How the Flag Became Old Glory :: WHEELER'S BRIGADE AT SANTIAGO

WHEELER'S BRIGADE AT SANTIAGO

'NEATH the lanes of the tropic sun
The column is standing ready,
Awaiting the fateful command of one
Whose word will ring out
To an answering shout
To prove it alert and steady.
And a stirring chorus all of them sung
With singleness of endeavor,
Though some to “The Bonny Blue Flag” had swung
And some to “The Union For Ever.”

The order came sharp through the desperate air
And the long ranks rose to follow,
Till their dancing banners shone more fair
Than the brightest ray
Of the Cuban day
On the hill and jungled hollow;
And to “Maryland” some in the days gone by
Had fought through the combat’s rumble
And some for “Freedom’s Battle-Cry”
Had seen the broad earth crumble.

Full many a widow weeps in the night
Who had been a man’s wife in the morning;
For the banners we loved we bore to the height
Where the enemy stood
As a hero should
His valor his country adorning;
But drops of pride with your tears of grief,
Ye American women, mix ye!
For the North and South, with a Southern chief,
Kept time to the tune of “Dixie.”

Wallace Rice.

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