Title: Poems of American History
Editor: Burton Egbert Stevenson
Release date: November 27, 2014 [eBook #47476]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Edwards, JoAnn Greenwood, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
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POEMS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
AMERICA
COLLECTED AND EDITED
BY
BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1908 AND 1922, BY BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All rights on poems in this volume are reserved by the holders of the copyright. The publishers and others named in the following list are the proprietors, either in their own right or as agents for the authors, of the poems of which the authorship and titles are given, and of which the ownership is thus specifically noted and is hereby acknowledged.
Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., New York.—William Cullen Bryant: "The Green Mountain Boys," "Seventy-Six," "Song of Marion's Men," "Oh Mother of a Mighty Race," "Our Country's Call," "Abraham Lincoln," "Centennial Hymn."
Messrs. Richard D. Badger & Co., Boston.—Edwin Arlington Robinson: "The Klondike."
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis.—Charles Edward Russell: "The Fleet at Santiago," from "Such Stuff as Dreams."
The Century Company, New York.—Richard Watson Gilder: "At the President's Grave," "Charleston," "The White City," "The Comfort of the Trees"; Robert Underwood Johnson: "Dewey at Manila"; Silas Weir Mitchell: "Herndon," "How the Cumberland went down," "Kearsarge," "Lincoln," "The Song of the Flags." From the Century Magazine.—William Tuckey Meredith: "Farragut"; Helen F. More: "What's in a Name"; Will Henry Thompson: "The High Tide at Gettysburg."
The Robert Clarke Company, Cincinnati.—William Davis Gallagher: "The Mothers of the West"; William Haines Lytle: "The Siege of Chapultepec," "The Volunteers."
Messrs. Henry T. Coates & Co., Philadelphia.—Ethel Lynn Beers: "The Picket-Guard"; Charles Fenno Hoffman: "Rio Bravo," "Monterey."
Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.—Ernest McGaffey: "Little Big Horn," "Geronimo"; William Henry Venable: "John Filson," "Johnny Appleseed," "The Founders of Ohio," "El Emplazado," "Battle-Cry," "National Song."
The R. R. Donnelly & Sons Company, Chicago.—Francis Brooks: "Down the Little Big Horn."
Messrs. Dana Estes & Co., Boston.—Hezekiah Butterworth: "The Thanksgiving for America," "The Legend of Waukulla," "The Fountain of Youth," "Verazzano," "Ortiz," "Five Kernels of Corn," "The Thanksgiving in Boston Harbor," "Roger Williams," "Whitman's Ride for Oregon," "The Death of Jefferson," "Garfield's Ride at Chickamauga," "The Church of the Revolution."
Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, New York.—Richard Realf: "The Defence of Lawrence."
Messrs. Harper & Brothers, New York.—Wallace Bruce: "Parson Allen's Ride"; Will Carleton: "The Prize of the Margaretta," "Across the Delaware," "The Little Black-Eyed Rebel," "Cuba to Columbia," "The Victory-Wreck"; William Dean Howells: "The Battle in the Clouds"; Herman Melville: "Malvern Hill," "The Victor of Antietam," "The Cumberland," "Running the Batteries," "A Dirge for McPherson," "Sheridan at Cedar Creek," "The Fall of Richmond," "The Surrender at Appomattox," "At the Cannon's Mouth." From Harper's Magazine and Harper's Weekly.—Guy Wetmore Carryl: "When the Great Gray Ships come in"; Joseph B. Gilder: "The Parting of the Ways"; Thomas A. Janvier: "Santiago"; Thomas Dunn English: "Arnold at Stillwater," "The Charge by the Ford," "The Fall of Maubila," "The Battle of the Cowpens," "The Battle of New Orleans"; John Eliot Bowen: "The Man who rode to Conemaugh."
Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.—Thomas Bailey Aldrich: "Fredericksburg," "By the Potomac," "The Bells at Midnight," "An Ode on the Unveiling of the Shaw Memorial," "Unguarded Gates"; Phœbe Cary: "Ready," "Peace"; John White Chadwick: "Mugford's Victory," "Full Cycle"; Mrs. Florence Earle Coates: "Columbus," "Buffalo," "By the Conemaugh"; Christopher Pearse Cranch: "After the Centennial"; Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Concord Hymn," "Boston Hymn"; Annie Fields: "Cedar Mountain"; Louise Imogen Guiney: "John Brown"; Francis Bret Harte: "Caldwell of Springfield," "The Reveille," "John Burns of Gettysburg," "A Second Review of the Grand Army," "An Arctic Vision," "Chicago"; John Hay: "Miles Keogh's Horse"; Oliver Wendell Holmes: "A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party," "Lexington," "Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle," "Old Ironsides," "Daniel Webster," "Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline," "Sherman's in Savannah," "After the Fire," "Welcome to the Nations," "On the Death of President Garfield," "Additional Verses to Hail Columbia"; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe: "Our Country," "Battle-Hymn of the Republic," "Robert E. Lee," "Pardon," "Parricide," "J. A. G."; William Dean Howells: "The Battle in the Clouds"; Lucy Larcom: "Mistress Hale of Beverly," "The Nineteenth of April," "The Sinking of the Merrimack"; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "The Skeleton in Armor," "Sir Humphrey Gilbert," "The War-Token," "The Expedition to Wessagusset," "Prologue," "The Proclamation," "Prologue," "The Trial," "The Battle of Lovell's Pond," "A Ballad of the French Fleet," "The Embarkation," "Paul Revere's Ride," "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem," "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "Victor Galbraith," "The Cumberland," "The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face," "President Garfield," "The Republic"; James Russell Lowell: "Flawless his Heart," "The New-Come Chief," "Mr. Hosea Biglow speaks," "What Mr. Robinson thinks," "Jonathan to John," "The Washers of the Shroud," "Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration"; William Vaughn Moody: "On a Soldier fallen in the Philippines," "An Ode in Time of Hesitation"; Nora Perry: "Running the Blockade"; Edna Dean Proctor: "Columbus Dying," "The Captive's Hymn," "The Lost War-Sloop," "Sa-cá-ga-we-a," "John Brown," "The Brooklyn Bridge"; Margaret Junkin Preston: "The Mystery of Cro-a-tàn," "The Last Meeting of Pocahontas and the Great Captain," "The First Proclamation of Miles Standish," "The First Thanksgiving Day," "Dirge for Ashby," "Under the Shade of the Trees," "Virginia Capta," "Acceptation"; John Godfrey Saxe: "How Cyrus laid the Cable"; Edward Rowland Sill: "The Dead President"; Harriet Prescott Spofford: "How we became a Nation," "Can't"; Edmund Clarence Stedman: "Peter Stuyvesant's New Year's Call," "Salem," "Aaron Burr's Wooing," "How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry," "Sumter," "Wanted—A Man," "Kearny at Seven Pines," "Treason's Last Device," "Gettysburg," "Abraham Lincoln," "Israel Freyer's Bid for Gold," "Custer," "Liberty Enlightening the World," "Cuba," "Hymn of the West"; Bayard Taylor: "Through Baltimore," "Lincoln at Gettysburg," "The National Ode"; Joseph Russell Taylor: "Breath on the Oat"; Edith M. Thomas: "A Christopher of the Shenandoah," "To Spain—A Last Word"; Maurice Thompson: "The Ballad of Chickamauga"; J. T. Trowbridge: "Columbus at the Convent"; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward: "Conemaugh"; Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney: "Peace"; John G. Whittier: "The Norsemen," "Norembega," "John Underhill," "Cassandra Southwick," "The King's Missive," "St. John," "Pentucket," "Lexington," "The Vow of Washington," "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "Texas," "The Angels of Buena Vista," "The Crisis," "To William Lloyd Garrison," "Ichabod," "The Kansas Emigrants," "Burial of Barber," "Le Marais du Cygne," "Brown of Ossawatomie," "Barbara Frietchie," "The Battle Autumn of 1862," "At Port Royal," "To John C. Frémont," "Astræa at the Capitol," "The Proclamation," "Laus Deo," "To the Thirty-Ninth Congress," "The Cable Hymn," "Chicago," "Centennial Hymn," "On the Big Horn," "The Bartholdi Statue"; Forceythe Willson: "Boy Brittan"; Constance Fenimore Woolson: "Kentucky Belle." From the Atlantic Monthly.—George Houghton: "The Legend of Walbach Tower"; Henry Newbolt: "Craven"; Thomas William Parsons: "Dirge."
Mr. P. J. Kenedy, New York.—Abram J. Ryan: "The Conquered Banner."
The Ladies' Home Journal, Philadelphia.—Virginia Woodward Cloud: "The Ballad of Sweet P."
The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.—George Henry Boker: "Upon the Hill before Centreville," "Dirge for a Soldier," "Zagonyi," "On Board the Cumberland," "The Cruise of the Monitor," "The Ballad of New Orleans," "The Varuna," "Hooker's Across," "Before Vicksburg," "The Black Regiment," "The Battle of Lookout Mountain"; William C. Elam: "The Mecklenburg Declaration"; Robert Loveman: "Hobson and his Men"; Marion Manville: "The Surrender of New Orleans," "Lee's Parole"; Henry Peterson: "The Death of Lyon"; Thomas Buchanan Read: "The Rising," "Valley Forge," "Blennerhassett's Island," "The Attack," "Sheridan's Ride," "The Eagle and Vulture"; Francis Orrery Ticknor: "The Virginians of the Valley," "A Battle Ballad," "Our Left," "Little Giffen."
The Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston.—Richard Burton: "The Old Santa Fé Trail"; Paul Hamilton Hayne: "Macdonald's Raid," "Beyond the Potomac," "Vicksburg," "The Battle of Charleston Harbor," "Charleston," "The Stricken South to the North," "South Carolina to the States of the North," "Yorktown Centennial Lyric"; William Hamilton Hayne: "The Charge at Santiago."
The McClure Company, New York.—Edwin Markham: "Lincoln."
Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.—Kate Brownlee Sherwood: "Albert Sidney Johnston," "Thomas at Chickamauga."
The Macmillan Company, New York.—Hamlin Garland: "Logan at Peach Tree Creek"; George Edward Woodberry: "Our First Century," "Essex Regiment March," "The Islands of the Sea," "O Land Beloved."
The Mershon Company, New York.—John Boyle O'Reilly: "Crispus Attucks," "At Fredericksburg," "Chicago," "Boston," "Midnight—September 19, 1881," "The Ride of Collins Graves," "Mayflower."
The Oliver Ditson Company, New York.—Kate Brownlee Sherwood: "Molly Pitcher."
Out West, Los Angeles.—Sharlot M. Hall: "Arizona."
Messrs. L. C. Page & Co., Boston.—Charles G. D. Roberts: "Brooklyn Bridge," "In Apia Bay," "A Ballad of Manila Bay."
Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.—Louis James Block: "The Final Struggle"; Guy Wetmore Carryl: "When the Great Gray Ships come in."
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.—William Ernest Henley: "Romance"; George Parsons Lathrop: "Keenan's Charge"; Sidney Lanier: "The Story of Vinland," "The Triumph," "Lexington," "Land of the Wilful Gospel," "The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson," "The Centennial Meditation of Columbia"; Thomas Nelson Page: "The Dragon of the Seas"; James Jeffrey Roche: "Panama"; Richard Henry Stoddard: "Abraham Lincoln," "Men of the North and West," "The Little Drummer."
Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.—Richard Hovey: "The Word of the Lord from Havana," "The Battle of Manila"; Walt Whitman: "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors," "O Captain! My Captain!" "The Sobbing of the Bells."
Messrs. Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago.—John Williamson Palmer: "The Fight at San Jacinto."
The Whitaker & Ray Company, San Francisco.—Joaquin Miller: "Columbus," "The Defence of the Alamo," "Alaska," "Rejoice," "Cuba Libre," "San Francisco," "Resurge San Francisco." The Youth's Companion, Boston.—Mary A. P. Stansbury: "The Surprise at Ticonderoga"; Thomas Tracy Bouvé: "The Shannon and the Chesapeake."
In addition to the above, the compiler begs to acknowledge express permission from the following authors for the use of such of their poems as appear in this volume:
Joel Benton, Louis James Block, Virginia Fraser Boyle, Robert Bridges, Wallace Bruce, Richard Burton, S. H. M. Byers, Will Carleton, Madison Cawein, Robert W. Chambers, John Vance Cheney, Joseph I. C. Clarke, Virginia Woodward Cloud, Florence Earle Coates, Kinahan Cornwallis, F. Marion Crawford, Mrs. Ernest Crosby (for Ernest Crosby), Caroline Duer, Barrett Eastman, Francis Miles Finch, Hamlin Garland, Joseph D. Gilder, Richard Watson Gilder, Arthur Guiterman, Sharlot M. Hall, Edward Everett Hale, William Hamilton Hayne (for himself and Paul Hamilton Hayne), Caroline Hazard, Rupert Hughes, Minna Irving, Thomas A. Janvier, Tudor Jenks, John Howard Jewett, Robert Underwood Johnson, Walter Learned, Robert Loveman, Charles F. Lummis, Ernest McGaffey, Edwin Markham, John James Meehan, Lloyd Mifflin, William Vaughn Moody, Thomas Nelson Page, Mrs. John W. Palmer (for John Williamson Palmer), John James Piatt, Wallace Rice, Laura E. Richards, Edwin Arlington Robinson, James Jeffrey Roche, John Jerome Rooney, Alfred D. Runyon, Charles Edward Russell, Clinton Scollard, Mrs. Katherine Brownlee Sherwood, Lewis Worthington Smith, Joseph Russell Taylor, Richard H. Titherington, William Henry Venable, Robert Burns Wilson.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR NEW EDITION
The Editor is indebted to the following authors and publishers for permission to use the poems mentioned, all rights in which are reserved:
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews: "A Call to Arms."
Robert Bridges: "To the United States of America."
Dana Burnet: "Marching Song."
Amelia Josephine Burr: "Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette."
Witter Bynner (by Anne L. Wellington): "Republic to Republic."
Eleanor Rogers Cox: "The Return."
George H. Doran Company: "The White Ships and the Red," from Main Street, and Other Poems, by Joyce Kilmer, copyright 1917.
John Chipman Farrar: "Brest Left Behind," from Contemporary Verse.
Richard Butler Glaenzer: "A Ballad of Redhead's Day."
Daniel Henderson: "The Road to France."
Houghton Mifflin Company: "Victory Bells," from Wilderness Songs, by Grace Hazard Conkling.
Robert Underwood Johnson: "To the Returning Brave."
Aline Kilmer (for Joyce Kilmer): "The White Ships and the Red," "Rouge Bouquet."
Richard Le Gallienne: "After the War."
Vachel Lindsay: "Abraham Lincoln walks at Midnight."
J. Corson Miller: "Epicedium."
Randall Parrish: "Your Lad and My Lad."
Clinton Scollard: "The First Three," "The Unreturning."
Charles Scribner's Sons: "A Call to Arms," by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews; "Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France," by Alan Seeger; "Mare Liberum," by Henry van Dyke.
Marion Couthouy Smith: "The Star," "King of the Belgians."
Henry van Dyke: "Mare Liberum."
Willard Wattles: "The Family of Nations."
George Edward Woodberry: "Sonnets written in the Fall of 1914."
TO
E. B. S.
HELPMATE
One who underrates the significance of our literature, prose or verse, as both the expression and stimulant of national feeling, as of import in the past and to the future of America, and therefore of the world, is deficient in that critical insight which can judge even of its own day unwarped by personal taste or deference to public impression. He shuts his eyes to the fact that at times, notably throughout the years resulting in the Civil War, this literature has been a "force."—Edmund Clarence Stedman.
