River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-06-18


IT'S like stirring living embers, when, at eighty,
enc remembers
All the achiugs and the quakings Of 'the
times that tried mems souls;"
When talk of Wing and Tory when | tell
the Rebel story,
To you the words are ashes, but to me they're
burning Goals.
l had heard the muskets" rattle of the April
running battle;
Lord Percy's hunted soldiers, can see their
red coats S ,ill
But a deadly chill comes DER me, as the day
looms up before me,
When thousand men lay bleeding on the
slopes Of Bunker's Hill.
Twas peaceful Summers morning, when
the hrst thing gave US warning
was the booming OF the cannon from the river
and the shore;
Child" says grandma, "what's the matter,
what is all this noise and clatterf
Have those scalping Indian devils come to
murder us once moreP
Poor old soul my sides were shaking in the
midst OF all my quaking,
10 hear her talk OF Indians when the guns be-
gan TO roar:
She Lad seen the burning village, and the
slaug ter and the pilage,
When the Mohawks killed her father with
their bullets through his door.
Then said, Snow, 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 won't be gone
minute
For minute then started. | was gone the
hve-long day.
No time for bodice-lacing or for looking-glass
grimacing;
Down my hair went as | hurried, tumbling
halfway to my heels;
God forbid your ever knowing, when there's
blood around her flowing,
How the lonely, helpless daughter of quiet
household feels I
In the street heard a humping and know
1t was the stumping
Or the Corporal, our old neighbor, on that
wooden leg he wore,
With a knot OF women round hint was
lucky had found him,
So followed with the others, and the Corpo-
raj marched before.
They were making for the steeple, the old
soldier and his people;
The pigeons circed round us as we climbed
the creaking stssr.
Just across the narrow river-.oh, 80 close il
made me shiver
Stood fortress on the hilltop that but yes
H~AN"y Noo bakO'
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 GOMEZ
The morning slowly wasted, not morssl had
we tasted,
And our heads were almost splitting with the
cannons' deafening thrill,
When figure tall and stately round the ram
part strobe sedately;
II was PRESCOTT, one since told me; he CON-
manded on the hill.
Every woman's heart grew bigger when we
saw his manly figure,
With the banyan buckled round It, standing
up so straight and tall;
Like gentleman of leisure who Is strolling 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 were forming;
At noon in marching order they we're moving
TO the piers;
How the layonets cleaned and glistened, as
we looked tar down and listened
To the tramping and the drum beat of the
belted grenaliers
At length the men have started, with cheer
lit seemed faint-hearted),
In their scarlet regimentals, with their KNAPP
sacks on their backs,
And the reddening, ripping water, as after
sea-fghts slaughter,
Round the barges gliding onward blushed like
blood along their tracks.
30 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 fasting
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 eartnwork lying, all the balls
above them flying,
Our people need not hurry; go they wait and
answer not.
Then the Corporal, our old cripple the would
swear sometimes and tipple)-
He had heard the tullets whistle lin the old
French war; before
Calls out in words OF jeering, just as ifthey
all were hearing--
And his wooden leg thumps fercely on the
dusty beliry noor:-.
''ohl fire away, We villains, and earn King
Georges shlllin's,
But yen waste ton of powder before a rebel
falls;
You may bang the dirt and welcome, they're
as safe as Dan'l Malcolm
Ten foot beneath the gravestone that you've
splintered with your ballsp
In the hush Of expectation, in the awe and
trepidation
Of the dread approaching moment, we are well
nigh breathless all;
Thong h the rotten bars are falling on the rick
ely belfry railing,
We are CrUwding up against them like the
waves against wall
Just glim Sc (the air is clearer, they are near
er,--nearer, NEARER,
When fiash--a clring smoke wreath--then
crash-the ple shakes.
The deadly truce is ended; the tempests
shroud is rerded;
Like morning inist il gathered, like thun-
der-cloud u breaks
Oh the sight our eyes discover as the blue
black smoke blows over
The red coats stretched in windrows az afnow.