Thomas Dunn English

“ Of the struggle that would follow when we met the Briton’s might;
Of the horsemen fiercely spurring, of the bullets shrilly whirring,
Of the bayonets brightly gleaming through the smoke that wrapped the fight;
Of the cannon thunder-pealing, and the wounded wretches reeling,
And the corses gory red of the dead.
Quiet nature had no prescience; but the Tories and the Hessians
Heard the baying of the beagles that were hanging on their track ”

“ THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON.
I see that August morning now before me as I tell
The story of the stirring scenes which I remember well—
The battle-day of Bennington, and what thereon befell.
Yes! we were in the stubble where the hands had gone at dawn,
When, riding swiftly down the road, his dappled gray upon,
Whose flanks were marked with blood and foam, I saw my brother John.
His face was bright, his eyes alight, his bearing proud and high—
“Ho! whither do you speed so fast? Why do you hurry by,
While friends are eager for the news, John Manchester?” said I.
“To fight!” ”

“ That a crowd of scurvy rebels chased to hold eleven hundred—
Chased to hold eleven hundred, grenadiers both light and heavy,
Leading Percy, of the Border, on a chase surpassing Chevy.
Into Boston marched their forces, musket-barrels brightly gleaming,
Colors flying, sabres flashing, drums were beating, fifes were screaming.
Not a word about their journey; from the general to the drummer,
Did you ask about their doings, than a statue each was dumber;
But the wounded in their litters, lying pallid, weak, and gory,
With a language clear and certain told the sanguinary story. ”

“ And vainly from the Indians fell,
On puncheon roof and timber wall,
The fitful shower of leaden ball.
Now Betty’s brothers and her sire
Were with her in this ring of fire,
And she was ready, in her way,
To aid their labor day by day,
In all a quiet maiden might.
To mould the bullets for the fight,
And, quick to note and so report,
Watch every act outside the fort;
Or, peering from the loop-holes, see
Each phase of savage strategy—
These were her tasks, and thus the maid
The toil-worn garrison could aid. ”

“ Now Stark has come to Bennington, to lead us in the fray,
Where we may smite these Hessian wolves who babes and women slay?
Let baser men remain at toil, as such have done before,
Let women spin and children play before the farm-house door;
But till these knaves are driven hence I till the ground no more.
Come you and join me in the strife that Lexington began;
And as the foe comes down on us, and dares us man to man,
Let you and I acquit ourselves as stout Vermonters can.”
The words he uttered on our hearts fell fast in fiery rain ”

“ For in their hurried council there our leaders planned the fight,
That Herrick with three hundred men should march upon their right,
And Nichols on the left with more spared from our scanty might,
To join their forces in the rear, and there assault begin,
While we upon their front advanced at signal of the din;
And then let those who dealt their blows with fiercest vigor win.
Our forces stood without a stir, in silence grim and dark,
While like a statue on his steed so motionless sat Stark,
When suddenly, with finger raised, the general whispered—“Hark!” ”

“ Schuyler, unlike Arnold, was not merely a patriot, but a man of honor. He was ready to submit to wrong rather than betray the cause. The conduct of Arnold was the baser from the fact that Washington, who felt that the man had been wronged, labored to do him right, and had placed him in the responsible command of West Point, to pave the way to that distinction his services on the battle-field deserved. Arnold, therefore, added ingratitude and breach of confidence to treason. He seems to have had the courage of a bull-dog, but to have been totally lacking in moral principle. ”

“ And we met them—a squadron of dare-devils they—
But a sharp edge of bayonets kept them at bay,
While we emptied some barrels, with never a corse,
Though we wounded one rider and crippled his horse.
The rider pitched over; his comrades they heard
His yell as he fell; but they turned and they spurred,
For by this time our camp was aroused and poured in,
And the visitors stayed not their laurels to win;
When what does this Hotspur but spring to his feet,
And, ready a regiment singly to meet,
Draw weapon, and there, right in front of our line,
To guard bring his sabre, and cross it with mine. ”

“ To fight at New Orleans.
You say you’d like to hear me
The stirring story tell,
Of those who stood the battle
And those who fighting fell.
Short work to count our losses—
We stood and dropped the foe
As easily as by firelight
Men shoot the buck or doe.
And while they fell by hundreds
Upon the bloody plain,
Of us, fourteen were wounded
And only eight were slain.
The eighth of January,
Before the break of day,
Our raw and hasty levies
Were brought into array. ”