The poetry relating to American history falls naturally into two classes: that written, so to speak, from the inside, on the spot, and that written from the outside, long afterwards. Of the first class, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the most famous example, as well as perhaps the best. Even at this distant day, reading it with a knowledge of the circumstances which produced it, it has a power of touching the heart and gripping the imagination which goes far toward proving the genuineness of its art. Of the second class, "Paul Revere's Ride" is probably the most widely known, though Mr. Longfellow's own "Ballad of the French Fleet" is a better poem.
It is evident that, in compiling an anthology such as this, different standards must be used in judging these two classes. The first, aside from any quality as poetry which it may have, is of value because of its historical or political interest, because it is an expression and an interpretation of the hour which gave it birth. With it, poetic merit is not the first consideration, which is, perhaps, as well. Yet, however slight their merit as poetry may be, many of the early ballads possess an admirable energy, directness, and aptness of phrase, and there is about them a childlike simplicity impossible of reproduction in this sophisticated age—as where Stephen Tilden, in his epitaph on Braddock, requests the great commanders who have preceded that unfortunate soldier to the grave to
"Edge close and give him room."
With the retrospective ballad, on the other hand, poetic merit is a sine qua non. It has little value historically, however accurate its facts. It differs from the contemporary ballad in the same way that the "New Canterbury Tales" differ from Froissart; or as the "Idylls of the King" differ from "Le Morte Arthur." It is less authentic, less convincing, less vital. It may have atmosphere, but there is no infallible way of telling whether the atmosphere is right. Unless it is something more, then, than mere metrical history, the modern ballad has little claim to consideration.
These are the two principles which the present compiler has had constantly in mind. Yet the second principle has been violated more than once, since, in a collection such as this, one must cut one's coat according to the cloth; or, rather, one must make sure that one is decently covered, though the covering may here and there be somewhat inferior in quality. So it has been necessary, in order to keep the thread of history unbroken, to admit some strands anything but silken; and if the choice has sometimes been of ills, rather than of goods, the compiler can only hope that he chose wisely.
The most difficult and trying portion of his task has been, not to get his material together, but to compress it into reasonable limits. Especially in the colonial period was the temptation great to include more early American verse. Peter Folger's "A Looking-Glass for the Times," Benjamin Tompson's "New England's Crisis," Michael Wigglesworth's "God's Controversy with New England," the "Sot-Weed Factor," and many others, which it is recalling an old sorrow to name here, were excluded only after long and bitter debate. No doubt other exclusions will be noticed by nearly every reader of the volume—and it may interest him to know that the material gathered together would have made four such books as this.
The thread of narrative upon which the poems have been strung together has been made as slight as possible, just strong enough to carry the reader understandingly from one poem to the next. The notes, too, have been limited to the explanation of such allusions as are not likely to be found in the ordinary works of reference, with here and there an account of the circumstances which caused the lines to be written, or an indication of source, where the source is unusual. Every available source has been drawn upon—the works of all the better known and many of the minor American and English poets, anthologies, newspaper collections, magazines, collections of Americana and especially of broadsides—in a word, American and English poetry generally.
In this connection, the compiler wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the assistance he has received on every hand, especially from Mr. Herbert Putnam and Miss Margaret McGuffey, of the Library of Congress; Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, librarian of the Cincinnati, Ohio, Public Library; Mr. C. B. Galbreath, librarian of the Ohio State Library; Mr. Charles F. Lummis, librarian of the Los Angeles, California, Public Library; Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Mr. William Henry Venable, Mr. Isaac R. Pennypacker, Mr. Arthur Guiterman, and Mr. Wallace Rice. He might add that it is a matter of deep personal gratification to him that in no instance has any author refused to permit the use of his work in this collection. On the contrary, many of them have been most helpful in suggestions.
A special effort has been made to secure accuracy of text,—no light task, especially with the early ballads. Where the text varied, as was often the case, that has been followed which seemed to have the greater authority, except that obvious misprints have been corrected. In this, the compiler has had the coöperation of The Riverside Press, and has had frequent occasion to admire the care and knowledge of the corrector and his assistants.
Chillicothe, Ohio, July 23, 1908.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I | |
THE COLONIAL PERIOD | |
America, Arthur Cleveland Coxe | 2 |
CHAPTER I | |
The Discovery of America | |
The Story of Vinland, Sidney Lanier | 3 |
The Norsemen, John Greenleaf Whittier | 4 |
The Skeleton in Armor, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 6 |
Prophecy, Luigi Pulci | 7 |
The Inspiration, James Montgomery | 8 |
Columbus, Lydia Huntley Sigourney | 9 |
Columbus to Ferdinand, Philip Freneau | 9 |
Columbus at the Convent, John T. Trowbridge | 10 |
The Final Struggle, Louis James Block | 11 |
Steer, Bold Mariner, On, Friedrich von Schiller | 12 |
The Triumph, Sidney Lanier | 12 |
Columbus, Joaquin Miller | 14 |
The Thanksgiving for America, Hezekiah Butterworth | 15 |
Columbus in Chains, Philip Freneau | 17 |
Columbus Dying, Edna Dean Proctor | 18 |
Columbus, Edward Everett Hale | 18 |
Columbus and the Mayflower, Lord Houghton | 18 |
CHAPTER II | |
In the Wake of Columbus | |
The First Voyage of John Cabot, Unknown | 19 |
The Legend of Waukulla, Hezekiah Butterworth | 19 |
The Fountain of Youth, Hezekiah Butterworth | 21 |
Ponce de Leon, Edith M. Thomas | 22 |
Balboa, Nora Perry | 23 |
With Cortez in Mexico, W. W. Campbell | 24 |
The Lust of Gold, James Montgomery | 24 |
Verazzano, Hezekiah Butterworth | 25 |
Ortiz, Hezekiah Butterworth | 26 |
The Fall of Maubila, Thomas Dunn English | 27 |
Quivíra, Arthur Guiterman | 31 |
Norembega, John Greenleaf Whittier | 32 |
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 34 |
The First American Sailors, Wallace Rice | 34 |
CHAPTER III | |
The Settlement of Virginia | |
The Mystery of Cro-a-tàn, Margaret Junkin Preston | 36 |
John Smith's Approach to Jamestown, James Barron Hope | 38 |
Pocahontas, William Makepeace Thackeray | 38 |
Pocahontas, George Pope Morris | 39[xiv] |
Bermudas, Andrew Marvell | 39 |
Newes from Virginia, Richard Rich | 40 |
To the Virginian Voyage, Michael Drayton | 42 |
The Marriage of Pocahontas, Mrs. M. M. Webster | 43 |
The Last Meeting of Pocahontas and the Great Captain, Margaret Junkin Preston | 43 |
The Burning of Jamestown, Thomas Dunn English | 44 |
Bacon's Epitaph, Unknown | 45 |
Ode to Jamestown, James Kirke Paulding | 46 |
The Downfall of Piracy, Benjamin Franklin | 48 |
From Potomac to Merrimac, Edward Everett Hale | 49 |
CHAPTER IV | |
The Dutch at New Amsterdam | |
Henry Hudson's Quest, Burton Egbert Stevenson | 50 |
The Death of Colman, Thomas Frost | 50 |
Adrian Block's Song, Edward Everett Hale | 51 |
The Praise of New Netherland, Jacob Steendam | 52 |
The Complaint of New Amsterdam, Jacob Steendam | 53 |
Peter Stuyvesant's New Year's Call, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 54 |
CHAPTER V | |
The Settlement of New England | |
The Word of God to Leyden came, Jeremiah Eames Rankin | 56 |
Song of the Pilgrims, Thomas Cogswell Upham | 57 |
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Felicia Hemans | 57 |
The First Proclamation of Miles Standish, Margaret Junkin Preston | 58 |
The Mayflower, Erastus Wolcott Ellsworth | 59 |
The Peace Message, Burton Egbert Stevenson | 60 |
The First Thanksgiving Day, Margaret Junkin Preston | 60 |
The War-Token, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 61 |
Five Kernels of Corn, Hezekiah Butterworth | 62 |
The Expedition to Wessagusset, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 63 |
New England's Annoyances, Unknown | 65 |
The Pilgrim Fathers, William Wordsworth | 66 |
The Pilgrim Fathers, John Pierpont | 66 |
The Thanksgiving in Boston Harbor, Hezekiah Butterworth | 67 |
The First Thanksgiving, Clinton Scollard | 68 |
New England's Growth, William Bradford | 69 |
The Assault on the Fortress, Timothy Dwight | 70 |
Death Song, Alonzo Lewis | 70 |
Our Country, Julia Ward Howe | 71 |
CHAPTER VI | |
Religious Persecutions in New England | |
Prologue, from "John Endicott," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 71 |
Roger Williams, Hezekiah Butterworth | 72 |
God makes a Path, Roger Williams | 72 |
Canonicus and Roger Williams, Unknown | 73 |
Anne Hutchinson's Exile, Edward Everett Hale | 73 |
John Underhill, John Greenleaf Whittier | 74 |
The Proclamation, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 76 |
Cassandra Southwick, John Greenleaf Whittier | 77 |
The King's Missive, John Greenleaf Whittier | 80 |
[xv] | |
CHAPTER VII | |
King Philip's War and the Witchcraft Delusion | |
The Lamentable Ballad of the Bloody Brook, Edward Everett Hale | 82 |
The Great Swamp Fight, Caroline Hazard | 83 |
On a Fortification at Boston begun by Women, Benjamin Tompson | 85 |
The Sudbury Fight, Wallace Rice | 85 |
King Philip's Last Stand, Clinton Scollard | 88 |
Prologue, from "Giles Corey of the Salem Farms," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 88 |
Salem, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 89 |
The Death of Goody Nurse, Rose Terry Cooke | 90 |
A Salem Witch, Ednah Proctor Clarke | 91 |
The Trial, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 92 |
Giles Corey, Unknown | 96 |
Mistress Hale of Beverly, Lucy Larcom | 97 |
CHAPTER VIII | |
The Struggle for the Continent | |
St. John, John Greenleaf Whittier | 99 |
The Battle of La Prairie, William Douw Schuyler-Lighthall | 101 |
The Sack of Deerfield, Thomas Dunn English | 102 |
Pentucket, John Greenleaf Whittier | 105 |
Lovewell's Fight, Unknown | 106 |
Lovewell's Fight, Unknown | 108 |
The Battle of Lovell's Pond, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 109 |
Louisburg, Unknown | 110 |
A Ballad of the French Fleet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 110 |
The British Lyon roused, Stephen Tilden | 111 |
The Song of Braddock's Men, Unknown | 112 |
Braddock's Fate, Stephen Tilden | 112 |
Ned Braddock, John Williamson Palmer | 114 |
Ode to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Unknown | 114 |
The Embarkation, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 115 |
On the Defeat at Ticonderoga or Carilong, Unknown | 117 |
On the Late Successful Expedition against Louisbourg, Francis Hopkinson | 118 |
Fort Duquesne, Florus B. Plimpton | 119 |
Hot stuff, Edward Botwood | 121 |
How Stands the Glass around, James Wolfe | 121 |
Brave Wolfe, Unknown | 122 |
The Death of Wolfe, Unknown | 123 |
The Captive's Hymn, Edna Dean Proctor | 123 |
A Prophecy, Arthur Lee | 125 |
PART II | |
THE REVOLUTION | |
Flawless his Heart, James Russell Lowell | 128 |
CHAPTER I | |
The Coming of Discontent | |
The Virginia Song, Unknown | 129 |
The World turned Upside Down, Unknown | 130 |
A Song, Unknown | 130[xvi] |
The Liberty Pole, Unknown | 131 |
The British Grenadier, Unknown | 132 |
Crispus Attucks, John Boyle O'Reilly | 132 |
Unhappy Boston, Paul Revere | 134 |
Alamance, Seymour W. Whiting | 135 |
A New Song called the Gaspee, Unknown | 135 |
A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 136 |
A New Song, Unknown | 137 |
How we became a Nation, Harriet Prescott Spofford | 138 |
A Proclamation, Unknown | 138 |
The Blasted Herb, Mesech Weare | 139 |
Epigram, Unknown | 140 |
The Daughter's Rebellion, Francis Hopkinson | 140 |
On the Snake depicted at the Head of Some American Newspapers, Unknown | 140 |
Free America, Joseph Warren | 140 |
Liberty Tree, Thomas Paine | 141 |
The Mother Country, Benjamin Franklin | 142 |
Pennsylvania Song, Unknown | 142 |
Maryland Resolves, Unknown | 142 |
Massachusetts Song of Liberty, Mercy Warren | 143 |
Epigram, Unknown | 144 |
To the Boston Women, Unknown | 144 |
Prophecy, Gulian Verplanck | 144 |
CHAPTER II | |
The Bursting of the Storm | |
Paul Revere's Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 144 |
What's in a Name, Helen F. More | 146 |
Lexington, Sidney Lanier | 146 |
Lexington, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 147 |
New England's Chevy Chase, Edward Everett Hale | 148 |
The King's Own Regulars, Unknown | 150 |
Morgan Stanwood, Hiram Rich | 151 |
The Minute-Men of Northboro, Wallace Rice | 152 |
Lexington, John Greenleaf Whittier | 153 |
The Rising, Thomas Buchanan Read | 154 |
The Prize of the Margaretta, Will Carleton | 155 |
The Mecklenburg Declaration, William C. Elam | 156 |
A Song, Unknown | 157 |
CHAPTER III | |
The Colonists take the Offensive | |
The Green Mountain Boys, William Cullen Bryant | 157 |
The Surprise at Ticonderoga, Mary A. P. Stansbury | 157 |
The Yankee's Return from Camp, Edward Bangs | 159 |
Tom Gage's Proclamation, Unknown | 160 |
The Eve of Bunker Hill, Clinton Scollard | 161 |
Warren's Address to the American Soldiers, John Pierpont | 161 |
The Ballad of Bunker Hill, Edward Everett Hale | 162 |
Bunker Hill, George H. Calvert | 162 |
Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 163 |
The Death of Warren, Epes Sargent | 166 |
The Battle of Bunker Hill, Unknown | 167 |
The New-Come Chief, James Russell Lowell | 168 |
The Trip to Cambridge, Unknown | 169[xvii] |
War and Washington, Jonathan Mitchell Sewall | 170 |
The Bombardment of Bristol, Unknown | 171 |
Montgomery at Quebec, Clinton Scollard | 171 |
A Song, Unknown | 172 |
A Poem containing Some Remarks on the Present War, Unknown | 173 |
Mugford's Victory, John White Chadwick | 174 |
Off from Boston, Unknown | 176 |
CHAPTER IV | |
Independence | |
Emancipation from British Dependence, Philip Freneau | 176 |
Rodney's Ride, Unknown | 177 |
American Independence, Francis Hopkinson | 178 |
