Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-03-02

From men who sought the New World
When dark oppression broOded DER
Each land beyond lhe sea.
No royal favor gave them place,
Their wills alone their fortunes trace:
Tho rude did first their homes appear.
And often scant their table cheer,
They yield no point attained.
The savage OFT, with War-paint smeared,
Before their barricades appeared:
And sordid patrons, chartered bands.
More ruthless still, preyed on their lands
50 they but slowly gained.
In midnight fires their homes did fade.
And pestilence upon them preyed,
As from the forest, the morass,
The breezes, tainted, DER them pass,
And storms devoured as well.
Thus Charleston battled for place,
And honOred names her records grace;
Ihe country opened to her trade,
Was on the deep her flag displayed,
her numbers steady swell.
Thus schooled thro' all hundred wears.
Her sires and sons indulge no fears;
And when oppression pressed her claim.
They moved in freedoms van,
No paper stamped by Crown they use,
Rich cargOed teas they firm refuse:
They with the North make common cause
viii help resist or make the laws,
Accept no other plan.
Twas thus they stood, as rose the storm
Which gave their laws another form,
Weaned their affections from the king,
And bade them far allegiance fling,
And make the land their own.
Twas thus they stood when strife began,
And Lexington revealed the plan
The mother country'd held in store,
For those she long had wsrded DER,
But now had fully shown.
When come the notes of war begun,
Each mother calls to husband, son,
And these the arts Of peace forsake,
An Dqulckly preparation make,
To meet what may befall.
Tis none too soon they thus combine,
Tho some there are who do repine;
Tis now to soon they Moultrie trace,
And on her walls assume the place,
Where duty most may call.
Her walls arise, her bastions grow,
Embrasures frowning war-dOgs show;
Her parapets are filled with sand,
Forth gathered from the a-washed strand.
To make her men secure.
Her magazines of limit small,
viii answer to an earnest call;
Her eolors, floating free and fair,
The purpose Of those men declare,
''0ur affairs shall endure"
And who were they, those honored men,
Who bore the burden of the then:
A Moultrie stood, as leader stands,
A Marion seconds his commands,
A Jasper brave responds;
A Rutledge stirs the peoples hearts,
A Pinckney all his soul imparts,
A Lawrence nobly lends his voice,
A Martyr Hayne bespeakss his choice,
? A Lee alone desponds.
Ef
Their work went on, twas none too soon.
For on pleasant morn in June,
Within the ofing of the bay,
EXpedient foes before them Law,
Far reaching on the sea.
Their men-of-war were fine of form.
Frlgates and transports round them swarm,
Their decks with men ara all aglow,
So crimson do their trappings show:
Their music sounds of glSe.
With anxious hearts the patriots now
Themselves unto their labor bow;
Each day, each hour more perfect grow
Defenses they about them throw,
With an unceasing hand:
The God Of battles aids them well,
For rolling storms the ocean swell,
And adverse winds the feet defy
In every effort to come nigh
That small, unfaltering band.
Tho troops by thousands take their stand
Upon Long Islands glittering sand.
Sir Henry Clinton is defied
By an unceasing depth Of tide
To make assault avail.
Thus trial followed trial still,
Each party striving with will,
Until there came tn suspicious day
When Parker did his force array
With purpose to sssail.
With early morn the anchors rose
And for each ship place he chose:
The Active, Bristol, and Solebay,
With the Experiment he lay
For easy cannonade;
The Friendship and-ths Thunder bomb
We're placed to seal each gunner's doom;
The transports served the island men,
The Aetaeon, Sphinx, and Siren then
He sent to enflade.
The fleet arranged the people see,
And from each wharf, and roof, and tree,
With anxious hearts and eager eyes
They watch the curling smoke arise
The action is begun.
The Bristols broadsides open well,
The Thunderbomb now showers her shell,
And all along that anchored line
The belching fires Of battle shine
Beneath the nooD-tide sun.
Cool stood the men on Moultrie's walls.
And cooler still their leader calls,
''Our homes do now our valor claim.
Each gun be fred with careful aim,
That every shot may tell"
Then from the rsmparts incomplete,
Their telling shots those vessels greet,
Masts, rigging, hulls are pierced with ball,
AND gallant tars by hundreds fall,
With blood the waters swell.
Not so the FIRE upon the fort;
her palm-Ralls with their missiles sport
Ine yielding wood receives the stroke,
Inelr onward course by sand is broke,
Her men in safety stand.
And as the sun goes slowly down,
The glories Of the day they crown
By deed heroic, deed so brave,
That only he who strikes to save
The valor could command.
Their flagstaff rends straying ball
Their banner falls without the wall;
Ten thousand people note the loss
And anxious fears their bosom toss,
Surrender is the sign;
A moment only Jasper stands,
To uote that ensign in the sands,
Then mid the raining shot be springs,
And with 1t TO the bastion swings
On high the crescent shines.
The people note that ground Of blue,
Such noble act has brought to view,
And prayers and tears together rise,
Whilst moistened cheeks and swimming
eyes,
Attest the feeling deep;
And in the days that follow there
A banner wrought by Charleston's fair,
He oft above the battle swung.
Who pledged them with an honest tongue,
1t with bis life to keep.