“ Those who survive in vain they strive; they may not fight nor run—
We pass them quickly to the rear, our captives every one.
And so we serve the Brunswicker that day at Bennington.
Then where their remnant lay at bay our angry torrent rolled—
As when a dam gives way, and leaves the waters uncontrolled—
Sweeping to break the square of steel in centre of their hold.
No peal of trump nor tap of drum our eager footsteps timed;
With firelocks clubbed or knife in hand, our faces powder-grimed,
Fatigue unfelt and fear unknown, the ridge of earth we climbed ”

“ How at Lexington the Briton mingled causeless crime with folly,
And a king endangered empire by an ill-considered volley.
Then each heart beat quick for vengeance, as the anger-stirring story
Told of brethren and of neighbors lying corses stiff and gory.
Stops the plough and sleeps the shuttle, stills the blacksmith’s noisy hammer,
Come the farmer, smith, and weaver, with a wrath too deep for clamor;
But their fiercely purposed doing every glance they give avouches,
As they handle rusty firelocks, powder-horns, and bullet-pouches ”

“ He is best who in motion is fleetest
When the white man is out on his track.
Oh, then fell around them a terror;
Oh, then how the enemy ran;
For each hunter, in chosen position,
With coolness of vengeance began
To take a good aim with his rifle,
And send a sure shot to his man.
Oh, then there was racing and chasing,
And fastly they hurried away;
They feared at those husbands and fathers,
And dared not stand boldly at bay;
And in front of his men, Kiskepila
Ran slightly the fastest they say. [Pg 29]
And well for the lives of the wretches
They fly from the brunt of the fight ”

“ I knew they would before the foe acquit themselves like men.
The sun arose, and still we marched, I somewhat in advance,
A voice cried, “Wer da? Halt!” I saw a musket-barrel glance.
“A friend,” I answered. “Freund von wem?” “A friend to Washington!”
The sentry fired and missed, and ran and cast away his gun;
For now behind me, pressing on, he saw our troops were near,
And in the distance on our left I heard Greene’s forces cheer.
“Move faster there!” cried Sullivan, “or Greene will get ahead.
Press on and use your steel, my men; we have no need of lead.” ”

“ On the left and farther off was the Casamata or arsenal, loop-holed, and surrounded by a quadrangular field-work. Ravines and ditches, irregularities of ground, the position of the Mexican troops, and their superiority in numbers, made the task exceedingly difficult. The attack was begun at daylight. The enemy fought desperately and bitterly. Carrying the Mexican guns in the open field, the Americans were driven back with great slaughter, but with sufficient support retook them. At right and left the battle raged with a fury that showed the courage and perseverance of both sides. ”

“ They stormed, at a loss, Cerro Gordo—
Every mile in their movement it cost;
And when they arrived at Puebla,
Some thousands of men they had lost.
“Ere our capital fell, and the city
By foreign invaders was won,
We called out among its defenders
Each man who could handle a gun.
Chapultepec stood in their pathway;
Churubusco they had to attack;
The Mill of the King—well, I fought there,
And they were a hard nut to crack.
“While their right was assailing the ramparts,
Our force struck their left on the field,
Where our colonel, in language that stirred us,
To love of our country appealed. ”

“ We handled our rifles, and looked to the priming.
But, stay! is this real, or only delusion?
What means their blank terror, their sudden confusion?
The whole of the foemen seem stricken with one dread—
’Tis Colonel John Harper, with horsemen a hundred!
We gaze but a moment in rapture and wonder—
Rides Harper like lightning, we fall like the thunder.
To saddle, M’Donald! your doom has been spoken;
The tigers are on you, the bars have been broken.
Whose horse is the swiftest may ride from the foray ”

“ The continually triumphant march of the American troops, under Scott, from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, in spite of greater numbers of opposing soldiers, fighting for their own soil, led many to undervalue the courage and endurance of the enemy. There never was a more signal error. The Mexicans fought fiercely and well; they displayed daring and steadiness, though they were not always able to stand before the bayonet, to whose uses they had not been trained. Their signal defeats, occurring after obstinate and bloody resistance, were due to the inefficiency of their general officers. ”

