The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-04-15
MONOCACY.
FoLGER M'KINsEY, IN FREDERICK NEWS

FoLGER M'KINSEY, IN FREDERICK NEWS.
In the fierce, white heat OF the summer day,
Hark, to the batteries roundelay.
AhorSe and afoet, in heart and smoke,
| Through the still, white morning the ba:tl
broke.
And all along the rivers brink
And tired gunners s:oop drink.
ITO the charge.'' and Gordan's voice wa
heard.
The gray-coat army moved at the word.
Down from the mountain, full and fast,
With war in the breath of the bugle blast,
Through Fredericks's half deserted street
1t swept It the rivers brink to meet.
The July sun looked down, looked down,
As out on the white road past the town,
The warring hosts in Il double quick
Rushed to the charge. The weak the sick,
" ere left to the mercy OF women brave,
While on to the river the gray hosts draye.
And there. An! there is stern array,
On hill and in hollow the blue coats lay.
''They comet and the cry from man TO man
Along the ranks of.the warriors ran.
The hoois beat hard on the stony pike.
And sparks fly out as the iron shoes strike.
But there before them an army stood,
With Wallace, in all his soldierhood.
They meet, they charge, advance, fall back.
A little current of blood in their track
Sweeps down to the winding current that lay
At loot of the sweet, brown fields of hay,
Whose virgin waters that life stream turned
crimson current A hot sun burned.
All day the beams OF his ancient fire
Danced on the sabres and bayonets dire,
Fevering the temples Of men who plunged,
Breast to breast, where the armies lunged;
Over the ridge of the river hurled
Tie batteries doomed. The flags unfurled,
Stood still in the breeze to wait, to wait
Stood still and watched as the tide o. fate
Turned blue, turned gray, and back again,
While ever and ever the fierce shells rain.
Take the bridge and advance,' Twas a use
less word
They needed not who CHANGING heard.
The bridge stood charred and the river swept
Round burienless pillars that stonily slept
In midst OF the roar and.the deaening shock,
While the blue coats chUckled and turned tC
mock.
Then the tide, then the tide, plunge in, ad
vance,
A thousand in gray sprnng forth to the chance
On, on to the heights beyond they strove-
Valor and vim were not far to prove
And as closer and closer the rim ranks drew
The roll of the dead and wounded grew.
''Stand steady my men. Hold well your height
Outhanked on the lett, stand staunah to the
right.
H old 10 your post till day is done.
If we die, its we'll. Save Washington"
And then, as the boom Of the battle broke,
The lines were lost in the lines of smoke.
Red the river, scarlet flood,
Swol'n with its gurgling burden of blood.
They reel, they are lost. the hillside is swept!
The left has been routed, the right has not kept
And there, at two of the afternoon,
Twas over. And sweet breath OF June
The wind blew up from the fields and broke
Through the melting mSts of the battle smoke.
But even the sun looked down that way
On still. white faces and forms that lay.
With crimson stains on temple and breast,
And peace on eyeIids death closed rest.
The old and the young, the blue and the gray,
Moved down on the harvest-tield that day
Moved down that the goal at Washington
BY the gray-coat army might not be won
While many loved one otherwhere
Waited, and wondered, and murmured a
prayer.
All. well the harvest they could not see
Death gathered that day at Monoeacy.
FREDERICK, March ,.