When they learned that nineteen madmen had the marvellous assurance—
Only nineteen—thus to seize the place, and drive them frightened forth;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Found an army come to take him encamped around the town.
But to storm with all the forces we have mentioned was too risky;
So they hurried off to Richmond for the Government Marines—
Tore them from their weeping matrons—fired their souls with Bourbon whiskey—
Till they battered down Brown's castle with their ladders and machines;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Received three bayonet stabs, and a cut on his brave old crown.
Tallyho! the old Virginia gentry gathered to the baying!
In they rush and kill the game, shooting lustily away![1]
And whene'er they slay a rebel, those who come too late for slaying,
Not to lose a share of glory, fire their bullets in his clay;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid him down.
How the conquerors wore their laurel—how they hastened on the trials—
How Old Brown was placed, half-dying, on the Charlestown Court-House floor—
- ↑ "The hunt was up—woe to the game enclosed within that fiery circle! The town was occupied by a thousand or fifteen hundred men, including volunteer companies from Shepherdstown, Charlestown, Winchester, and elsewhere; but the armed and unorganized multitude largely predominated, giving the affair more the character of a great hunting scene than that of a battle. The savage game was holed beyond all possibility of escape."—Virginia Correspondent of Harper's Weekly.