The Fourth of July, John Pierpont | 179 |
Independence Day, Royall Tyler | 179 |
On Independence, Jonathan Mitchell Sewall | 179 |
The American Patriot's Prayer, Unknown | 180 |
Columbia, Timothy Dwight | 180 |
CHAPTER V | |
The First Campaign | |
The Boasting of Sir Peter Parker, Clinton Scollard | 181 |
A New War Song by Sir Peter Parker, Unknown | 182 |
The Maryland Battalion, John Williamson Palmer | 183 |
Haarlem Heights, Arthur Guiterman | 183 |
Nathan Hale, Unknown | 185 |
Nathan Hale, Francis Miles Finch | 186 |
The Ballad of Sweet P, Virginia Woodward Cloud | 186 |
Across the Delaware, Will Carleton | 188 |
The Battle of Trenton, Unknown | 188 |
Trenton and Princeton, Unknown | 188 |
Assunpink and Princeton, Thomas Dunn English | 189 |
Seventy-Six, William Cullen Bryant | 191 |
Betsy's Battle Flag, Minna Irving | 191 |
The American Flag, Joseph Rodman Drake | 192 |
CHAPTER VI | |
"The Fate of Sir Jack Brag" | |
The Rifleman's Song at Bennington, Unknown | 193 |
The Marching Song of Stark's Men, Edward Everett Hale | 193 |
Parson Allen's Ride, Wallace Bruce | 194 |
The Battle of Bennington, Thomas P. Rodman | 195 |
Bennington, W. H. Babcock | 196 |
The Battle of Oriskany, Charles D. Helmer | 198 |
Saint Leger, Clinton Scollard | 199 |
The Progress of Sir Jack Brag, Unknown | 200 |
Arnold at Stillwater, Thomas Dunn English | 200 |
The Fate of John Burgoyne, Unknown | 202 |
Saratoga's Song, Unknown | 202 |
CHAPTER VII | |
The Second Stage | |
Lord North's Recantation, Unknown | 204 |
A New Ballad, Unknown | 205[xviii] |
General Howe's Letter, Unknown | 205 |
Carmen Bellicosum, Guy Humphreys McMaster | 206 |
Valley Forge, Thomas Buchanan Read | 207 |
British Valor displayed; or, The Battle of the Kegs, Francis Hopkinson | 208 |
The Little Black-Eyed Rebel, Will Carleton | 209 |
The Battle of Monmouth, Unknown | 210 |
The Battle of Monmouth, Thomas Dunn English | 211 |
Molly Pitcher, Kate Brownlee Sherwood | 213 |
Molly Pitcher, Laura E. Richards | 213 |
Yankee Doodle's Expedition to Rhode Island, Unknown | 214 |
Running the Blockade, Nora Perry | 215 |
Betty Zane, Thomas Dunn English | 216 |
The Wyoming Massacre, Uriah Terry | 217 |
CHAPTER VIII | |
The War on the Water | |
The Cruise of the Fair American, Unknown | 219 |
On the Death of Captain Nicholas Biddle, Philip Freneau | 220 |
The Yankee Privateer, Arthur Hale | 221 |
Paul Jones, Unknown | 222 |
The Yankee Man-of-War, Unknown | 223 |
Paul Jones—A New Song, Unknown | 224 |
Paul Jones, Unknown | 224 |
The Bonhomme Richard and Serapis, Philip Freneau | 225 |
Barney's Invitation, Philip Freneau | 226 |
Song on Captain Barney's Victory, Philip Freneau | 227 |
The South Carolina, Unknown | 228 |
CHAPTER IX | |
New York and the "Neutral Ground" | |
Sir Henry Clinton's Invitation to the Refugees, Philip Freneau | 229 |
The Storm of Stony Point, Arthur Guiterman | 230 |
Wayne at Stony Point, Clinton Scollard | 230 |
Aaron Burr's Wooing, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 231 |
The Modern Jonas, Unknown | 232 |
Caldwell of Springfield, Bret Harte | 232 |
The Cow-Chace, John André | 233 |
Brave Paulding and the Spy, Unknown | 237 |
Arnold the Vile Traitor, Unknown | 238 |
Epigram, Unknown | 238 |
André's Request to Washington, Nathaniel Parker Willis | 238 |
André, Charlotte Fiske Bates | 239 |
Sergeant Champe, Unknown | 239 |
A New Song, Joseph Stansbury | 240 |
The Lords of the Main, Joseph Stansbury | 241 |
The Royal Adventurer, Philip Freneau | 241 |
The Descent on Middlesex, Peter St. John | 242 |
CHAPTER X | |
The War in the South | |
Hymns of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 245 |
About Savannah, Unknown | 245 |
A Song about Charleston, Unknown | 246 |
The Swamp Fox, William Gilmore Simms | 247[xix] |
Song of Marion's Men, William Cullen Bryant | 248 |
Macdonald's Raid, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 248 |
Sumter's Band, J. W. Simmons | 250 |
The Battle of King's Mountain, Unknown | 251 |
The Battle of the Cowpens, Thomas Dunn English | 252 |
The Battle of Eutaw, William Gilmore Simms | 254 |
Eutaw Springs, Philip Freneau | 255 |
The Dance, Unknown | 256 |
Cornwallis's Surrender, Unknown | 256 |
The Surrender of Cornwallis, Unknown | 257 |
News From Yorktown, Lewis Worthington Smith | 257 |
An Ancient Prophecy, Philip Freneau | 258 |
CHAPTER XI | |
Peace | |
On Sir Henry Clinton's Recall, Unknown | 259 |
On the Departure of the British from Charleston, Philip Freneau | 260 |
On the British King's Speech, Philip Freneau | 261 |
England and America in 1782, Alfred Tennyson | 262 |
On Disbanding the Army, David Humphreys | 262 |
Evacuation of New York by the British, Unknown | 262 |
Occasioned by General Washington's Arrival in Philadelphia, on his Way to his Residence in Virginia, Philip Freneau | 263 |
The American Soldier's Hymn, Unknown | 264 |
Thanksgiving Hymn, Unknown | 264 |
Land of the Wilful Gospel, Sidney Lanier | 265 |
PART III | |
THE PERIOD OF GROWTH | |
"Oh Mother of a Mighty Race," William Cullen Bryant | 268 |
CHAPTER I | |
The New Nation | |
A Radical Song of 1786, St. John Honeywood | 269 |
The Federal Convention, Unknown | 269 |
To the Federal Convention, Timothy Dwight | 270 |
The New Roof, Francis Hopkinson | 270 |
Convention Song, Unknown | 271 |
The Federal Constitution, William Milns | 272 |
The First American Congress, Joel Barlow | 273 |
Washington, James Jeffrey Roche | 274 |
The Vow of Washington, John Greenleaf Whittier | 274 |
On the Death of Benjamin Franklin, Philip Freneau | 275 |
George Washington, John Hall Ingham | 275 |
Washington, Lord Byron | 276 |
Adams and Liberty, Robert Treat Paine | 276 |
Hail Columbia, Joseph Hopkinson | 277 |
Ye Sons of Columbia, Thomas Green Fessenden | 278 |
Truxton's Victory, Unknown | 279 |
The Constellation and the Insurgente, Unknown | 280 |
Washington's Monument, Unknown | 280[xx] |
How we burned the Philadelphia, Barrett Eastman | 281 |
Reuben James, James Jeffrey Roche | 282 |
Skipper Ireson's Ride, John Greenleaf Whittier | 283 |
A Plea for Flood Ireson, Charles Timothy Brooks | 284 |
CHAPTER II | |
The Second War with England | |
The Times, Unknown | 285 |
Reparation or War, Unknown | 286 |
Terrapin War, Unknown | 286 |
Farewell, Peace, Unknown | 287 |
Come, ye Lads, who wish to shine, Unknown | 287 |
Hull's Surrender, Unknown | 287 |
The Constitution and the Guerrière, Unknown | 288 |
Halifax Station, Unknown | 289 |
On the Capture of the Guerrière, Philip Freneau | 290 |
Firstfruits in 1812, Wallace Rice | 291 |
The Battle of Queenstown, William Banker, Jr. | 292 |
The Wasp's Frolic, Unknown | 293 |
The United States and Macedonian, Unknown | 293 |
The United States and Macedonian, Unknown | 294 |
Jack Creamer, James Jeffrey Roche | 295 |
Yankee Thunders, Unknown | 296 |
The General Armstrong, Unknown | 296 |
Capture of Little York, Unknown | 298 |
The Death of General Pike, Laughton Osborn | 299 |
Old Fort Meigs, Unknown | 300 |
The Shannon and the Chesapeake, Thomas Tracy Bouvé | 300 |
Chesapeake and Shannon, Unknown | 301 |
Defeat and Victory, Wallace Rice | 302 |
Enterprise and Boxer, Unknown | 302 |
Perry's Victory, Unknown | 303 |
The Battle of Erie, Unknown | 303 |
Perry's Victory—A Song, Unknown | 305 |
The Fall of Tecumseh, Unknown | 305 |
The Legend of Walbach Tower, George Houghton | 306 |
The Battle of Valparaiso, Unknown | 307 |
The Battle of Bridgewater, Unknown | 308 |
The Hero of Bridgewater, Charles L. S. Jones | 309 |
The Battle of Stonington, Philip Freneau | 309 |
The Ocean-Fight, Unknown | 310 |
The Lost War-Sloop, Edna Dean Proctor | 311 |
On the British Invasion, Philip Freneau | 312 |
The Battle of Lake Champlain, Philip Freneau | 312 |
The Battle of Plattsburg Bay, Clinton Scollard | 313 |
The Battle of Plattsburg, Unknown | 314 |
The Battle of Baltimore, Unknown | 315 |
Fort McHenry, Unknown | 316 |
The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key | 317 |
Ye Parliament of England, Unknown | 318 |
The Bower of Peace, Robert Southey | 318 |
Reid at Fayal, John Williamson Palmer | 319 |
The Fight of the Armstrong Privateer, James Jeffrey Roche | 319 |
The Armstrong at Fayal, Wallace Rice | 321 |
Fort Bowyer, Charles L. S. Jones | 323 |
The Battle of New Orleans, Thomas Dunn English | 323[xxi] |
Jackson at New Orleans, Wallace Rice | 325 |
To the Defenders of New Orleans, Joseph Rodman Drake | 326 |
The Hunters of Kentucky, Unknown | 326 |
The Constitution's Last Fight, James Jeffrey Roche | 327 |
Sea and Land Victories, Unknown | 328 |
Ode to Peace, Unknown | 329 |
CHAPTER III | |
The West | |
The Settler, Alfred B. Street | 329 |
The Mothers of the West, William Davis Gallagher | 330 |
On the Emigration to America, Philip Freneau | 331 |
John Filson, William Henry Venable | 331 |
Sainclaire's Defeat, Unknown | 332 |
Johnny Appleseed, William Henry Venable | 334 |
The Founders of Ohio, William Henry Venable | 335 |
Blennerhassett's Island, Thomas Buchanan Read | 335 |
The Battle of Muskingum, William Harrison Safford | 337 |
To Aaron Burr, under Trial for High Treason, Sarah Wentworth Morton | 338 |
The Battle of Tippecanoe, Unknown | 339 |
The Tomb of the Brave, Joseph Hutton | 339 |
Sa-cá-ga-we-a, Edna Dean Proctor | 340 |
On the Discoveries of Captain Lewis, Joel Barlow | 341 |
Whitman's Ride for Oregon, Hezekiah Butterworth | 342 |
Discovery of San Francisco Bay, Richard Edward White | 343 |
John Charles Frémont, Charles F. Lummis | 345 |
"The Days of 'Forty-Nine," Unknown | 345 |
The Old Santa Fé Trail, Richard Burton | 346 |
California, Lydia Huntley Sigourney | 346 |
CHAPTER IV | |
Through Five Administrations | |
Theodosia Burr, John Williamson Palmer | 346 |
On the Death of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, John G. C. Brainard | 347 |
On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake, Fitz-Greene Halleck | 348 |
On Laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, John Pierpont | 348 |
La Fayette, Dolly Madison | 349 |
The Death of Jefferson, Hezekiah Butterworth | 349 |
Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 351 |
Concord Hymn, Ralph Waldo Emerson | 351 |
The Wreck of the Hesperus, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 351 |
Old Tippecanoe, Unknown | 353 |
The Death of Harrison, Nathaniel Parker Willis | 353 |
CHAPTER V | |
The War with Mexico | |
The Valor of Ben Milam, Clinton Scollard | 354 |
Ben Milam, William H. Wharton | 355 |
The Men of the Alamo, James Jeffrey Roche | 355 |
The Defence of the Alamo, Joaquin Miller | 357 |
The Fight at San Jacinto, John Williamson Palmer | 357 |
Song of Texas, William Henry Cuyler Hosmer | 358 |
Texas, John Greenleaf Whittier | 358[xxii] |
Mr. Hosea Biglow speaks, James Russell Lowell | 360 |
The Guns in the Grass, Thomas Frost | 361 |
Rio Bravo—A Mexican Lament, Charles Fenno Hoffman | 362 |
To Arms, Park Benjamin | 363 |
Monterey, Charles Fenno Hoffman | 363 |
Victor Galbraith, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 364 |
Buena Vista, Albert Pike | 364 |
The Angels of Buena Vista, John Greenleaf Whittier | 366 |
The Bivouac of the Dead, Theodore O'Hara | 368 |
What Mr. Robinson thinks, James Russell Lowell | 369 |
Battle of the King's Mill, Thomas Dunn English | 370 |
The Siege of Chapultepec, William Haines Lytle | 371 |
Illumination for Victories in Mexico, Grace Greenwood | 371 |
The Crisis, John Greenleaf Whittier | 372 |
The Volunteers, William Haines Lytle | 374 |
CHAPTER VI | |
Fourteen Years of Peace | |
The Ship Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Francis Lieber | 374 |
The War Ship of Peace, Samuel Lover | 375 |
On the Defeat of Henry Clay, William Wilberforce Lord | 376 |
On the Death of M. D'Ossoli and his Wife, Margaret Fuller, Walter Savage Landor | 376 |
The Last Appendix to "Yankee Doodle," Unknown | 376 |
Daniel Webster, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 377 |
The Flag, James Jeffrey Roche | 378 |
Kane, Fitz-James O'Brien | 379 |
Herndon, S. Weir Mitchell | 380 |
Blood is Thicker than Water, Wallace Rice | 380 |
Baron Renfrew's Ball, Charles Graham Halpine | 382 |
PART IV | |
THE CIVIL WAR | |
Battle-Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe | 384 |
CHAPTER I | |
The Slavery Question | |
To William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier | 385 |
Clerical Oppressors, John Greenleaf Whittier | 385 |
The Debate in the Sennit, James Russell Lowell | 386 |
Ichabod, John Greenleaf Whittier | 388 |
The Kidnapping of Sims, John Pierpont | 388 |
The Kansas Emigrants, John Greenleaf Whittier | 389 |
Burial of Barber, John Greenleaf Whittier | 389 |
The Defence of Lawrence, Richard Realf | 390 |
The Fight over the Body of Keitt, Unknown | 391 |
Le Marais du Cygne, John Greenleaf Whittier | 392 |
How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 393 |
The Battle of Charlestown, Henry Howard Brownell | 395 |
Brown of Ossawatomie, John Greenleaf Whittier | 396 |
Glory Hallelujah! or John Brown's Body, Charles Sprague Hall | 397[xxiii] |
John Brown, Edna Dean Proctor | 397 |
John Brown: a Paradox, Louise Imogen Guiney | 397 |
Lecompton's Black Brigade, Charles Graham Halpine | 398 |
Lincoln, the Man of the People, Edwin Markham | 399 |
Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 400 |
Jefferson D., H. S. Cornwell | 401 |
The Old Cove, Henry Howard Brownell | 401 |
A Spool of Thread, Sophie E. Eastman | 402 |
God save Our President, Francis DeHaes Janvier | 403 |
CHAPTER II | |
The Gauntlet | |
Bob Anderson, my Beau, Unknown | 403 |
On Fort Sumter, Unknown | 403 |
Sumter, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 404 |
The Battle of Morris' Island, Unknown | 404 |
Sumter—A Ballad of 1861, Unknown | 405 |
The Fight at Sumter, Unknown | 407 |
Sumter, Henry Howard Brownell | 408 |
The Great Bell Roland, Theodore Tilton | 408 |
Men of the North and West, Richard Henry Stoddard | 409 |
Out and Fight, Charles Godfrey Leland | 409 |
No More Words, Franklin Lushington | 410 |
Our Country's Call, William Cullen Bryant | 410 |
Dixie, Albert Pike | 411 |
A Cry to Arms, Henry Timrod | 411 |
"We Conquer or Die," James Pierpont | 412 |
"Call All," Unknown | 412 |
The Bonnie Blue Flag, Annie Chambers Ketchum | 413 |
I give my Soldier Boy a Blade, Unknown | 413 |
CHAPTER III | |
The North gets its Lesson | |
The Nineteenth of April, Lucy Larcom | 414 |
Through Baltimore, Bayard Taylor | 414 |
My Maryland, James Ryder Randall | 415 |
Ellsworth, Unknown | 416 |
Colonel Ellsworth, Richard Henry Stoddard | 416 |
On the Death of "Jackson," Unknown | 417 |
The Virginians of the Valley, Francis Orrery Ticknor | 417 |
Bethel, A. J. H. Duganne | 417 |
Dirge, Thomas William Parsons | 419 |
Wait for the Wagon, Unknown | 419 |
Upon the Hill before Centreville, George Henry Boker | 420 |
Manassas, Catherine M. Warfield | 423 |
A Battle Ballad, Francis Orrery Ticknor | 424 |
