SUMTER
May spring up a vengeful Fury, hissing through your slave-worn lands!
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
May trouble you more than ever, when you've nailed his coffin down!
November, 1859.
SUMTER
April 12, 1861
Came the morning of that day
When the God to whom we pray
Gave the soul of Henry Clay
To the land;
How we loved him, living, dying!
But his birthday banners flying
Saw us asking and replying
Hand to hand.
For we knew that far away,
Round the fort in Charleston Bay,
Hung the dark impending fray,
Soon to fall;
And that Sumter's brave defender
Had the summons to surrender
Seventy loyal hearts and tender,—
(Those were all!)
And we knew the April sun
Lit the length of many a gun,—
Hosts of batteries to the one
Island crag:
Guns and mortars grimly frowning,
Johnson, Moultrie, Pinckney, crowning,
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