To Genl. W. C. Whitaker.
"The Old Sergeant" (1864)
("A Hero of Lookout Mountain")
A Beautiful Song
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907

[Source: 089/074@Levy]

1.
Grim vis-aged war stalk'd thro' val-ley and moun-tain,
Foe face to foe met in bat-tle ar-ray,
Hush'd for a time was the song of the foun-tain,
Clouds were re-veal-ing the bright face of day.
On moved the ar-my 'mid mus-ket-ry's rat-tle,
How the earth trem-bled as ne-ver be-fore,
The voic-es of wound-ed, that fell in the bat-tle,
Died with the ech-oes, of Can-nons loud roar.

2.
"Up-ward and on-ward" the of-fi-cers shout-ed,
Fol-low'd by men who were wil-ling and brave,
Pres-sing the foe who were ut-ter-ly pent-ed,
Know-ing our flag must in tri-umph yet wave,
"On, Com-rades, on, nev-er shrink from your du-ty,
Ral-ly a-gain 'round the old tat-ter'd flag,
"See!" cried the Ser-geant, "it waves in its beau-ty,
Charge once a-gain, on that trait-or-ous scrag."

3.
"I'll take the flag, Come, my braves, now Sur-round it,"
Loud, deep, and long did the mad Can-non's roar,
The Ser-geant took lead, and they ral-lied a-round it,
Whilst show-ers of bul-lets around them did pour.
On moved the braves the Old Ser-geant still bear-ing
The_flag of his Coun-try so tat-ter'd and worn,
But he stag-ger'd and fell; for_a ball came un-spar-ing
Still he held up the flag_which_was gal-lant-ly borne.

4.
The Old Ser-geant rais'd from the spot he was ly-ing,
And shout-ed "my brave boys, go on in_the fight,
And nev-er mind me, take_the flag, I am dy-ing"
Then_lay down to rest 'neath the cov-er of night.
The bat-tle is ov-er and thous-ands_are weep-ing,
For those who were killed-- Oh! Il-lus-trious Braves!
Who now in their cold rock-y graves, calm are sleep-ing,
Whose names are_as mon-u-ments ov-er their graves.

5.
The old Ser-geant sleeps in his grave on the moun-tain,
'Tis close to the Sum-mit where brave-ly he fell.
But he hears not the murm'-ring song of the foun-tain,
That play-ful-ly wan-ders a-way,
Yet sigh-ing, "all is well."

Ah! when the trum-pet of time makes the earth trem-ble
And all the earth's ar-my must rise and pre-pare.

The right and wrong 'round the Throne must as-sem-ble
The Gal-land old Ser-geant will sure-ly be there.