The Run from Manassas Junction, Unknown | 425 |
On to Richmond, John R. Thompson | 426 |
Cast Down, but not Destroyed, Unknown | 427 |
Shop and Freedom, Unknown | 428 |
The C. S. A. Commissioners, Unknown | 428 |
Death of the Lincoln Despotism, Unknown | 429 |
Jonathan to John, James Russell Lowell | 430 |
A New Song to an Old Tune, Unknown | 432 |
[xxiv] | |
CHAPTER IV | |
The Grand Army of the Potomac | |
Civil War, Charles Dawson Shanly | 432 |
The Picket-Guard, Ethel Lynn Beers | 433 |
Tardy George, Unknown | 433 |
How McClellan took Manassas, Unknown | 434 |
Wanted—A Man, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 435 |
The Gallant Fighting "Joe," James Stevenson | 436 |
Kearny at Seven Pines, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 437 |
The Burial of Latané, John R. Thompson | 437 |
The Charge by the Ford, Thomas Dunn English | 438 |
Dirge for Ashby, Margaret Junkin Preston | 439 |
Malvern Hill, Herman Melville | 439 |
A Message, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps | 440 |
Three Hundred Thousand More, James Sloan Gibbons | 440 |
Cedar Mountain, Annie Fields | 441 |
"Our Left," Francis Orrery Ticknor | 441 |
Dirge for a Soldier, George Henry Boker | 442 |
The Reveille, Bret Harte | 442 |
Beyond the Potomac, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 443 |
Barbara Frietchie, John Greenleaf Whittier | 444 |
Marthy Virginia's Hand, George Parsons Lathrop | 445 |
The Victor of Antietam, Herman Melville | 445 |
The Crossing at Fredericksburg, George Henry Boker | 446 |
At Fredericksburg, John Boyle O'Reilly | 447 |
Fredericksburg, Thomas Bailey Aldrich | 449 |
By the Potomac, Thomas Bailey Aldrich | 449 |
The Washers of the Shroud, James Russell Lowell | 450 |
CHAPTER V | |
The War in the West | |
The Little Drummer, Richard Henry Stoddard | 451 |
The Death of Lyon, Henry Peterson | 453 |
Zagonyi, George Henry Boker | 453 |
Battle of Somerset, Cornelius C. Cullen | 454 |
Zollicoffer, Henry Lynden Flash | 454 |
Boy Brittan, Forceythe Willson | 455 |
Albert Sidney Johnston, Kate Brownlee Sherwood | 456 |
Albert Sidney Johnston, Francis Orrery Ticknor | 457 |
Beauregard, Mrs. C. A. Warfield | 457 |
The Eagle of Corinth, Henry Howard Brownell | 458 |
The Battle of Murfreesboro, Kinahan Cornwallis | 459 |
Little Giffen, Francis Orrery Ticknor | 460 |
The Battle Autumn of 1862, John Greenleaf Whittier | 460 |
CHAPTER VI | |
The Coast and the River | |
At Port Royal, John Greenleaf Whittier | 461 |
Ready, Phœbe Cary | 461 |
The Daughter of the Regiment, Clinton Scollard | 462 |
The Turtle, Unknown | 462 |
The Attack, Thomas Buchanan Read | 463 |
The Cumberland, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 464 |
On Board the Cumberland, George Henry Boker | 464[xxv] |
The Cumberland, Herman Melville | 466 |
How the Cumberland went down, S. Weir Mitchell | 466 |
The Cruise of the Monitor, George Henry Boker | 467 |
The Sinking of the Merrimack, Lucy Larcom | 468 |
The River Fight, Henry Howard Brownell | 468 |
The Ballad of New Orleans, George Henry Boker | 472 |
The Varuna, George Henry Boker | 474 |
The Surrender of New Orleans, Marion Manville | 475 |
Mumford, Ina M. Porter | 476 |
Butler's Proclamation, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 476 |
CHAPTER VII | |
Emancipation | |
To John C. Frémont, John Greenleaf Whittier | 477 |
Astræa at the Capitol, John Greenleaf Whittier | 478 |
Boston Hymn, Ralph Waldo Emerson | 478 |
The Proclamation, John Greenleaf Whittier | 480 |
Treason's Last Device, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 480 |
Laus Deo, John Greenleaf Whittier | 481 |
CHAPTER VIII | |
The "Grand Army's" Second Campaign | |
Mosby at Hamilton, Madison Cawein | 482 |
John Pelham, James Ryder Randall | 482 |
Hooker's Across, George Henry Boker | 483 |
Stonewall Jackson's Way, John Williamson Palmer | 483 |
Keenan's Charge, George Parsons Lathrop | 484 |
"The Brigade must not know, Sir," Unknown | 485 |
Stonewall Jackson, Henry Lynden Flash | 486 |
The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson, Sidney Lanier | 486 |
Under the Shade of the Trees, Margaret Junkin Preston | 486 |
The Ballad of Ishmael Day, Unknown | 487 |
Riding with Kilpatrick, Clinton Scollard | 488 |
Gettysburg, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 489 |
The High Tide at Gettysburg, Will Henry Thompson | 491 |
Gettysburg, James Jeffrey Roche | 492 |
The Battle-Field, Lloyd Mifflin | 492 |
John Burns of Gettysburg, Bret Harte | 493 |
Kentucky Belle, Constance Fenimore Woolson | 494 |
The Draft Riot, Charles de Kay | 496 |
Lincoln at Gettysburg, Bayard Taylor | 497 |
CHAPTER IX | |
With Grant on the Mississippi | |
Running the Batteries, Herman Melville | 498 |
Before Vicksburg, George Henry Boker | 499 |
Vicksburg, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 499 |
The Battle-Cry of Freedom, George Frederick Root | 500 |
The Black Regiment, George Henry Boker | 500 |
The Ballad of Chickamauga, Maurice Thompson | 501 |
Thomas at Chickamauga, Kate Brownlee Sherwood | 502 |
Garfield's Ride at Chickamauga, Hezekiah Butterworth | 503 |
The Battle of Lookout Mountain, George Henry Boker | 505 |
The Battle in the Clouds, William Dean Howells | 506[xxvi] |
Charleston, Henry Timrod | 507 |
The Battle of Charleston Harbor, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 507 |
Bury Them, Henry Howard Brownell | 508 |
Twilight on Sumter, Richard Henry Stoddard | 509 |
CHAPTER X | |
The Final Struggle | |
Put it Through, Edward Everett Hale | 509 |
Logan at Peach Tree Creek, Hamlin Garland | 510 |
A Dirge for McPherson, Herman Melville | 511 |
With Corse at Allatoona, Samuel H. M. Byers | 511 |
Allatoona, Unknown | 512 |
Sherman's March to the Sea, Samuel H. M. Byers | 512 |
The Song of Sherman's Army, Charles Graham Halpine | 513 |
Marching through Georgia, Henry Clay Work | 513 |
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors, Walt Whitman | 514 |
Sherman's in Savannah, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 514 |
Savannah, Alethea S. Burroughs | 514 |
Carolina, Henry Timrod | 515 |
Charleston, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 515 |
Romance, William Ernest Henley | 516 |
The Foe at the Gates, John Dickson Bruns | 516 |
Ulric Dahlgren, Kate Brownlee Sherwood | 517 |
Lee to the Rear, John Randolph Thompson | 518 |
Can't, Harriet Prescott Spofford | 519 |
Obsequies of Stuart, John Randolph Thompson | 519 |
A Christopher of the Shenandoah, Edith M. Thomas | 520 |
Sheridan at Cedar Creek, Herman Melville | 521 |
Sheridan's Ride, Thomas Buchanan Read | 521 |
The Year of Jubilee, Henry Clay Work | 522 |
Virginia Capta, Margaret Junkin Preston | 523 |
The Fall of Richmond, Herman Melville | 523 |
The Surrender at Appomattox, Herman Melville | 524 |
Lee's Parole, Marion Manville | 524 |
Robert E. Lee, Julia Ward Howe | 524 |
CHAPTER XI | |
Winslow and Farragut | |
The Eagle and Vulture, Thomas Buchanan Read | 525 |
Kearsarge and Alabama, Unknown | 526 |
Kearsarge, S. Weir Mitchell | 526 |
The Alabama, Maurice Bell | 527 |
Craven, Henry Newbolt | 527 |
Farragut, William Tuckey Meredith | 528 |
Through Fire in Mobile Bay, Unknown | 529 |
The Bay Fight, Henry Howard Brownell | 530 |
"Albemarle" Cushing, James Jeffrey Roche | 535 |
At the Cannon's Mouth, Herman Melville | 537 |
CHAPTER XII | |
The Martyr President | |
Lincoln, S. Weir Mitchell | 537 |
O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman | 537[xxvii] |
The Dead President, Edward Rowland Sill | 538 |
Abraham Lincoln, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 538 |
Pardon, Julia Ward Howe | 539 |
The Dear President, John James Piatt | 539 |
Abraham Lincoln, William Cullen Bryant | 540 |
Abraham Lincoln, Richard Henry Stoddard | 540 |
Parricide, Julia Ward Howe | 542 |
Abraham Lincoln, Tom Taylor | 543 |
CHAPTER XIII | |
Peace | |
"Stack Arms," Joseph Blynth Alston | 545 |
Jefferson Davis, Walker Meriwether Bell | 545 |
In the Land where we were Dreaming, Daniel B. Lucas | 546 |
Acceptation, Margaret Junkin Preston | 547 |
The Conquered Banner, Abram J. Ryan | 547 |
Peace, Adeline D. T. Whitney | 547 |
Peace, Phœbe Cary | 548 |
A Second Review of the Grand Army, Bret Harte | 548 |
When Johnny comes marching Home, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore | 549 |
Driving Home the Cows, Kate Putnam Osgood | 550 |
Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration, James Russell Lowell | 550 |
PART V | |
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION | |
The Eagle's Song, Richard Mansfield | 558 |
CHAPTER I | |
Reconstruction and After | |
To the Thirty-Ninth Congress, John Greenleaf Whittier | 559 |
"Mr. Johnson's Policy of Reconstruction," Charles Graham Halpine | 559 |
Thaddeus Stevens, Phœbe Cary | 560 |
South Carolina to the States of the North, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 561 |
Ku-Klux, Madison Cawein | 562 |
The Rear Guard, Irene Fowler Brown | 562 |
The Blue and the Gray, Francis Miles Finch | 563 |
The Stricken South to the North, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 564 |
How Cyrus laid the Cable, John Godfrey Saxe | 565 |
The Cable Hymn, John Greenleaf Whittier | 565 |
An Arctic Vision, Bret Harte | 566 |
Alaska, Joaquin Miller | 567 |
Israel Freyer's Bid for Gold, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 567 |
Chicago, John Greenleaf Whittier | 568 |
Chicago, Bret Harte | 569 |
Chicago, John Boyle O'Reilly | 569 |
Boston, John Boyle O'Reilly | 570 |
The Church of the Revolution, Hezekiah Butterworth | 570 |
After the Fire, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 571 |
The Ride of Collins Graves, John Boyle O'Reilly | 571 |
[xxviii] | |
CHAPTER II | |
The Year of a Hundred Years | |
Our First Century, George Edward Woodberry | 572 |
Centennial Hymn, John Greenleaf Whittier | 573 |
The Centennial Meditation of Columbia, Sidney Lanier | 573 |
Centennial Hymn, William Cullen Bryant | 574 |
Welcome to the Nations, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 574 |
The National Ode, Bayard Taylor | 575 |
Our National Banner, Dexter Smith | 578 |
After the Centennial, Christopher Pearse Cranch | 578 |
CHAPTER III | |
The Conquest of the Plains | |
The Pacific Railway, C. R. Ballard | 579 |
After the Comanches, Unknown | 579 |
Down the Little Big Horn, Francis Brooks | 580 |
Little Big Horn, Ernest McGaffey | 581 |
Custer's Last Charge, Frederick Whittaker | 582 |
Custer, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 583 |
The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 583 |
Miles Keogh's Horse, John Hay | 584 |
On the Big Horn, John Greenleaf Whittier | 585 |
The "Grey Horse Troop," Robert W. Chambers | 585 |
Geronimo, Ernest McGaffey | 586 |
The Last Reservation, Walter Learned | 586 |
Indian Names, Lydia Huntley Sigourney | 587 |
CHAPTER IV | |
The Second Assassination | |
Rejoice, Joaquin Miller | 587 |
The Bells at Midnight, Thomas Bailey Aldrich | 588 |
J. A. G., Julia Ward Howe | 589 |
Midnight—September 19, 1881, John Boyle O'Reilly | 589 |
At the President's Grave, Richard Watson Gilder | 590 |
On the Death of President Garfield, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 590 |
President Garfield, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 591 |
Yorktown Centennial Lyric, Paul Hamilton Hayne | 592 |
The Brooklyn Bridge, Edna Dean Proctor | 593 |
Brooklyn Bridge, Charles George Douglas Roberts | 593 |
Charleston, Richard Watson Gilder | 594 |
Mayflower, John Boyle O'Reilly | 594 |
Fairest of Freedom's Daughters, Jeremiah Eames Rankin | 594 |
Liberty Enlightening the World, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 595 |
The Bartholdi Statue, John Greenleaf Whittier | 595 |
Additional Verses to Hail Columbia, Oliver Wendell Holmes | 596 |
New National Hymn, Francis Marion Crawford | 596 |
In Apia Bay, Charles George Douglas Roberts | 597 |
An International Episode, Caroline T. Duer | 598 |
By the Conemaugh, Florence Earle Coates | 599 |
The Man who rode to Conemaugh, John Eliot Bowen | 599 |
A Ballad of the Conemaugh Flood, Hardwick Drummond Rawnsley | 600 |
Conemaugh, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward | 601 |
"The White City," Richard Watson Gilder | 602 |
The Kearsarge, James Jeffrey Roche | 602[xxix] |
Tennessee, Virginia Fraser Boyle | 603 |
An Ode on the Unveiling of the Shaw Memorial, Thomas Bailey Aldrich | 603 |
The Klondike, Edwin Arlington Robinson | 604 |
CHAPTER V | |
The War with Spain | |
Apostrophe to the Island of Cuba, James Gates Percival | 606 |
The Gallant Fifty-One, Henry Lynden Flash | 606 |
Cuba, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 607 |
The Gospel of Peace, James Jeffrey Roche | 607 |
Cuba, Harvey Rice | 608 |
Cuba to Columbia, Will Carleton | 608 |
Cuba Libre, Joaquin Miller | 609 |
The Parting of the Ways, Joseph B. Gilder | 609 |
The Men of the Maine, Clinton Scollard | 609 |
The Word of the Lord from Havana, Richard Hovey | 610 |
Half-Mast, Lloyd Mifflin | 611 |
The Fighting Race, Joseph I. C. Clarke | 611 |
On the Eve of War, Danske Dandridge | 612 |
To Spain—A Last Word, Edith M. Thomas | 612 |
The Martyrs of the Maine, Rupert Hughes | 612 |
El Emplazado, William Henry Venable | 613 |
Battle Song, Robert Burns Wilson | 613 |
Greeting from England, Unknown | 614 |
Battle Cry, William Henry Venable | 614 |
Just One Signal, Unknown | 614 |
Dewey at Manila, Robert Underwood Johnson | 615 |
Dewey and his Men, Wallace Rice | 617 |
"Off Manilly," Edmund Vance Cooke | 618 |
Manila Bay, Arthur Hale | 618 |
A Ballad of Manila Bay, Charles George Douglas Roberts | 618 |
The Battle of Manila, Richard Hovey | 619 |
Dewey in Manila Bay, R. V. Risley | 620 |
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," Madison Cawein | 620 |
The Spirit of the Maine, Tudor Jenks | 621 |
The Dragon of the Seas, Thomas Nelson Page | 621 |
The Sailing of the Fleet, Unknown | 622 |
"Cut the Cables," Robert Burns Wilson | 622 |
The Race of the Oregon, John James Meehan | 624 |
Battle-Song of the Oregon, Wallace Rice | 624 |
Strike the Blow, Unknown | 625 |
Eight Volunteers, Lansing C. Bailey | 626 |
The Men of the Merrimac, Clinton Scollard | 626 |
The Victory-Wreck, Will Carleton | 627 |
Hobson and his Men, Robert Loveman | 627 |
The Call to the Colors, Arthur Guiterman | 627 |
Essex Regiment March, George Edward Woodberry | 628 |
The Gathering, Herbert B. Swett | 629 |
Comrades, Henry R. Dorr | 629 |
Wheeler's Brigade at Santiago, Wallace Rice | 629 |
Deeds of Valor at Santiago, Clinton Scollard | 630 |
The Charge at Santiago, William Hamilton Hayne | 630 |
Private Blair of the Regulars, Clinton Scollard | 631 |
Wheeler at Santiago, James Lindsay Gordon | 631 |
Spain's Last Armada, Wallace Rice | 632 |
Santiago, Thomas A. Janvier | 633 |
