In their ragged regimentals,
Stood the old Continentals,
Yielding not,
While 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!
Then with eyes to the front all,
And with guns horizontal,
Stood our sires;
While the balls whistled deadly,
And in streams flashing redly
Blazed the fires:
As the roar
On the shore
Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded acres
Of the plain;
And louder, louder, louder, cracked the black gunpowder,
Cracking amain!
Now like smiths at their forges
Worked the red St. George's
Cannoneers,
And the villainous saltpetre
Rang a fierce discordant metre
Round their ears
As the swift
Storm-drift,
With hot sweeping anger, came the horseguards' clangor
On our flanks,
Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old-fashioned fire
Through the ranks!
Then the bare-headed colonel
Galloped through the white infernal
Powder-cloud;
And his broad sword was swinging,
And his brazen throat was ringing
Trumpet-loud;
Then the blue
Bullets flew.
And the trooper-jackets redden at the touch of the leaden
Rifle-breath;
And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,
Hurling death!
WHEN THE PATRIOTS WAVERED.
Dr. John Witherspoon's Stirring Words, Which Brought the Continental Congress
to the Point of Decision on the Eventful Fourth of July, 1776.
On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1776, the members of the Continental Congress, in session at Philadelphia, were deliberating on the proposed Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, composing the committee appointed for the purpose, had reported several days before the document that is now familiar to every American schoolboy, but action had been delayed, and on this eventful morning, when the Congress began its final consideration, the vital character of the Declaration was recognized with the growing hesitancy of an awed responsibility.