Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-12-29
The Drummer Boy of the Rappahan
y mock.


And prodigy of valor if you hear his story told.
At Fredericksburg's great battle
The soldiers heard the rattle
OF his drumI
There stood Burnside with his army in the soft De
cember mud,
With the Rappahannock rolling like war-dividing
q food;
While the batteries of Robert Lee that crowned the
farther ridge,
Dealing DEATH forbade the building OF the needed
pontoon bridge.
For Burnside came for battle,
And they knew it by the rattle
Ofthe drum!
When Burnside called for volunteers to make the
other bank,
The Rappahannock Drummer Boy was the first to
leave the rank;
And while q cheer for Henderson, went up from
every throat,
There followed thirty others, just enough to man
the boat;
He said: SIN stem the battle!"
And they heard 1t in the rattle
OF his drum!
'Clear out, youngsterl" said the captain, Back to
camp bid you gor'
And although he answered Yes, sir." still he kept
on thinking mol"
He was bound to that river he chung behind
the boat,
With his little legs a-kicking-half a-swimng, half
float;
He was eager for the battle
And to lead them with the rattle
OF his drum.
Lees batteries ceased firing from the heighths
bavond he TOWN
Or Burnside with his cannon would have knocked
When the little boat had landed through that special
storm of lead,
Nearly ell the men were wounded, more than half
the braves were dead;
And shell from out the battle
Had busted up the rattle
OF his drum.
the bank,
'Yank;"
He rushed into building just as he'd take the town.
But finding deserted thought best to burn down.
Adding to the smoke of battle,
And to make up for the rattle
Found rebel in the garden, kneeling down behind
the gate,
With his gun poked through knothole for some
poor unfortunate;
When he found he was not praying he hit upon a
plan
or his capture-so he shouted, Nov, surrender,
mister man.'
And in his boyish treble
He babe the frightened rebel
Drop his gun!
Though the boy looked very little, the gun looked
very big
To the .Reb" whose hair kept rising the bristes
pig
And he marched before the youngster who could
hardly raise his gun,
And took him DER the pontoon, shouting, Prisoner
number one!''
The youngster thinking he
Had captured General Lee
With his gun!
Three cheers went up along the line, as fast the
story
For Robert Henry Henderson,, the boy who took
the man!
And straight to General Burnside he took the man
In gray
The chieftain hailed him proudly as ''the hero OF
the dayr'
you've fired the men for battle
Much more than by the rattle
OF your drumr'
In the battle that succeeded he carried from
Doubly wounded; long Unconscious in the hospital
Horace Greeley heard the story, and with those In
his employ
Gave a silver drum to honor 'Rappahnnnock's
drummer boy!''
And the people gazed in wonder
To hear the storm and thunder
In his druml
ucastle Thunder.,-"Libby Prison'-twice captive
in the war!
In the list of youthful heroes he has no competitor
Grant and Lincoln gave him honor, and the people
of the day
Give him one wreath for his valor and another Tor
his play.
He initiates a battle
And the locomotive rattle
On his drum!
Drummer boy of Rappahannock"-write it on his |
toric page
And let every youth remember, who the story may
relate,
II in life he prove hero he'll be honored by the
great;
And his deeds in life's great battle
Shall far excel the rattle
OF drumI
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