The Fleet at Santiago, Charles E. Russell | 634[xxx] |
The Destroyer of Destroyers, Wallace Rice | 635 |
The Brooklyn at Santiago, Wallace Rice | 636 |
The Rush of the Oregon, Arthur Guiterman | 637 |
The Men behind the Guns, John Jerome Rooney | 637 |
Cervera, Bertrand Shadwell | 638 |
McIlrath of Malate, John Jerome Rooney | 639 |
When the Great Gray Ships come in, Guy Wetmore Carryl | 640 |
Full Cycle, John White Chadwick | 640 |
Breath on the Oat, Joseph Russell Taylor | 641 |
The Islands of the Sea, George Edward Woodberry | 641 |
Ballade of Expansion, Hilda Johnson | 642 |
"Rebels," Ernest Crosby | 643 |
On a Soldier fallen in the Philippines, William Vaughn Moody | 643 |
The Ballad of Paco Town, Clinton Scollard | 644 |
The Deed of Lieutenant Miles, Clinton Scollard | 644 |
Aguinaldo, Bertrand Shadwell | 645 |
The Fight at Dajo, Alfred E. Wood | 645 |
An Ode in Time of Hesitation, William Vaughn Moody | 646 |
CHAPTER VI | |
The New Century | |
A Toast to Our Native Land, Robert Bridges | 649 |
Buffalo, Florence Earle Coates | 649 |
McKinley, Unknown | 649 |
Faithful unto Death, Richard Handfield Titherington | 650 |
The Comfort of the Trees, Richard Watson Gilder | 650 |
Outward Bound, Edward Sydney Tylee | 650 |
Panama, James Jeffrey Roche | 651 |
Darien, Edwin Arnold | 651 |
Panama, Amanda T. Jones | 652 |
A Song of Panama, Alfred Damon Runyon | 652 |
Hymn of the West, Edmund Clarence Stedman | 653 |
Britannia to Columbia, Alfred Austin | 654 |
Those Rebel Flags, John H. Jewett | 654 |
The Song of the Flags, S. Weir Mitchell | 655 |
Arizona, Sharlot M. Hall | 655 |
San Francisco, Joaquin Miller | 657 |
San Francisco, John Vance Cheney | 657 |
To San Francisco, S. J. Alexander | 657 |
Resurge San Francisco, Joaquin Miller | 658 |
Grover Cleveland, Joel Benton | 658 |
Unguarded Gates, Thomas Bailey Aldrich | 659 |
National Song, William Henry Venable | 659 |
Ad Patriam, Clinton Scollard | 660 |
O Land Beloved, George Edward Woodberry | 660 |
The Republic, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 660 |
CHAPTER VII | |
The World War | |
Sonnets written in the Fall of 1914, George Edward Woodberry | 661 |
Abraham Lincoln walks at Midnight, Vachel Lindsay | 661 |
The "William P. Frye," Jeanne Robert Foster | 662 |
The White Ships and the Red, Joyce Kilmer | 663 |
Mare Liberum, Henry van Dyke | 664 |
Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers fallen for France, Alan Seeger | 664 |
Republic to Republic, Witter Bynner | 666[xxxi] |
To the United States of America, Robert Bridges | 666 |
The Captive Ships at Manila, Dorothy Paul | 666 |
The Road to France, Daniel Henderson | 667 |
Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette, Amelia Josephine Burr | 667 |
Your Lad, and my Lad, Randall Parrish | 668 |
A Call to Arms, Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews | 668 |
The First Three, Clinton Scollard | 669 |
To America, on her First Sons fallen in the Great War, E. M. Walker | 670 |
Rouge Bouquet, Joyce Kilmer | 670 |
Marching Song, Dana Burnet | 671 |
Our Modest Doughboys, Charlton Andrews | 671 |
Seicheprey | 672 |
A Ballad of Redhead's Day, Richard Butler Glaenzer | 672 |
Victory Bells, Grace Hazard Conkling | 673 |
Epicedium, J. Corson Miller | 673 |
The Dead, David Morton | 674 |
The Unreturning, Clinton Scollard | 674 |
The Star, Marion Couthouy Smith | 674 |
Brest left behind, John Chipman Farrar | 674 |
To the Returning Brave, Robert Underwood Johnson | 675 |
The Return, Eleanor Rogers Cox | 676 |
King of the Belgians, Marion Couthouy Smith | 676 |
The Family of Nations, Willard Wattles | 677 |
The League of Nations, Mary Siegrist | 677 |
Beyond Wars, David Morton | 678 |
"When there is Peace," Austin Dobson | 678 |
After the War, Richard Le Gallienne | 678 |
NOTES | 681 |
INDEX OF AUTHORS | 699 |
INDEX OF FIRST LINES | 705 |
INDEX OF TITLES | 713 |
AMERICA
POEMS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Bjarni, son of Herjulf, speeding westward from Iceland in 986, to spend the Yuletide in Greenland with his father, encountered foggy weather and steered by guesswork for many days. At last he sighted land, but a land covered with dense woods,—not at all the land of fiords and glaciers he was seeking. So, without stopping, he turned his prow to the north, and ten days later was telling his story to the listening circle before the blazing logs in his father's house at Brattahlid. The tale came, in time, to the ears of Leif, the famous son of Red Eric, and in the year 1000 he set out from Greenland, with a crew of thirty-five, in search of the strange land to the south. He reached the barren coast of Labrador and named it Helluland, or "slate-land;" south of it was a coast so densely wooded that he named it Markland, or "woodland." At last he ran his ship ashore at a spot where "a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sea." Wild grapes abounded, and he named the country Vinland.
From "Psalm of the West"
Leif and his crew spent the winter in Vinland, and in the following spring took back to Greenland news of the pleasant country they had discovered. Other voyages followed, but the newcomers became embroiled with the natives, who attacked them in such numbers that all projects of colonization were abandoned; and finally, in 1012, the Norsemen sailed away forever from this land of promise.
THE NORSEMEN
[On a fragment of statue found at Bradford.]
This, in mere outline, is the story of Vinland, as told in the Icelandic Chronicle. Of its substantial accuracy there can be little doubt. Many proofs of Norse occupation have been found on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. The "skeleton in armor," however, which was unearthed in 1835 near Fall River, Mass., was probably that of an Indian.
THE SKELETON IN ARMOR
The centuries passed, and no more of the white-skinned race came to the New World. But a new era was at hand; the day drew near when a little fleet was to put out from Spain and turn its prows westward on the grandest voyage the world has ever known.
PROPHECY
From "Il Morgante Maggiore"
1485
About 1436 a son was born to Dominico Colombo, wool-comber, of Genoa, and in due time christened Cristoforo. Of his boyhood little is known save that he early went to sea. About 1470 he followed his brother Bartholomew to Lisbon, and in 1474 he was given a map by Toscanelli, the Florentine astronomer, showing Japan and the Indies directly west of Portugal, together with a long letter in which Toscanelli explained his reasons for believing that by sailing west one could reach the East. Columbus, studying the problem month by month, became convinced of the feasibility of such a route to the Indies, and determined himself to traverse it.
THE INSPIRATION
From "The West Indies"
In 1484 Columbus laid his plan before King John II, of Portugal, but became so disgusted with his treachery and double-dealing, that he left Portugal and entered the service of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs listened to him with attention, and ordered that the greatest astronomers and cosmographers of the kingdom should assemble at Salamanca and pass upon the feasibility of the project.
COLUMBUS
[January, 1487]
The council convened at Salamanca and examined Columbus; but it presented to him an almost impenetrable wall of bigotry and prejudice. Long delays and adjournments followed; and for three years the suppliant was put off with excuses and evasions. At last, worn out with waiting and anxiety, he appealed to Ferdinand to give him a definite answer.
COLUMBUS TO FERDINAND
[January, 1491]
Early in 1491 the council of Salamanca reported that the proposed enterprise was vain and impossible of execution, and Ferdinand accepted the decision. Indignant at thought of the years he had wasted, Columbus started for Paris, to lay his plan before the King of France. He was accompanied by his son, Diego, and stopped one night at the convent of La Rabida, near Palos, to ask for food and shelter. The prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, became interested in his project, detained him, and finally secured for him another audience of Isabella.
COLUMBUS AT THE CONVENT
[July, 1491]
Isabella and Ferdinand were with their army before Granada, and received Columbus well; but his demands for emoluments and honors in the event of success were pronounced absurd; the negotiations were broken off, and again Columbus started for France. The few converts to his theories were in despair, and one of them, Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, obtained an audience of the Queen, and enkindled her patriotic spirit. When Ferdinand still hesitated, she exclaimed, "I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile. I will pledge my jewels to raise the money that is needed!" Santangel assured her that he himself was ready to provide the money, and advanced seventeen thousand florins from the coffers of Aragon, so that Ferdinand really paid for the expedition, after all.
THE FINAL STRUGGLE
From "The New World"
[January 6—April 17, 1492]
With the greatest difficulty, Columbus managed to secure three little vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña, and to enlist about a hundred and twenty men for the enterprise. Early in the morning of Friday, August 3, 1492, this tiny fleet sailed out from Palos and turned their prows to the west.
STEER, BOLD MARINER, ON!
[August 3, 1492]
The fleet reached the Canaries without misadventure, but when the shores of Ferro sank from sight, the sailors gave themselves up for lost. Their terror increased day by day; the compass behaved strangely, the boats became entangled in vast meadows of floating seaweed; and finally the trade-winds wafted them so steadily westward that they became convinced they could never return. By October 4 there were ominous signs of mutiny, and finally, on the 11th, affairs reached a crisis.
THE TRIUMPH[2]
From "Psalm of the West"
[Dawn, October 12, 1492]
At daybreak of Friday, October 12 (N. S. October 22), the boats were lowered and Columbus, with a large part of his company, went ashore, wild with exultation. They found that they were on a small island, and Columbus named it San Salvador. It was one of the Bahamas, but which one is not certainly known.
COLUMBUS
Columbus reached Spain again on March 15, 1493, and at once sent word of his arrival to Ferdinand and Isabella, who were at Barcelona. He was summoned to appear before them and was received with triumphal honors. The King and Queen arose at his approach, directed him to seat himself in their presence, and listened with intense interest to his story of the voyage. When he had finished, they sank to their knees, as did all present, and thanked God for this mark of his favor.
THE THANKSGIVING FOR AMERICA
[Barcelona, April, 1493]
Royal favor is capricious and Columbus had his full share of enemies at court. These, in the end, succeeded in gaining the King's ear; Columbus was arrested in San Domingo and sent back to Spain in chains. Isabella ordered them struck off, and promised him that he should be reimbursed for his losses and restored to all his dignities; but the promise was never kept.
COLUMBUS IN CHAINS
[August, 1500]
On November 7, 1504, Columbus landed in Spain after a fourth voyage to America, during which he had endured sufferings and privations almost beyond description. He was a broken man, and the last blow was the death of Isabella, nineteen days after he reached Seville. Her death left him without patron or protector, and the last eighteen months of his life were spent in sickness and poverty. He died at Valladolid, May 20, 1506.
COLUMBUS DYING
[May 20, 1506]
COLUMBUS
COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER
IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS
The news of Columbus's discoveries soon spread through western Europe, and in May, 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, in the Matthew, and discovered what he supposed to be the Chinese coast on June 24. The thrifty Henry VII gave him the sum of £10 as a reward for this achievement. Cabot was the first European since the vikings to set foot on the North American continent.
THE FIRST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT
[1497]
Colonies were planted by the Spaniards in Cuba and Hispaniola, but the New World continued to be for them a land of wonder and mystery. They were quite ready to believe any marvel,—among others, that somewhere to the north lay an island named Bimini, on which was a fountain whose waters gave perpetual youth to all who bathed therein.
THE LEGEND OF WAUKULLA
[1513]
In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon received a grant to discover and settle this fabulous island. He sailed from Porto Rico in search of it in March, 1513, and found an island but no fountain. Pushing on, he discovered the mainland March 27, and, on April 2, landed and took possession of the country for the King of Spain, calling it Florida.
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
A DREAM OF PONCE DE LEON
[1513]
In March, 1521, De Leon led a large party to Florida and attempted to plant a colony there, but they were driven away by the Indians. De Leon himself was wounded in the thigh by an arrow. The wound was unskillfully treated, and the old adventurer died of it in Cuba shortly afterwards.
PONCE DE LEON
[1521]
The Spaniards, meanwhile, had pushed on across the Caribbean Sea and founded Darien, whither, in 1510, came one Vasco Nuñez Balboa. He made numerous explorations, and, learning from the Indians that there was a great sea to the south, determined to search for it. He started from Darien September 1, 1513, and on the 25th reached the top of a mountain from which he first saw the Pacific. He gained the shore four days later, and, wading into the water, took possession of it for the King of Spain.
BALBOA
[September 25, 1513]
In 1518 a great expedition, under Hernando Cortez, sailed from Cuba in search of a land of marvellous wealth which was said to exist somewhere north of Darien. The result was the discovery of Mexico, which the Spaniards subdued with indescribable cruelties.
WITH CORTEZ IN MEXICO
[1519]
Shortly afterwards, Pizarro completed the conquest of Peru. Heavily-laden treasure-ships were sent homeward across the Atlantic, and at last the Spanish lust of gold seemed in a fair way to be satisfied.
THE LUST OF GOLD
From "The West Indies"
Although Pope Alexander VI had, in 1493, issued a bull dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal, neither France nor England paid any heed to it. One of France's most active corsairs was Giovanni da Verazzano. In 1524 he crossed the Atlantic, and, sighting the coast at Cape Fear, turned northward, discovered the Hudson, landed at Rhode Island, and kept on, perhaps, as far as Newfoundland.
