StoryTitle("caps", "Bethel")?>
PoemStart()?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We mustered at midnight, in darkness we formed,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the whisper went round of a fort to be stormed;", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But no drum-beat had called us, no trumpet we heard,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And no voice of command but our colonel's low word,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And out, through the mist and the murk of the moon,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the beaches of Hampton our barges were borne;", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And we heard not a sound save a sweep of the oar,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till the word of our colonel came up from the shore,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through green-tasseled cornfields our columns were thrown,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And like corn by the red scythe of fire we were mown;", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the cannon's fierce ploughings new-furrowed the plain.", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That our blood might be planted for Liberty's grain,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oh! the fields of fair June have no lack of sweet flowers,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But their rarest and best breathe no fragrance like ours;", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the sunshine of June sprinkling gold on the corn,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hath no harvest that ripeneth like Bethel's red morn,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PagePoem(39, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When our heroes, like bridegrooms, with lips and with breath", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Drank the first kiss of Danger, and clasped her in death;", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the heart of brave Winthrop* grew mute with his lyre,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When the plumes of his genius lay moulting in fire,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where he fell shall be sunshine as bright as his flame, ", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the grass where he slept shall be green as his fame; ", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the gold of the Pen and the steel of the Sword", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Write his deeds—in his blood—on the land he adored,—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the soul of our comrade shall sweeten the air,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the flowers and the grass-blades his memory upbear; ", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the breath of his genius, like music in leaves,", "")?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With the corn-tassels whisper, and sings in the sheaves'—", "")?>
PoemLine("L4", "", "\"Column! Forward!\"", "")?>
PoemAttribution("85", "—A. J. H. Duganne.")?>
PoemEnd()?>
----- * Major Theodore Winthrop fell while cheering on his men and was left on the battle-field. Lieutenant Greble was also killed in this battle.