"The Flag of the Constellation" (1863)
A National Song
Poetry by T. Buchanan Read
Music by Chs. R. Crosby

1.
The stars of morn,
On our banner born,
With the iris of Heaven are blended,
The hand of our sires
First mingled those fires
And by us they shall be defended!
Then hail the true Red, White and Blue,
The flag of the Constellation!
It sails as it sailed,
By our fore fathers hailed
O'er battles that made us a nation.

CHORUS
Then hail the true Red, White and Blue,
The flag of the Constellation!
It sails as it sailed,
By our fore fathers hailed
O'er battles that made us a nation.

2.
What hand so bold,
As strike its fold,
One star or one stripe of its brightening?
For him be those stars
Each a fiery Mars
And each stripe be as terrible lightning!
Then hail the true Red, White and Blue,
The flag of the Constellation!
It sails as it sailed,
By our fore fathers hailed
O'er battles that made us a nation.

(CHORUS)

3.
Its meteor form,
Shall ride the storm,
Till the fiercest of foes surrender,
The storm gone by
It shall gild the sky
A rainbow of peace and of splendor!
Then hail the true Red, White and Blue,
The flag of the Constellation!
It sails as it sailed,
By our fore fathers hailed
O'er battles that made us a nation.

(CHORUS)

4.
Peace in the world,
Is our motto unfurled,
Tho' we shun not the field that is gory,
Athome or abroad
Fearing none but our God
We shall carve our own pathway to glory!
Then hail the true Red, White and Blue,
The flag of the Constellation!
It sails as it sailed,
By our fore fathers hailed
O'er battles that made us a nation.

(CHORUS)