VERAZZANO
AT RHODES AND RHODE ISLAND
[1524]
The Spaniards still dreamed of a great empire somewhere in Florida, and in 1528 Pánfilo de Narvaez set out with an expedition in search of it. Only four members of the party got back to Cuba alive, the others having been killed or captured by the Indians. Among those captured and enslaved was Juan Ortiz. He was rescued by De Soto nearly ten years later.
ORTIZ
[1528]
In 1538 Hernando de Soto was appointed governor of Cuba and Florida, with orders to explore and settle the latter country. He landed at Tampa Bay with nearly a thousand men and started into the interior. He was forced to fight his way across the country against the tribes of the Creek confederacy, and in October, 1540, had a desperate battle with them at a palisaded village called Maubila, at the mouth of the Alabama River.
THE FALL OF MAUBILA
[October 18, 1540]
Early in 1540 a great expedition under Francisco de Coronado started northward from Mexico in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola, of whose glories and riches many stories had been told. The cities were really the pueblos of the Zuñis, and the ballad tells the story of the march.
QUIVÍRA
[1540-1541]
The Spaniards were not the only people who searched in vain for fabulous cities. South of Cape Breton lay a country which the early French explorers named Norembega, and there was supposed to exist, somewhere within its boundaries, a magnificent city of the same name. Roberval and Jacques Cartier spent a number of years after 1541 seeking it, and in 1604 Champlain explored the Penobscot River, on whose banks it was supposed to be situated, but found no trace of it, nor any evidence of civilization except a cross, very old and mossy, in the woods.
NOREMBEGA
[c. 1543]
Until the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the only nation which had succeeded in establishing colonies in the New World. In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert secured permission from Queen Elizabeth to set out on a voyage of discovery and colonization, for the glory of England. He landed at St. John's, Newfoundland, August 5, and established there the first English colony in North America. Then he sailed away to explore further, and met the fate described in the poem. The colony proved a failure.
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT
[1583]
With the destruction of the Armada in 1588, Spain's sea power was so shattered that the Atlantic ceased to be a battleground. English sailors could come and go with a fair degree of safety, and before long the American coast was alive with these daring and adventurous voyagers.
THE FIRST AMERICAN SAILORS
THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA
England laid claim to the continent of North America by virtue of the discoveries of John Cabot in 1497, but little effort was made toward colonization until 1584, when an expedition sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh explored Albemarle Sound and the adjacent coast, and brought back so glowing a description of the country that Elizabeth named the whole region Virginia, in honor of her maidenhood. An abortive attempt to settle Roanoke Island was made in 1585, and in 1587 another expedition under John White landed there. White returned to England in the fall to represent the needs of the settlement, leaving behind him his daughter and little granddaughter,—Virginia Dare, the first white child born in America. He promised to return within a year, but was intercepted by Spaniards, and it was not until August, 1590, that he again dropped anchor off the island. When he went ashore next day, not a trace of the colonists could be found, nor was their fate ever certainly discovered.
THE MYSTERY OF CRO-A-TÀN
In April, 1606, James I sanctioned the formation of two Virginia colonies, and the first colony set sail on the following New Year's day—three vessels, with one hundred and five men, under command of Christopher Newport. Twelve weeks later, they landed at a place they named "Point Comfort," and proceeded up a great river which they named the King's and afterwards the James. On May 13, 1607, the colonists landed on a low peninsula fifty miles up the river, and Captain Newport selected this, against many protests, as the site for the settlement. They christened the place Jamestown. Captains Newport, Gosnold, Smith, and Sickelmore were named as the resident council for the colony, but time soon proved Smith the ablest man in the company, and the leadership fell to him.
JOHN SMITH'S APPROACH TO JAMESTOWN
[May 13, 1607]
Captain Smith proved himself an energetic and effective leader, and led numerous expeditions into the country in search of food. On one of these, in December, 1607, he was taken prisoner and was conducted to the camp of Powhatan, over-king of the tribes from the Atlantic coast to the "falls of the river." According to the story he sent to England a few months later, he was well treated, and was sent back to Jamestown with an escort. Eight years afterwards, when writing an account of Powhatan's younger daughter, Pocahontas, who was then in England, for the entertainment of Queen Anne, he embellished this plain and probably truthful tale with the romantic incidents so long received as history.
[January 5, 1608]
The way in which the Pocahontas incident has been handled by the poets is an interesting and joyous study. These stanzas of Morris's are too delicious to be omitted.
POCAHONTAS
The colony did not flourish as had been hoped, and in May, 1609, the King granted a new charter with larger powers and privileges, and a new company was formed, of which Sir Thomas Gates, Lord De La Warr, and Sir George Somers were made the officers. A large expedition sailed from England June 2, 1609, in charge of Gates, Somers, and Captain Newport, who were on the Sea Venture. During a violent hurricane, their ship was separated from the rest of the fleet and cast ashore upon the Bermudas, whose beauties were so eloquently sung by Andrew Marvell.
BERMUDAS
The passengers and crew of the Sea Venture managed to get to land, and finally built two pinnaces, in which they reached Virginia May 24, 1610. They found the colonists in a desolate and miserable condition, and only the timely arrival of Lord De La Warr in the following month (June 9, 1610), with fresh supplies and colonists, prevented them from burning the town and sailing back to England. Among the passengers on the Sea Venture was one Richard Rich. He shared in all the adventures and hardships of the voyage, and finally got back to England in the fall of 1610. On October 1 he published an account of the voyage, called "Newes from Virginia," the first poem written by a visitor to America.
NEWES FROM VIRGINIA
[September, 1610]
Lord Delaware's stay in Virginia marked the turning-point in the fortunes of the colony. New settlements were made, tobacco culture was begun, and Virginia seemed at last fairly started on the road to prosperity.
TO THE VIRGINIAN VOYAGE
[1611]
Among the planters at Jamestown was John Rolfe, a zealous Christian, who became interested in Pocahontas. Finally, either captivated by her grace and beauty as the romancists believe, or in spite of personal scruples and "for the good[43] of the colony," as Hamor wrote, he proposed marriage. The Princess was willing, her father consented, though he refused to be present at the ceremony (April 5, 1614), and the bride was given away by her uncle Opachisco. They had one son, Thomas Rolfe, whose descendants are still living in Virginia.
[April 5, 1614]
In 1616 Pocahontas was taken to England, where she was received with marked attention by the Queen and court. She renewed her acquaintance with Captain John Smith, who was busy weaving fairy tales about her, had her portrait painted and led a fashionable life generally. It did not agree with her, she developed consumption, and died at Gravesend, March 27, 1617.
THE LAST MEETING OF POCAHONTAS AND THE GREAT CAPTAIN
[June, 1616]
In 1676 the colony was shaken by a struggle which presaged that other one which was to occur just a century later. An Indian war had broken out along the frontier, but Governor Berkeley disbanded the forces gathered to repress it. Whereupon a young man named Nathaniel Bacon gathered a force of his own, marched against the Indians, and was proclaimed a rebel and traitor by the royal governor, who had collected at Jamestown a force of nearly a thousand men. Bacon, after a campaign in which the hostile Indians were practically wiped out of existence, marched back to Jamestown and besieged the place. After a sally in which he was repulsed, Berkeley sailed away and left the town to its fate. Bacon entered it next morning (September 19, 1676), and, deciding that he could not hold it, set fire to it that evening. It was totally destroyed.
THE BURNING OF JAMESTOWN
[September 19, 1676]
Jamestown soon avenged itself. Before Bacon left the place he was ill with fever, and on the first day of October, at the house of a friend in Gloucester County, he "surrendered up that fort he was no longer able to keep, into the hands of the grim and all-conquering Captain, Death." His death was celebrated in a poem which is perhaps the most brilliant example of sustained poetic art produced in Colonial America. It was written "by his man," of whom absolutely nothing is known.
BACON'S EPITAPH, MADE BY HIS MAN
[October 1, 1676]
Jamestown never recovered from the blow which Bacon dealt it. The location was so unhealthy that it could not attract new settlers, and though some of the houses which had been burned were subsequently rebuilt, the town's day of greatness was past. The seat of government was removed to Williamsburg, and the old settlement dropped gradually to decay.
ODE TO JAMESTOWN
In the early part of the eighteenth century, pirates did a thriving trade along the American[48] coast. One of the most redoubtable of these was Captain Teach, better known as "Blackbeard." After a long career of variegated villainy, he was cornered in Pamlico Inlet, in 1718, and killed, together with most of his crew, by a force sent after him by Governor Spottiswood of Virginia. His death was celebrated in a ballad said to have been written by Benjamin Franklin.
[November 22, 1718]
On the twenty-second day of February, 1732 (February 12, O. S.), there was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, a son to Augustine and Mary (Ball) Washington. The baby was[49] christened George, and lived to become the most famous personage in American history.
FROM POTOMAC TO MERRIMAC
[February 11, 1732]
I. POTOMAC SIDE
II. SIGNAL FIRES
III. MERRIMAC SIDE, AND AGIOCHOOK
THE DUTCH AT NEW AMSTERDAM
On the fourth day of April, 1609, there put out from the port of Amsterdam a little craft of about eighty tons, called the Half Moon. It had been chartered by the Dutch East India Company to search for the Northwest Passage. Its captain was Henry Hudson, and on September 3 he cast anchor inside Sandy Hook.
HENRY HUDSON'S QUEST
[1609]
A few days were spent in exploring the bay, and on September 6 occurred the only fatality that marked the voyage. A seaman named John Colman, with four sailors, was sent out in a small boat to sound the Narrows, and encountered some Indians, who sent a flight of arrows toward the strangers. One of the arrows pierced Colman's throat, killing him.
THE DEATH OF COLMAN
[September 6, 1609]
Hudson ascended the river to a point a little above the present town of Albany, then turned back and returned to Holland. His report of the rich country he had discovered was received with enthusiasm there, and preparations were begun on an extensive scale to colonize the new country. Dutch voyagers explored all the adjacent coasts, among the most active being Adrian Block.
ADRIAN BLOCK'S SONG
[July, 1615]
But troubles at home prevented any extensive effort at colonization until 1621, when the States-General chartered the Dutch West India Company, which in 1623 sent Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, with thirty families, to start the colony.
Other expeditions followed, but though the colony prospered, the mother country could provide little means of defence, and it was practically at the mercy of the English—the "swine" of Steendam's verses.
THE COMPLAINT OF NEW AMSTERDAM
[1659]
In spite of this neglect, the new town thrived apace. Friendly relations were established with the settlers at Plymouth, and the colony seemed to be moving steadily toward a golden future. In May, 1647, there arrived from Holland the new director, Peter Stuyvesant. He ruled supreme until 1664, when New Amsterdam surrendered to an English fleet.
PETER STUYVESANT'S NEW YEAR'S CALL
[I. Jan. A. C. 1661]
THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND
The Northern or Plymouth Branch of the Virginia Company, which had been chartered by James I in 1606, did, to some extent, for the north what the sister company did for the south. Sir Ferdinando Gorges was its Raleigh, and sent out a number of exploring ships, one of which made what is now reckoned the first permanent settlement in New England. Captain George Popham was in command, and in August, 1607, three months after the planting of Jamestown, built Fort Popham, or Fort St. George, at the mouth of the Kennebec. But it is not this settlement which has been celebrated in song and story. It is that made at New Plymouth in the winter of 1620 by a shipload of Separatists from the Church of England, who have come down through history as the "Pilgrim Fathers."
Driven from England by religious persecution, the Separatist congregation from the little town of Scrooby, about a hundred in number, had fled to Amsterdam, and finally, in 1609, to Leyden. But they were not in sympathy with the Dutch, and their thoughts turned to America. The Plymouth company was approached, but could not guarantee religious freedom. It gave the suppliants to understand, however, that there was little likelihood they would be interfered with, and after long debate and hesitation, they decided to take the risk.
THE WORD OF GOD TO LEYDEN CAME
[August 15 (N. S.), 1620]
A vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, named the Mayflower, was fitted out, and, on August 5 (N. S. 15), 1620, the emigrants sailed from Southampton, whither they had gone to join the ship. There were ninety persons aboard the Mayflower and thirty aboard a smaller vessel, the Speedwell. But the Speedwell proved unseaworthy, and after twice putting back for repairs, twelve of her passengers were crowded into the Mayflower, which finally, on September 6 (N. S. 16), turned her prow to the west, and began the most famous voyage in American history, after that of Columbus.
SONG OF THE PILGRIMS
[September 16 (N. S.), 1620]
On November 19 (N. S.), nine weeks after leaving Plymouth, land was sighted, and in the evening of that day, the "band of exiles moored their bark" in Cape Cod harbor.
LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS
[November 19 (N. S.), 1620]
Two days later, on Saturday, November 21, the Mayflower dropped her anchor in what is now the harbor of Provincetown, and a force of sixteen, "every one his Musket, Sword and Corslet, under the command of Captaine Myles Standish," went ashore to explore. The next day, being Sunday, praise service was held on board, and on the following Monday occurred the first washing-day.
THE FIRST PROCLAMATION OF MILES STANDISH
[November 23 (N. S.), 1620]
A shallop which the Pilgrims had brought with them in the Mayflower was put together, and in it a party explored the neighboring shores, in search of a suitable place for the settlement. They finally selected Plymouth Harbor, and on Monday, December 21 (O. S. 11), they "marched into the land and found divers corn-fields and little running brooks,—a place (as they supposed) fit for situation; at least it was the best they could find."
THE MAYFLOWER
On March 16 an Indian came into the hamlet, and in broken English bade the strangers "Welcome." He said his name was Samoset, that he came from Monhegan, distant five days' journey toward the southeast, where he had learned something of the language from the crews of fishing-boats, and that he was an envoy from "the greatest commander in the country," a sachem named Massasoit. Massasoit himself appeared a few days later (March 21), and a[60] treaty offensive and defensive was entered into, which remained in force for fifty-four years.
THE PEACE MESSAGE
[March 16, 1621]
The colonists set about the work of planting their fields as soon as spring opened. The harvest proved a good one; "there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison," the fowlers having been sent out by the governor, "that so they might, after a special manner, rejoice together after they had gathered the fruit of their labors." This festival was New England's "First Thanksgiving Day." For three days a great feast was spread not only for the colonists, but for Massasoit and some ninety of his people, who had contributed five deer to the larder.
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY
[November, 1621]
The colonists, through the friendship of Massasoit, had had little trouble with the Indians, but in April, 1622, a messenger from the Narragansetts brought to Plymouth a sheaf of arrows tied round with a rattlesnake skin, which the Indians there interpreted as a declaration of war. Governor Bradford, at the advice of the doughty Standish, stuffed the skin with powder and ball, and sent it back to the Narragansetts. Their chief, Canonicus, was so alarmed at the look of this missive that he refused to receive it, and it finally found its way back to Plymouth.
THE WAR-TOKEN
From "The Courtship of Miles Standish"
[April 1, 1622]
The period of prosperity, which had been marked by the first Thanksgiving, was short-lived. Through nearly the whole of the next two years, the colony was pinched with famine. A crisis was reached in the month of April, 1622, when, so tradition says, the daily ration for each person was reduced to five kernels of corn.
FIVE KERNELS OF CORN
[April, 1622]
In June, 1622, a colony of adventurers from England settled at Wessagusset, now Weymouth, and when their supplies ran short, the following winter, broke open and robbed some of the Indian granaries. The Indians were naturally enraged, and formed a plot for the extirpation of the whites. Warned by Massasoit, the Plymouth settlers determined to strike the first blow, and on March 23, 1623, Standish and eight men were dispatched to Wessagusset. The poem tells the story of the events which followed.