“ With rage that gave him double strength he raised the blade to smite.
And as it rose I heard a scream; Ruth rushed between us twain;
Fell terribly the keen-edged steel: my pretty dove was slain.
He shrank in horror; from his face all trace of color fled,
While I sank down upon my knees beside the pulseless dead;
And loud I cried, “A deed is thine which even fiends abhor!
Her soul shall rise and thine shall sink, thou bloody wolf of war!”
“Ach Gott!” he said, and spake no more; then, mounting on his steed,
Struck deep the rowels in its flanks, and rode in headlong speed. ”

“ Followed steady, not yet caught was the skulking, fox-like leaguer,
Jack, the Regular.
Who are they that yonder creep by those bleak rocks in the distance,
Like the figures born in sleep, called by slumber to existence?
Tories, doubtless, from below—from the Hoek sent out for spying.
“No! the foremost is our foe—he so long before us flying!
Now he spies us! See him start! wave his kerchief like a banner,
Lay his left hand on his heart in a proud, insulting manner. ”

“ Hessians and Brunswickers, the lees
Of Europe’s cup of miseries,
And brutal Tories, worse than these—
Britons, with rude, relentless hand:
All these made up the cruel band
Which came to spoil and vex the land.
I felt my heart in anger leap—
“No!” cried my spirit from its deep,
“I will not here ignobly creep.
“I have a strong arm for the fray;
I have a rifle sure to slay;
I fear no man by night nor day. [Pg 74]
“When prowling wolves have left their den,
The hunter’s craft is needed then—
The country must not lack for men.” ”

“ Lee, of whom his minions boasted,
Was commander of the vanguard, and with him were Scott and Wayne.
What they did I knew not, cared not; in their march of shame I shared not;
But it startled me to see them panic-stricken back again,
At the black morass’s border, all in headlong, fierce disorder,
With the Briton plying steel at their heel.
Outward cool when combat waging, howsoever inward raging,
Ne’er had Washington showed feeling when his forces fled the foe ”

“ And heaped contumely on his head.
“You know not what you seek,” he cried;
“Those are but fools who foes deride;
And prudence dwells with courage tried.
“My messenger left at set of sun;
When once his errand has been done,
Will sound Fort Schuyler’s signal-gun.
“Wait till that cannon’s voice you hear,
And then we’ll fall upon their rear,
As Gansevoort to their van draws near.” [Pg 75]
Said Colonel Paris, then, “Not so!
We left our homes to strike a blow;
So lead us quickly to the foe.
“Else all may see those do not err
Who brand you as a coward cur
And skulking Tory, Herkimer.” ”

“ And I longed to meet the wronger on the sea of steel and fire.
On they came, our might disdaining, where the raining bullets leaden
Pattered fast from scattered rifles on each wing;
Here and there went down a foeman, and the ground began to redden;
And they drew them back a moment, like the tiger ere his spring. [Pg 115]
Then said Morgan, “Ball and powder kill much prouder men than George’s;
On your rifles and a careful aim rely.
They were trained in many battles—we in workshops, fields, and forges;
But we have our homes to fight for, and we do not fear to die.” ”

“ Then greeted we surviving friends, and mourned for those who fell,
And, leaning on our firelocks, heard the tales that soldiers tell
How comrades whom they little knew had done their duty well,
And how amid the hosts in fight no coward had been found;
Then gazed upon the foemen slain that lay in heaps around,
And said, in bitter hate and scorn, they well became the ground—
So evermore by sea and shore might those invaders be,
Who came with chains for limbs of men who by their birth were free—
A pang shot sharply through my brain—my brother! where was he? ”

“ Bacon raised a force of five hundred men, and Berkeley, who possessed high personal courage, met them alone. He uncovered his breast and said, “A fair mark. Shoot!” But when Bacon explained that he merely asked a commission, the people being in peril from the enemy, this was granted; but no sooner had Bacon departed to attack the Indians than Berkeley withdrew to the Eastern Shore, where he collected a force of a thousand men from Accomac, to whom he offered pay and plunder. With these he returned to Jamestown, and proclaimed Bacon and his adherents rebels and traitors. ”