Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-07-06
JOHN BURNS, OF GETTYSBURG.

lie was the fellow who won renOwn,
The only fellow who didn't back down
When the rebels rode through his native town:
But held his own in the fight next day
When all his townsfok ran away.
That in July sixty-three
The very day that General Lee
Flower of Southern chivalry,
Ballled and beaten, backward reced
From stubborn Meade and barren field
might tell how but the day before
John Burns stood at his cottage door
Looking down the village street
Where in the shade of his peaceful vine
He heard the low Of his gathered kline,
And felt their breath with incense sweet
Or might say when the sunset burned
The old farm gable. he thought il turned
The milk that fell, in 4 babbling food
Into the milk-pa, red Blood
Or how he fancied the hum of bees
Were bullets buzzing among the trees.
But all such anciful thoughts as these
Were strange to practical man like Burns.
Who minded only his own concerns,
Troubled no more by fances fine
Than Of his eam-eyed ong-taled kline.
Quite od-fashioned and matter-of-fact
Slow to argue but quick to act.
That was the reason some folks say,
lie fought 50 we'll on that terrible day.
And il terrible. On the right
Ragged for hours the heavy fight
Thundered the battery double bass
Difficult music for to face;
While on the left-where now the graves
Undulate like the living waves
That all that day unceasing swept
Up to the pits the rebels kept
Round-shot ploughed the upland glades
Sown with bullets reaped with blades
Shattered fences here and there
Tossed their spnters in the air.
The very trees were stripped and bare;
The barns that once held golden grain
Were heaped with haryests Of the slain;
The cattle beloved on the plain
The turkeys screamed with might and main
And brooding barn-fowl left their rest
Win strange shells bursting in each nest.
Just where the tide OF battle turns
Erect and lonely stood old John Burns
How dc YOU think the man was dressed?
lie ancient long buff vest
Yellow as saGron,-but his best
And. buttoned his manly breast
Was bright blue coat with 4 rolling collar
And large gilt buttons of a dollar
With tails that the countryfolk called .swaller.
He wore broad-brimmcd. bell-crowncd hat
White as The locks on which ii sat
Never had such a sight been seen
For forty years the village green
Since old John Burns a country beau
And went to the cuttings long ago
Close to his elbows all that day.
Veterans Of the Peninsula
Sunburnt and bearded charged away;
And stripngs downy of lip and chin,
Clerks that the home guard mustered in
Glanced they passed at the hat he wore
Then At the rifle his right hand bore
And hailed him, from out their youthful lore
With scraps of a slangy repertoire:
How are you, White HAITI" Put her through
Your heads level and Bully for you!''
Called him Daddy begged he d disclose
The name Of the tailor who made his clothes
Aud what the value he set on those;
While Burns, unmindful Of eer and scofr
Stood there picking the rebels off
With his long brown rifle and bel-crown hat
And the swallow-tas they were laughing at
Twas but a moment for that respect
Which clothes all courage their voices checked
And something the widest could understand
Spake in the old mans strong white hand;
And his corded throat and the lurking frown
OF his eyebrows under his old bell-crown;
Until they gazed there crept an awe
Through the ranks in whispers, and saw
In the unique vestments and long white hair
The Past of the Nation in battle there
And some of the soldiers since declare
That the CLEAN Of his old white hat afar
Like the crested plume Of the brave Navarro
That day their orillamme Of war.
So ragged the battle. You know the rest
How the rebels beaten and backward pressed
Broke at the final charge and ran.
At which John Burns-a practical man
Shoudered his rifle unbent his brows
And then went back to his bees and cows
That is the story Of old John Burns
This is the moral the reader learns:
In fighting the battle the questions whether
You II show hat that white. OF 4 feaherl
Bret Hartc