From "The Courtship of Miles Standish"
[March, 1623]
By the end of 1624 Plymouth was in a thriving condition. Its inhabitants numbered nearly two hundred, and it boasted thirty-two dwelling-houses. Other colonies soon sprang up about the Bay—Piscataqua (Portsmouth), Naumkeag (Salem), Nantasket (Hull), and Winnisimmet (Chelsea). The trials and pleasures of life in New England at about this time are humorously described in what are perhaps the first verses written by an American colonist.
[1630]
The Old Colony's palmy days were of short duration, for it was soon overshadowed by a more wealthy and vigorous neighbor, founded by the powerful Puritan party.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS
When Charles I came to the throne, in 1625, with the expressed determination to harry the Puritans out of England, the latter decided to seek an asylum in the New World. In 1628 John Endicott and a few others secured a patent from the New England Council for a trading-company, the grant including a strip of land across the continent from a line three miles north of the Merrimac to another three miles south of the Charles. It was into this colony, known as Massachusetts, that the older colony of Plymouth was finally absorbed.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS
King Charles, little suspecting that he was providing an asylum for the Puritans, confirmed the patent by a royal charter to "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." No place for the meetings of the company had been named in the charter, and the audacious plan was formed to remove it, patents, charter, and all, to New England. Secret meetings were held, the old officers were finally got rid of, and John Winthrop was elected governor. Winthrop sailed for America on April 7, 1630, and arrived at Salem June 12. It was the beginning of a great emigration, for, in the four months that followed, seventeen ships arrived, with nearly a thousand passengers.
THE THANKSGIVING IN BOSTON HARBOR
[June 12, 1630]
But the condition of the colonists was for the most part pitiful, and food was so scarce that shell-fish served for meat and acorns for bread. Winthrop had foreseen this and had engaged Captain William Pierce, of the ship Lion, to go in all haste to the nearest port in Ireland for provisions. Food-stuffs were nearly as scarce there as in America, and Pierce was forced to go on to London, where he was again delayed. A fast was appointed throughout the settlements for February 22, 1631, to implore divine succor. On the 21st, as Winthrop "was distributing the last handful of meal in the barrel unto a poor man distressed by the wolf at the door, at that instant they spied a ship arrived at the harbour's mouth, laden with provisions for them all." The ship was the Lion, and the fast day was changed into a day of feasting and thanksgiving.
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING
[February 22, 1631]
In the four years that followed, the worst hardships of the new plantation were outlived, and between three and four thousand Englishmen were distributed among the twenty hamlets along and near the sea-shore. The fight for a foothold had been won.
NEW ENGLAND'S GROWTH
From a fragmentary poem on "New England"
There remained but one danger, the Indians; and most feared of all were the Pequots, who dwelt just west of what is now Rhode Island, and in 1637 began open hostilities. A force of about a hundred men marched against the principal Pequot stronghold, a palisaded village which stood on a hilltop near the Mystic. The attack was made on the night of May 25, 1637, the Indians were taken by surprise, their thatched houses[70] were set on fire, and of the six or seven hundred persons in the village, scarcely one escaped.
THE ASSAULT ON THE FORTRESS
From "The Destruction of the Pequods"
[May 25, 1637]
Sassacus, the Pequot chief, escaped and sought refuge with the Mohawks, but was slain by them.
DEATH SONG
[1673]
OUR COUNTRY
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS IN NEW ENGLAND
The Puritans, who had come to New England to escape a religious despotism, lost no time in establishing one of their own. At the first meeting of the General Council, in the autumn of 1630, it was agreed that no one should be admitted to membership in the company who was not a member of some church approved by it, and a religious oligarchy was thus established which kept itself in power for over thirty years.
PROLOGUE
From "John Endicott"
One of the earliest to feel the displeasure of the ruling powers of the Colony was Roger Williams, who came to Boston in 1631. He made himself obnoxious to the government by denying the right of the magistrates to punish Sabbath breaking; and continued to occasion so much excitement that it was decided to send him back to England. Williams got wind of this, and took to the woods in January, 1636.
ROGER WILLIAMS
[January, 1636]
Williams had a hard time of it. Thirty years later, he related how he was "sorely tossed for fourteen weeks in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean."
GOD MAKES A PATH
Williams went to Narragansett Bay, where he bargained with Canonicus for the land he wanted, and laid the foundations of the present city of Providence.
CANONICUS AND ROGER WILLIAMS
[1636]
Scarcely were the Massachusetts magistrates rid of Williams, when they found themselves engaged in a much more threatening controversy with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her adherents, who believed in various "dangerous errors," and carried their contempt for the constituted ministry to the point of rising and marching out of the Boston church when its respected pastor, John Wilson, arose to speak. The other ministers of the colony rallied to Wilson's support, the General Court summoned Mrs. Hutchinson before it in November, 1637, and pronounced sentence of banishment, which was put into effect March 28, 1638.
[March 28, 1638]
Among the converts made by Mrs. Hutchinson during her stay in Boston was John Underhill, commander of the colony's troops. He became involved in the controversy that followed, and as a result was disarmed, disfranchised, and finally banished. In September, 1638, he betook himself to Cocheco (Dover), on the Piscataqua, where some of Mrs. Hutchinson's adherents had started a settlement, and where he afterwards held various offices.
JOHN UNDERHILL
[September, 1638]
In 1656 a new danger threatened, for in July the first Quakers landed in New England. The preachers of this sect were generally believed to be either Franciscan monks in disguise, or publishers of irreligious fancies, and in an evil hour[76] the authorities resolved to keep them out of Massachusetts. When the General Court met in October, it passed the law of which Mr. Longfellow gives an accurate résumé. This law was "forthwith published, in several places of Boston, by beat of drum," October 21, 1656.
THE PROCLAMATION
From "John Endicott"
[October 21, 1656]
The law was soon to be enforced, and among the earliest to endure its penalties were Christopher Holden and John Copeland, who were whipped and imprisoned, while Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, of Salem, were also imprisoned for having harbored them. The Southwicks were in advanced years, and had three grown children—Provided, Josiah, and Daniel. The whole family had united with the Society of Friends, and the parents were banished from the colony upon pain of death. While they and one son, Josiah, were in prison, Provided and Daniel were fined ten pounds for not attending public worship at Salem. They refused to pay, and were ordered to be sold into slavery in Virginia or Barbadoes, but no master of a vessel could be found to carry out the sentence.
CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK
[1658]
In September, 1661, Edward Burrough, a prominent Quaker of England, obtained an audience of King Charles II and laid the grievances of the New England Quakers before him. That careless King, who always found it more easy to grant a request than to refuse it, so long as it cost him nothing, directed that a letter be written to Endicott and the governors of the other New England colonies, commanding that "if there were any of those people called Quakers amongst them, now already condemned to suffer death, or other corporal punishment, or that were imprisoned, and obnoxious to the like condemnation, they were to forbear to proceed any further therein," and to send such persons to England for trial. This letter was given in charge to Samuel Shattuck, a Quaker of Salem, then in England under sentence of banishment, with the usual condition of being hanged should he return. He reached Boston in November, 1661, and presented himself with all haste at the governor's door. The ballad very accurately describes the interview which followed.
THE KING'S MISSIVE
[November, 1661]
KING PHILIP'S WAR AND THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION
Metacomet, or Philip, had succeeded his father, Massasoit, as chief of the Wampanoags, and endeavored to maintain friendly relations with the English, but in June, 1675, some of his young men attacked the village of Swansea, and started the desperate struggle known as King Philip's War. For months the Indians ravaged the frontier, and on September 18 all but annihilated a picked force of eighty men, the "Flower of Essex," under Captain Thomas Lathrop, which had been sent to Deerfield to save a quantity of grain which had been abandoned there. Only nine of the eighty survived.
THE LAMENTABLE BALLAD OF THE BLOODY BROOK
[September 18, 1675]
At the approach of winter, the Indians withdrew to the Narragansett country, and the colonists decided to strike a decisive blow. An army of a thousand men was raised and on the morning of Sunday, December 19, approached the Narragansett stronghold, a well-fortified position on an island in the midst of a swamp. A murderous fire greeted the assailants, but they forced an entrance into the fort, set fire to the wigwams, and after a terrific struggle, in which they lost nearly three hundred killed and wounded, drove the Indians out and destroyed their store of winter provisions.
THE GREAT SWAMP FIGHT
[December 19, 1675]
This assault by the colonists drove the Narragansetts, who had hitherto taken no active part in the war, into alliance with Philip, and two months later, on February 21, 1676, Medfield, less than twenty miles from Boston, was attacked and partially burned. Groton soon suffered a similar fate, and the leaders of the savages boasted that they would march on Cambridge, Concord, Roxbury, and Boston itself. It was at this juncture that the "Amazonian Dames" mentioned in the poem became so frightened at the prospect that they resolved to fortify Boston neck.
ON A FORTIFICATION AT BOSTON BEGUN BY WOMEN
DUX FOEMINA FACTI
[March, 1676]
On April 21 an attack was made on Sudbury; a portion of the town was burned, and a relief party of over fifty which hurried up was lured into an ambush and all but annihilated. The Indians in this battle were bolder than they had ever been before, and their strategy was unusually effective.
THE SUDBURY FIGHT
[April 21, 1676]
The victory at Sudbury was the last considerable success the Indians gained in the war. Jealousies broke out among them, many deserted to the whites, and the final blow was struck when, at daybreak of August 12, 1676, Captain Church surprised Philip's camp at Mt. Hope, and Philip himself was shot by an Indian while trying to escape. His head was cut off, sent to Plymouth, and fixed upon a pole, where it remained for twenty years. His wife and son, a boy of nine, were taken[88] prisoners and sold into slavery. With them, the race of Massasoit, that true and tried friend of the early settlers, vanishes from the pages of history.
KING PHILIP'S LAST STAND
[August 12, 1676]
The Indians conquered, the people of Massachusetts set themselves resolutely to fight the devil. They were firm believers in the actual presence of the powers of darkness, and almost from the beginning of the colony there had been prosecutions for witchcraft. But it was not until 1692 that the great outbreak of superstition, vindictiveness, and fear occurred, which forms the darkest blot on New England's history.
PROLOGUE
From "Giles Corey of the Salem Farms"
The outbreak occurred in that part of Salem then called Salem Village, now the separate town of Danvers, and was brought about by three or four children who pretended to be bewitched and who "cried out" against various persons. They were countenanced, not to say encouraged, by Samuel Parris, the minister of the place, and there is evidence to show that he used them to gratify his private enmities.
SALEM
[A.D. 1692]
A special jury, instituted to try the suspects, went to work without delay. On June 2, 1692, Bridget Bishop was tried and condemned and was hanged a week later. On June 30 the court sentenced five persons to death, and all of them were executed soon afterwards. Among those condemned was Rebecca Nourse, seventy-one years of age, universally beloved and of excellent character. The jury was with great difficulty persuaded to convict her; the governor granted a reprieve, but Parris, who had an ancient grudge against her, finally got it repealed, and on July 19, 1692, she was carted to the summit of Gallows Hill and hanged.
THE DEATH OF GOODY NURSE
[July 19, 1692]
At the August session, six persons were tried and, of course, condemned, among them Elizabeth and John Proctor. The former had been arrested April 11, and when her husband came to her defence, he was also arrested. They were tried together August 5, and both were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Proctor was executed August 19. His wife escaped by pleading pregnancy. Some months later she gave birth to a child, and her execution was again ordered early in 1693, but Governor Phips granted a reprieve, and she ultimately escaped.
A SALEM WITCH
[August 19, 1692]
The case of Giles Corey is one of the most tragic in all this hideous drama. When arrested and brought before the court, he refused to plead—"stood mute," as the law termed it. The penalty for "standing mute," according to the English law of the time, was that the prisoner "be remanded to prison ... and there be laid on his back on the bare floor...; that there be placed upon his body as great a weight of iron as he can bear, and more," until death should ensue. This was the penalty Giles Corey suffered.
THE TRIAL
From "Giles Corey of the Salem Farms"
[September 7, 1692]
GILES COREY
[September 19, 1692]
One of the most assiduous of the prosecutors had been John Hale, minister of the First Church at Beverly. In October the accusers "cried out" against his wife, who was widely known for generous and disinterested virtues. Hale knew the "innocence and piety of his wife, and stood between her and the storm he had helped to raise. The whole community became convinced that the accusers in crying out upon Mrs. Hale had perjured themselves, and from that moment their power was destroyed."
MISTRESS HALE OF BEVERLY
[October, 1692]
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONTINENT
While England was colonizing the Atlantic seaboard, France was firmly establishing herself to the north along the St. Lawrence. It was inevitable that war should follow; and as early as 1613 the English had destroyed the French settlements in Nova Scotia. The country had scarcely rallied from the blow, when it was torn asunder by the contest between Charles la Tour and the Chevalier D'Aulnay—a contest which, after twelve years, resulted in victory for the latter.
ST. JOHN
[April, 1647]
The rivalry between the colonists for the fur trade grew steadily more bitter, and in 1690 (King William's War) Canada undertook the conquest of New York and destroyed a number of frontier towns. The English made some reprisals; Sir William Phips capturing Acadia and Major Peter Schuyler leading a raid into the country south of Montreal, where he defeated a considerable body of French and Indians under Valrennes, in a spirited fight at La Prairie.
THE BATTLE OF LA PRAIRIE
[1691]
Peace was declared in 1697, but hostilities began again five years later, and early in 1704 Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, dispatched a force of three hundred, under Hertel de Rouville, against Deerfield, on the northwestern frontier of Massachusetts. They reached their destination a little before daylight of February 29, and, finding the sentinels asleep and the snow drifted over the palisades, rushed the place, and carried it, with the exception of one block-house, which held out successfully.
THE SACK OF DEERFIELD
[February 29, 1704]
Under French officers and priests, the war continued to be conducted with a cruelty as aimless as it was brutal. Isolated hamlets were burned, and their inhabitants tortured or taken prisoners, only, for the most part, to be butchered on the way to Canada. On August 29, 1708, a party of French and Indians, under De Chaillons and the infamous De Rouville, surprised the town of Haverhill. Rushing upon it, as their custom was, just before daylight, they fired several houses, plundered others, and killed some thirty or forty of the inhabitants. The townspeople rallied, and after an hour's fighting drove away the assailants, killing nearly thirty, among them De Rouville himself.
[August 29, 1708]
Though the Peace of Utrecht (1714) closed the war, desultory raids continued. In April, 1725, John Lovewell, of Dunstable, with forty-six men, marched against the Indian town of Pigwacket, or Pequawket (now Fryeburg). On the morning of May 8 they were suddenly attacked by a large force of Indians who had formed an ambuscade. Twelve men fell at the first fire, among them Lovewell himself. The survivors fought against heavy odds until sunset, when the Indians drew off without having been able to scalp the dead. It was this battle, in its day "as famous in New England as was Chevy Chase on the Scottish border," which inspired the earliest military ballad, still extant, composed in America. Its author is unknown, but it was for many years "the best beloved song in all New England."
[May 8, 1725]
The story of Lovewell's fight is told in another ballad printed in Farmer and Moore's Historical Collections in 1824. It is an excellent example of ballad literature, describing the struggle in great detail and with unusual accuracy.
[May 8, 1725]
The fight near Lovewell's Pond was the ground of still another case of literary priority. Nearly a hundred years after its occurrence, on November 17, 1820, the Portland Gazette printed the first poetical venture of a lad of thirteen years. It bore the title of "The Battle of Lovell's Pond." Its author was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
THE BATTLE OF LOVELL'S POND
[May 8, 1725]
The English gained a notable victory in the summer of 1745 when they captured the formidable fortress of Louisburg, which had been built by the French on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island. News of the victory created the greatest joy throughout the colonies.
LOUISBURG
[June 17, 1745]
Louis XV felt the loss of Louisburg keenly, and in 1746, to avenge its fall, sent a strong fleet, under Admiral D'Anville, against Boston. The town was terror-stricken; but after many mishaps the fleet was finally dispersed by a great storm off Cape Sable, on October 15, 1746, and such of the ships as lived through it were forced to make their way back to France.
