Thrice blest the nation that has every son A soldier, ready for the warning sound; Call back that morning, with its lurid light, Call back that morn: an instant all were dumb, They closed the ledger and they stilled the loom, Brigades from towns-each village sent its band: No need to tell their tale: through every age The smooth hill is bare, and the cannons are planted, The armies stand by to behold the dread meeting; From gun-mouth to plain every grass blade in view. Strong earthworks are there, and the rifles behind them Are Georgia militia-an Irish brigade The riflemen lie in the works till they near them, At last, the dark summit with flame is enlined; wave; Brigade on brigade to the death-struggle passes, No wavering rank till it steps on the grave. Then comes a brief lull, and the smoke-pall is lifted, The dead soldiers lie as the sea-weed is drifted, Again comes a column to death and defeat ! What is it in these who shall now do the storming That makes every Georgian spring to his feet? "O God! what a pity !" they cry in their cover, As rifles are readied and bayonets made tight; “'Tis Meagher and his fellows! their caps have green clover; 'Tis Greek to Greek now for the rest of the fight!" Twelve hundred the column, their rent flag before them, With Meagher at their head, they have dashed at the hill! Their foemen are proud of the country that bore them ; But, Irish in love, they are enemies still. Out rings the fierce word, “Let them have it!" The rifles Are emptied point-blank in the hearts of the foe: It is green against green; but a principle stifles The Irishman's love in the Georgian's blow. The column has reeled, but it is not defeated ; In front of the guns they re-form and attack; Six times they have done it and six times retreated; Twelve hundred they came and two hundred go back. Two hundred go back with the chivalrous story; The wild day is closed in the night's solemn shroud; A thousand lie dead, but their death was a glory That calls not for tears—the Green Badges are proud! Bright honor be theirs who for honor were fearless, Who charged for their flag to the grim cannon's mouth; And honor to them who were true, though not tearless, Who bravely that day kept the cause of the South. The quarrel is done-God avert such another; The lesson it brought we should evermore heed: Who loveth the flag is a man and a brother, No matter what birth or what race or what creed. E ENSIGN EPPS, THE COLOR-BEARER NSIGN EPPS, at the battle of Flanders, Sowed a seed of glory and duty, That flowers and flames in the height and Like a crimson lily with heart of gold, To-day, when the wars of Ghent are old, And buried as deep as their dead commanders. Ensign Epps was the color-bearer, No matter on which side, Philip or Earl; That day in the wildest work of the field. He was wounded and spent, and the fight was lost; But stainless and scatheless, out of the strife, By the river's brink, without weapon or shield, As proudly as if the fight were won; And he smiled when they ordered him to yield. Ensign Epps, with his broken blade, Cut the silk from the gilded staff, Which he poised like a spear till the charge was made And hurled at the leader with a laugh. Then round his breast, like the scarf of his love, He tied the colors his heart above, And plunged in his armor into the tide, And there, in his dress of honor, died. Where are the lessons your kinglings teach? And what is the text of your proud commanders? Out of the centuries, heroes reach With the scroll of a deed, with the word of a story, MAYFLOWER HUNDER our thanks to her-guns, hearts and lips ! TH Cheer from the ranks to her, Shout from the banks to her Mayflower! Foremost and best of our ships. Mayflower! Twice in the national story |