Molly Maguire At Monmouth
by William Collins |
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On the bloody field of Monmouth
Flashed the guns of
Greene and Wayne.
Fiercely roared the tide of battle,
Thick the sward was heaped with slain.
Foremost, facing
death and danger,
Hessian, horse, and grenadier,
In
the vanguard, fiercely fighting,
Stood an Irish Cannonier.
Loudly roared his iron cannon,
Mingling ever in the
strife,
And beside him, firm and daring,
Stood his
faithful Irish wife.
Of her bold contempt of danger
Greene and Lee's Brigades could tell,
Every one knew
"Captain Molly,"
And the army loved her well.
Surged the roar of battle round them,
Swiftly flew the
iron hail,
Forward dashed a thousand bayonets,
That
lone battery to assail.
From the foeman's foremost
columns
Swept a furious fusillade,
Mowing down the
massed battalions
In the ranks of Greene's Brigade.
Fast and faster worked the gunner,
Soiled with
powder, blood, and dust,
English bayonets shone before
him,
Shot and shell around him burst;
Still he fought
with reckless daring,
Stood and manned her long and well,
Till at last the gallant fellow
Dead--beside his cannon
fell.
With a bitter cry of sorrow,
And a dark and
angry frown,
Looked that band of gallant patriots
At
their gunner stricken down.
"Fall back, comrades, it is
folly
Thus to strive against the foe."
"No! not so,"
cried Irish Molly;
"We can strike another blow."
*
* * * *
Quickly leaped she to the cannon,
In her
fallen husband's place,
Sponged and rammed it fast and
steady,
Fired it in the foeman's face.
Flashed another
ringing volley,
Roared another from the gun;
"Boys,
hurrah!" cried gallant Molly,
"For the flag of
Washington."
Greene's Brigade, though shorn and
shattered,
Slain and bleeding half their men,
When
they heard that Irish slogan,
Turned and charged the foe
again.
Knox and Wayne and Morgan rally,
To the front
they forward wheel,
And before their rushing onset
Clinton's English columns reel.
Still the cannon's
voice in anger
Rolled and rattled o'er the plain,
Till
there lay in swarms around it
Mangled heaps of Hessian
slain.
"Forward! charge them with the bayonet!"
'Twas the voice of Washington,
And there burst a
fiery greeting
From the Irish woman's gun.
Monckton falls; against his columns
Leap the troops of
Wayne and Lee,
And before their reeking bayonets
Clinton's red battalions flee.
Morgan's rifles, fiercely
flashing,
Thin the foe's retreating ranks,
And behind
them onward dashing
Ogden hovers on their flanks.
Fast they fly, these boasting Britons,
Who in all their
glory came,
With their brutal Hessian hirelings
To
wipe out our country's name.
Proudly floats the starry
banner,
Monmouth's glorious field is won,
And in
triumph Irish Molly
Stands beside her smoking gun. |
By William Collins
Listed June 8, 2012
Note:
(June 28, 1778)
The battle of Monmouth was
indecisive, but the Americans
held the field, and the
British retreated and remained
inactive for the rest of
the summer. |
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