C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Guy Humphrey McMaster (1829–1887)
The Old Continentals
I
Stood the old Continentals,
Yielding not,
When the grenadiers were lunging,
And like hail fell the plunging
Cannon shot;
When the files
Of the isles
From the smoky night encampment bore the banner of the rampant
Unicorn,
And grummer, grummer, grummer, rolled the roll of the drummer
Through the morn!
And with guns horizontal,
Stood our sires:
And the balls whistled deadly,
And in streams flashing redly
Blazed the fires;
As the swift
Billows’ drift
Drove the dark battle breakers o’er the green sodded acres
Of the plain,
And louder, louder, louder, cracked the black gunpowder,
Cracking amain!
Labored red St. George’s
Cannoneers,
And the “villainous saltpetre”
Rang a fierce discordant metre
Round their ears;
Like the roar
On a shore,
Rose the Horse Guards’ clangor, as they rode in roaring anger
On our flanks:
Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fashioned fire
Through the ranks!
Galloped through the white infernal
Powder cloud;
His broadsword was swinging
And his brazen throat was ringing,
Trumpet loud:
Then the blue
Bullets flew,
And the trooper jackets reddened at the touch of the leaden
Rifle breath,
And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,
Hurling death!