O'er the flowers and the corn we were borne like a blast,
And away to the fore-front of battle we passed,—
"Column! Forward!"
For the cannon's hoarse thunder roared out from the glades,
And the sun was like lightning on banners and blades,
When the long line of chanting Zouaves, like a flood,
From the green of the woodlands rolled, crimson as blood,—
"Column! Forward!"
While the sound of their song, like the surge of the seas,
With the "Star-Spangled Banner" swelled over the leas;