Like a gentleman of leisure who is strOlng
out for pleasure,
Through the storm of shells and cannon shot
He walked around the wall.
At eleven the streets were swarming for the
red-cOats' ranks we're forming
At noon in marching order they were moving
to the piers
How the bayOnets cleaned and glistened, as
we looked far down and listened
To the trampiing and the drum beat Of the
belted grenadiers,
At length the men have started, with cheer
(it seemed faint-hearted),
In their scarlet regimeutals, with their KNAPP
sacks on their backs,
And the reddenIng, ripping water, as after
sea-hghts slaughter,
Round the barges gliding onward blushed like
blood along their tracks.
So they crossed to the other border, and again
they formed in order;
And the boats came back for soldiers, came
for soldiers. soldiers still;
The time seemed everlasting to US women
faint and tasting
At last they're moving, marching, marching
proudly up the hill.
We can see the bright steel glancing all along
the lines advancing
Now the front rank fires vOlley-they have
thrown away their shot;
| For behind their earthwork lying, al the balls
above them flying,
Our people need not hurry; SO they wait and
answer not
Then the corporal, our old cripple Che would
| swear sometimes and tipple)-
| ne had heard the bullets whistle Gin the old
French war; before
| Calls out in words of jeeTing, just as if they
all were hearing
| And his wooden leg thumps ferCely on the
! dusty belfry floor -
.sOh! fire away, ye villains, and earn King
! Georges shillin's,
| But yen waste a ton of powder before rebel
| falls;
You may bang the dirt and welcome, they're
! as safe as Dan1 Malcolm
/ Ten foot beneath the gravestOne that you've
| splintered with your balls!"
In the hush Of expectation, in the awe and
trepidation
| OF the dread approaching moment, we are
we'll nigh breathless all;
| Though the rotten bars are falling on the
| rickety belfry railing,
We are crowdng up against them like the
waves against wall.
Just a glimpse Cthe air is clearer; they are
| NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
| When a flash-a curling smOke-wTeath-theI
! a crash-the steeple shake
| The deadly truce is ended: the tempest
! shrOud Is rended;
| Like a mOrning mist it gathered, Ike thun-
der-cloud it breaks
Oh the sight our eyes discover as the blue
black smoke blows over,
The red-coats stretched in windows a.
mower Takes his hay;
Here a scarlet heap is lying, there head
long crowd is flying
Like q biliow that has broken and shivero,
into spray
Then we cried. ''The troops are routed
They are beat-it can't be doubted
God be thanked, the fight ia over All! tn
grim old soldiers smile
| Tell us, tell Us Why You look so 2" 1--WE cOul,
! hardly speak, we shook SOD
! 60 Are they beaten Are they beaten Ar
they beaten - Wait a while"
Oh the trembling and the terror. for too soOl
we saw our error:
! They are bsffied, not defeated. We have driver
them back IN vain
And the columns that we're scattered. rOunj
colors that we're tatteTed
Toward the sulen, silent fortress turn thei
belted breasts again
All at once. ss we are gazing. 10 the roofs O
| Cnar4ear0syn blaEInr