National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-04-26
TUE BALLAD OF NEW ORLEANS.
BY GEORGE II. BOXER

And. as ship join'd ship, the comrades
Their lines ofbattle drew.
The moon through the fog was casting
4 blur Of lurid light,
As the captains latest order
Was hash'd into the night
"Steam on! and, whatever fortune
May follow the attack,
Sink with your bows all nOrthward:
No vessel must turn back"
twas hard, when we heard that order,
To smother a rising shout;
For il waken'd the life withinus,
And we bUrn'd TO give it out.
All WRAPPED in the foggy darkness,
Brave Bailey moved ahead;
And stem after stern his gunboats
To the starbOard station led.
Next Farragut's stately flagship
To port her head inclined:
And midmOSt, and most in danger,
Bells squadron closed behind.
All, many prayer was murmurd
For the homes we neer might see;
And the silence and night grew dreadful
With the thought Ofwhat must be.
For many tall. stout fellow
Who stood at his quarters then,
In the damp and dismal moonlight,
Never saw the sun again.
Close down by the yellow river,
In their Oozy graves they rot;
Strange vines and strange flowers grow Ger thel
And their far homes know them not.
But short was our time of musingi
For the rebel forts discern'd
That the whole great feet was moving,
And their batteries on Us turn'd
Then Porter burst out from his nortars,
In jets of fiery spray,
As if a volcano had open'd
Where his leaf-clad vessels lay.
HowIing, and screechiEg, and wbizzing,
The bomb-shells arch'd on high,
And then, like gigantic meteors,
Droppd swiftly from the sky
Dropp'd down On the low, doom'd fortress
A plague Ofiron death,
SCATTERING earth and granite 10 atoms
With their pufIs of sulphurous breath.
The whole air quaked and shudder'd
As the great globes rose and fell.
And the blazing shores lOOkd awful
AS the open gates of hell.
Fort Jackson'a and Fort st. Philip,
And the battery OH the right,
By this time were flashing and Numbering
Out into the murky night
Through the hulks and the cables, suDder'd
BY the bold Itasca's crew,
Went Bailey in silence, though round him
The shells and the grape-shOt flew.
No answer he made to their welcome,
Till abeam st. Philip bore;
Then, oh! but he sent them a greeting
In his broadsideS' steady roar
Meanwhile the old man in the Hartford
Had ranged 10 Fort Jackson's side:
What sight! he slOw'd his engines
Till he barely stemmed the tide.
Yes, paused in that deadly tornado
Ofcase-shOt and shell and ball,
Not a cables length from the fortress,
And he lay there, wood 10 wall!
have you any notion, you Jandsmen,
Who have seen a fcld-fight won.
OfcanSter, grapeshcI, and shrapneD
Hurld out from a ten-inch gun?
/ tell you, the air is nigh solid
With the bowling iron fight:
And twas such tempest blew Germs
Where the Hartford lay That night.
Perchd alOft in the forward rigging,
With his restless eyes aglow,
Sat Farragut, shouting his orders
To the men who fought below.
And the forts huge faces of granite
Were splinter'd and rent in twain.
And the masses seemed slowly melting,
Like snow in q tOrrid rain.
Now quicker and quicker we fred,
Till between us and the foe
A torrent of blazing vapOr
Was leaping to and fro;
While the fort, like mighty cauIdron,
Was boiling with flame and smoke.
And the stone flew alOft in fragments,
And the brick into powder broke.
So thick fell the clouds DER the river
You could hardly see your hand,
When we heard from the foremost rigging
Old Farragut's sharp command:
Full head! Steam across to ST. Philip!
Starboard battery, mind Your aim,
FOrecastle, there. shift your pivots! Now
Give them a taste of the samer'
st. Philip grew faint in replying
It's voice of thunder was drOwn'd.
" But, ha! what is this? Back the engines!
Back, back! The ship is aground"'
And down the swift current came sweeping
a raft spouting sparks and fame;
Push'd on by an irOn-clad rebel,
Under our port side it came.
At once the good Hartford was blazing,
Below, aIOft, fore and aft,
ave are Iostr' mo, no; we are movingu'
Away whirled the cracking raft.
The fire was soon quench'd. One last broadside
We gave 10 the surly fort;
For above us the rebel gunbOats
Were wheeling like devils al sport.
And into our vacant station
Had glded bulky form:
Twas Cravens stout Brooklyn, demanding
Her share of the furious ST Orm.
We could hear the shot of st. Philip
Ring on her armOr of chain,
And the crash OF her answering brOadsides
Taking and giving again.
We could hear the low growI of Craven,
And Lowry's voice. clear and calm.
While they swept off the rebel ramparts
As clean as your open palm.
Then ranging close under our quarter,
Ont burst from the smoky fogs
The queen of the waves the Varuna.
The ship of the bold Charley Boggs.
He waved his blue cap as he passed us;
The blood of his glorious race.
OF Lawrence the hero was burning
Once more in living face.
Right and left flash'd his heavy hreadsides;
Rams, gunboats-it matter'd not;
Wherever rebel flag ffoated
Was target for his shot.
All burning and sinking around him
Lay five Ofthe foe; but he
The victor, seem'd doomd with the Vanouisb'd,
When along dash'd the gallant Lee.
And he took up the bloody conflict,
And, so well his part he bore,
That the river ran fire behind him.
And glimmeT'd from shore 20 shore.
But while powder would burn in cannon,
Till the water drOwnd his deck,
BOggS pounded away with his piyots
From his slowly-settling wreck.
think our old captains in heaven,
As they LOOKED upon those deeds,
Were proud of the flower of that navy
ofwhich they planted the seeds.
Paul Jones, the knight-errant of ocean,
Decatur, the lord of the seas,
Hull, Lawrence, and cambridge, and Bddle
And Perry, the peer of all these.
If Porter beheld his descendant
With some human pride on his lip
ktrust, through the mercy of Heaven,
His soul was forgiven that slip.
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