A BALLAD OF THE FRENCH FLEET
[October 15, 1746]
Mr. Thomas Prince, loquitur
Peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, but it was really only a truce. England and France could not be permanently at peace until one or the other was undisputed master of the North American continent. The French claimed all the country west of the Alleghanies and enforced their claims by building a string of forts, among them Fort Duquesne at the head of the Ohio. At last, in 1755, was "the British Lyon roused."
[1755]
Active hostilities began early in 1755. On February 20 General Edward Braddock landed at Hampton, Va., and proceeded at once to organize an expedition to march against Fort Duquesne. George Washington, who had already had some bitter experience with the French, was made one of his aides-de-camp. On May 29 the army, with an immense wagon train, began its long journey across the mountains.
[May 29, 1755]
Braddock, with a picked force of about twelve hundred men, reached the Monongahela July 8 in excellent order, and, on the following morning, with colors flying and drums beating, marched against the fort. The French garrison, under Contrecœur, was in a panic, and ready for flight, but a young captain of regulars named Beaujeu with difficulty obtained permission to take out a small party, mostly Indians, to harass the advancing column. They encountered the English about seven miles from the fort, marching in close order along a narrow road which the pioneers had made. The Indians opened fire, spreading along either flank, and protected by the underbrush. The English, crowded together in the open road, could not see their enemies, and were thrown into confusion. Braddock, wild with rage, refused to permit them to fight in Indian fashion, but beat them back into line with his sword. At last a bullet struck him down, and his troops fled in panic from the field.
BRADDOCK'S FATE, WITH AN INCITEMENT TO REVENGE
[July 9, 1755]
HIS EPITAPH
A SURVEY OF THE FIELD OF BATTLE
NED BRADDOCK
[July 9, 1755]
After Braddock's defeat, the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers were left, for a time, to the ravages of the Indians. The colonies were slow to defend themselves, and could get no aid whatever from England, who had her hands full elsewhere.
ODE TO THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA
[September 30, 1756]
Meanwhile things were in a troubled condition in Acadia, where the so-called "French neutrals" were discovered to be in arms against England. "Every resource of patience and persuasion" had been used to secure their loyalty to Great Britain, but in vain. At last it was decided to disperse them among the southern provinces, and the deportation began in October. At the end of two months, about six thousand of the Acadians had been sent away, and their homes destroyed.
THE EMBARKATION
From "Evangeline"
[October 8, 1755]
In July, 1758, an army of fifteen thousand, under General James Abercromby and Brigadier Lord Howe, attempted to take Ticonderoga, where Montcalm was stationed at the head of about three thousand men. Lord Howe, the very life of the army, was killed in the first skirmish, and Abercromby handled the army so badly that it was repulsed with a loss of nearly two thousand, and fled in a panic. The French loss was less than four hundred, and the victory was hailed as one of the greatest ever achieved by French arms in America.
ON THE DEFEAT AT TICONDEROGA OR CARILONG
[July 8, 1758]
But at last the tide turned. In 1757 William Pitt forced his way to the leadership of the government in England, and at once formed a comprehensive plan for a combined attack on the French forts in America. The first point of attack was Louisburg, which had been ceded back to France in 1748, and in the spring of 1758 a strong expedition under Lord Amherst was dispatched against it. The siege commenced June 8—the very day of the disaster at Ticonderoga—and after a tremendous bombardment which destroyed the town and badly breached the fortress, the garrison, numbering nearly six thousand, surrendered July 26, 1758.
ON THE LATE SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION AGAINST LOUISBOURG
[July 26, 1758]
The fall of Louisburg was followed a few months later by the capture of Fort Duquesne (November 25, 1758), by General John Forbes. Forbes, at the head of an excellent army, had proceeded slowly and carefully. As the English approached, the French realized that to remain was simply to be captured, so they deserted the hopeless post, and Forbes marched in unmolested. He named his conquest Fort Pitt, after the great minister.
FORT DUQUESNE
A HISTORICAL CENTENNIAL BALLAD
[November 25, 1758-1858]
Pitt determined to strike a blow at the very centre of French power, and on June 26, 1759, an English fleet of twenty-two ships of the line, with frigates, sloops-of-war, and transports carrying nine thousand regulars, appeared before Quebec. In command of this great expedition was Major-General James Wolfe, who had played so dashing a part in the capture of Louisburg the year before, and was soon to win immortal glory.
HOT STUFF
[June, 1759]
About the end of August a place was found where the heights might be scaled, and an assault was ordered for the night of Wednesday, September 12. The night arrived; every preparation had been made and every order given; it only remained to wait the turning of the tide. Wolfe was on board the flagship Sutherland, and to while away the hours of waiting he is said to have written the little song, "How Stands the Glass Around?"
HOW STANDS THE GLASS AROUND?
[September 12, 1759]
Montcalm, riding out from Quebec early in the morning of Thursday, September 13, 1759, found the English drawn up in line of battle on the Plains of Abraham—they had scaled the cliffs in safety. He attacked about ten o'clock, but his troops were repulsed at the second volley and fled in confusion back to the fort. Wolfe was killed in the charge which followed, and Montcalm was fatally wounded and died that night. The French were demoralized; a council was called and the incredible resolution reached to abandon the fort without further resistance. The retreat commenced at once, and Quebec was left to its fate. It was never again to pass into the hands of France.
BRAVE WOLFE
[September 13, 1759]
Wolfe's death almost overshadowed the victory. Major Knox, in his diary, writes, "our joy at this success is inexpressibly damped by the loss we sustained of one of the greatest heroes which this or any other age can boast of."
THE DEATH OF WOLFE
[September 13, 1759]
The fall of Quebec settled the fate of Canada. On September 8, 1760, Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal to a great besieging force under Amherst. By the terms of the capitulation, Canada and all its dependencies passed to the British crown. The fight for the continent was ended. Indian hostilities continued for some years, and it was not until October, 1764, that peace was made with them. One of its conditions was the return of all captives taken by the Indians, and they were assembled at Carlisle, Pa., December 31, 1764. It was there the incident took place which is related in the following verses.
THE CAPTIVE'S HYMN
(Carlisle, Pa., December 31, 1764)
A PROPHECY
[1764]
FLAWLESS HIS HEART
THE COMING OF DISCONTENT
The close of the struggle with the French for the possession of the continent may be fairly said to mark the beginning of that series of aggressions on the part of England which ended in the revolt of her colonies. True there had been before that arbitrary and tyrannical royal governors, and absurdly perverse enactments on the part of the Lords of Trade; but not until the French troubles had been disposed of did the British government bend its energies seriously to regulating the affairs of a people which it considered fractious and turbulent. In the Virginia Gazette for May 2, 1766, appeared one of the first of those songs, afterwards so numerous, which expressed the discontent of the colonies under this régime.
[May 2, 1766]
In 1766 William Pitt, perhaps the most enlightened friend America had in England, became Prime Minister, and adopted toward the colonies a policy so conciliatory that it occasioned much disgust in England—as is evident from the following verses which appeared originally in the Gentleman's Magazine.
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
OR, THE OLD WOMAN TAUGHT WISDOM
[1767]
But Pitt was soon incapacitated by illness from taking any active part in the government, and Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer, was able to pass his "port bills," and other oppressive measures. Many prominent Americans, among them Samuel Adams, decided that the colonies must be independent.
A SONG
[January 26, 1769]
Associations known as Sons of Liberty were organized in the larger cities, and in February, 1770, the first Liberty Pole in America was raised at New York city, in what is now City Hall Park. A struggle ensued with the British troops, during which the pole was twice cut down, but it was hooped with iron and set up a third time. A Tory versifier celebrated the event in a burlesque cantata, from which the following description of the pole is taken.
[February, 1770]
Two regiments of British troops arrived at Boston on March 5, 1768, and annoyed the people in many ways. Brawls were frequent, and by the beginning of 1770 the tension of feeling had reached the snapping point. The "Massachusetts Liberty Song" and "The British Grenadier" did not go well together.
THE BRITISH GRENADIER
On the evening of March 5 a crowd collected near the barracks and some blows were exchanged; a sentinel in King Street knocked down a boy, and was about to be mobbed, when Captain Preston and seven privates came to his assistance. The crowd pressed upon their levelled pieces, which were suddenly discharged, killing four men and wounding seven. Crispus Attucks, a mulatto slave, was the first to fall.
[March 5, 1770]
This insignificant street riot was the famous "Boston Massacre." It created a great stir, and the victims were buried with military honors on March 8, the bodies being deposited in a single vault. A few days later, Paul Revere engraved and printed a large hand-bill giving a picture of the scene, accompanied by the following lines:
UNHAPPY BOSTON
[March 8, 1770]
A conflict of a much more serious nature took place at Alamance, N. C., on May 7, 1771, between a body of colonists, goaded to rebellion by repeated acts of extortion, and a force of British regulars under Governor Tryon. The colonists[135] were totally defeated and left two hundred dead and wounded on the field.
ALAMANCE
[May 7, 1771]
The first American "victory" occurred on the night of June 9, 1772, when the British eight-gun schooner Gaspee was captured and burned to the water's edge. For some months the crew of the Gaspee, commissioned to enforce the revenue acts in Narragansett Bay, had been stopping vessels, seizing goods, stealing sheep and hogs, and committing other depredations along the shore. On June 9, while pursuing the Providence Packet, the schooner ran aground, and that night was boarded by a party of Rhode Islanders, the crew overpowered, and the boat burned.
[June 9-10, 1772]
The duty on tea, imposed five years before by Townshend, had been retained by the British government as a matter of principle, and in the autumn of 1773 the King determined to assert the obnoxious principle which the tax involved. Several ships loaded with tea were accordingly started for America. On Sunday, November 28, the first of these arrived at Boston, and two others came in a few days later. The town went wild, meeting after meeting was held, and on the night of Tuesday, December 16, 1773, a band of about twenty, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, cut open the tea-chests and flung the contents into the water.
A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY
[December 16, 1773]
Next morning, Paul Revere, booted and spurred, started for Philadelphia with the news that Boston had at last thrown down the gauntlet. The following song appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet a few days after Revere reached Philadelphia.
A NEW SONG
[December 16, 1773]
News of the insurrection was received in England with the greatest indignation, and measures of reprisal were at once undertaken. No ships were to be allowed to enter the port of Boston until the rebellious town should have repaid the East India Company for the loss of its tea; the charter of Massachusetts was annulled and her free government destroyed; and General Gage was sent over with four regiments to take possession of the town.
HOW WE BECAME A NATION
[April 15, 1774]
Gage arrived at Boston in May, 1774, and at once issued a proclamation calling upon the inhabitants to be loyal, and warning them of his intention to maintain the authority of the King at any cost.
A PROCLAMATION
[May, 1774]
The colonies rallied nobly to Boston's support; provisions of all sorts were sent over-land to the devoted city; the 1st of June, the day on which the Port Bill went into effect, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer throughout the country, and it became a point of honor with all good patriots to refrain from indulgence in "the blasted herb."
THE BLASTED HERB
[1774]
EPIGRAM
ON THE POOR OF BOSTON BEING EMPLOYED IN PAVING THE STREETS, 1774
It was plain that, in this crisis, the colonies must stick together, and the proposal for a Continental Congress, first made by the Sons of Liberty in New York, was approved by colony after colony, and the Congress was finally called to meet at Philadelphia, September 1.
THE DAUGHTER'S REBELLION
The Whig papers generally at this time adopted for a headpiece a snake broken into parts representing the several colonies, with the motto, "Unite or Die."
ON THE SNAKE
DEPICTED AT THE HEAD OF SOME AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
The feeling of the entire country was aptly voiced in "Free America," which appeared at that time, and which was ascribed to Dr. Joseph Warren.
FREE AMERICA
[1774]
The Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, and, after four weeks' deliberation, agreed upon a declaration of rights, claiming for the American people the right of free legislation and calling for the repeal of eleven acts of Parliament.
The duty of presenting to the British government the Declaration of Rights prepared by the Congress devolved upon Benjamin Franklin, who was in England at the time. Lord Dartmouth received the document, but permission was refused Franklin to present the case for the Continental Congress, and to defend it, before the House of Commons.
THE MOTHER COUNTRY
[1775]
Very few Englishmen believed that the Americans would fight. Lord Sandwich said that they were a lot of undisciplined cowards, who would take to their heels at the first sound of a cannon, and that it would be easy to frighten them into submission. The "Pennsylvania Song" was evidently written to answer this assertion.
PENNSYLVANIA SONG
About the middle of December, 1774, deputies appointed by the freemen of Maryland met at Annapolis, and unanimously resolved to resist the attempts of Parliament to tax the colonies and to support the acts of the Continental Congress. They also recommended that every man should provide himself with "a good firelock, with bayonet attached, powder and ball," to be in readiness to act in any emergency.
MARYLAND RESOLVES
[December, 1774]
Such effusions as the "Massachusetts Liberty Song" became immensely popular, and bands of liberty-loving souls met nightly to sing them.
EPIGRAM
It was evident that, in the excited state of the country, a single incident might turn the balance between peace and war and produce a general explosion. That incident was not long in coming.
"PROPHECY"
[1774]
THE BURSTING OF THE STORM
All through the winter of 1774-75, the people of Massachusetts had offered a passive but effective resistance to General Gage. Not a councillor, judge, sheriff, or juryman could be found to serve under the royal commission; and for nine months the ordinary functions of government were suspended. At eventide, on every village-green, a company of yeomen drilled, and a supply of powder and ball was gradually collected at Concord; but every man in the province was given to understand that England must fire the first shot. At the beginning of spring, Gage received peremptory orders to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and send them to England to be tried for treason. He learned that they would be at a friend's house at Lexington, during the middle of April, and on the night of April 18 dispatched a force of eight hundred men to seize them, and then to proceed to Concord and destroy the military stores collected there. Although the movement was conducted with the greatest secrecy, Joseph Warren divined its purpose, and sent out Paul Revere by way of Charlestown to give the alarm.
[April 18-19, 1775]
At the same time Warren dispatched William Dawes by way of Roxbury; but though Dawes played an important part in the events of the night, his exploits have been completely overshadowed in the popular imagination by those of the other courier.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Revere galloped at top speed to Lexington, and warned Hancock and Adams, who left the town shortly before daybreak. Meanwhile the minute-men of the village had gathered, and the vanguard of the English column was confronted by about fifty colonials under command of Captain John Parker. The British commander, Major Pitcairn, ordered them to disperse, and as they stood motionless, he gave the order to fire. His men hesitated, but he discharged his own pistol and repeated the order, whereupon a deadly volley killed eight of the minute-men and wounded ten. A moment later, the main body of the British came up, and Parker, seeing the folly of resistance, ordered his men to retire.
LEXINGTON[3]
[April 19, 1775]
From "Psalm of the West"
LEXINGTON
[April 19, 1775]
The British pressed on to Concord, but the greater part of the stores had been hidden, and minute-men were gathering from all directions. Colonel Smith, commanding the British, began to realize the dangers of his position and about noon started to retreat to Boston. And none too soon, for the whole country was aroused. Minute-men swarmed in from all directions, and taking advantage of every tree and hillock by the roadside, poured into the British a fire so deadly that the retreat soon became a disorderly flight. The timely arrival of strong reinforcements was all that saved the British from annihilation.
[April 19, 1775]
THE KING'S OWN REGULARS
AND THEIR TRIUMPH OVER THE IRREGULARS
How the alarm of the fight spread through the countryside, how men left the plough, the loom, the anvil, and hastened, musket in hand, to the land's defence that day, has been told and retold in song and story. Here is the story of Morgan Stanwood, one among hundreds such.
MORGAN STANWOOD
CAPE ANN, 1775