Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BATTLE OF THE COWPENS, by THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BATTLE OF THE COWPENS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: To the cowpens, riding proudly, boasting lordly, rebels scorning
Last Line: Ha! No music like that crushing through the skull-bone to the brain.
Subject(s): American Revolution; Cowpens, Battle Of The (1781); North Carolina


To the Cowpens riding proudly, boasting loudly, rebels scorning,
Tarleton hurried, hot and eager for the fight;
From the Cowpens, sore confounded, on that
January morning,
Tarleton hurried somewhat faster, fain to save himself by flight.

In the morn he scorned us rarely, but he fairly found his error,
When his force was made our ready blows to feel;
When his horsemen and his footmen fled in wild and pallid terror
At the leaping of our bullets and the sweeping of our steel.

All the day before we fled them, and we led them to pursue us,
Then at night on Thickety Mountain made our camp;
There we lay upon our rifles, slumber quickly coming to us,
Spite the crackling of our camp-fires and our sentries' heavy tramp.

Morning on the mountain border ranged in order found our forces.
Ere our scouts announced the coming of the foe;
While the hoar-frost lying near us, and the distant water-courses,
Gleamed like silver in the sunlight, seemed like silver
in their glow.

Morgan ranged us there to meet them, and to greet them with such favor
That they scarce would care to follow us again;
In the rear, the Continentals -- none were readier, nor braver;
In the van, with ready rifles, steady, stern, our mountain men.

Washington, our trooper peerless, gay and fearless, with his forces
Waiting panther-like upon the foe to fall,
Formed upon the slope behind us, where, on raw-boned country horses,
Sat the sudden-summoned levies brought from Georgia by M'Call.

Soon we heard a distant drumming, nearer coming, slow advancing --
It was then upon the very nick of nine.
Soon upon the road from Spartanburg we saw their bayonets glancing,
And the morning sunlight playing on their swaying scarlet line.

In the distance seen so dimly, they looked grimly; coming nearer,
There was naught about them fearful, after all,
Until some one near me spoke in voice than falling water clearer,
"Tarleton's quarter is the sword-blade,
Tarleton's mercy is the ball."

Then the memory came unto me, heavy, gloomy, of my brother
Who was slain while asking quarter at their hand;
Of that morning when was driven forth my sister and my mother
From our cabin in the valley by the spoilers of the land.

I remembered of my brother slain, my mother spurned and beaten,
Of my sister in her beauty brought to shame;
Of the wretches' jeers and laughter, as from mud-sill up to rafter
Of the stripped and plundered cabin leapt the fierce,
consuming flame.

But that memory had no power there in that hour there to depress me --
No! it stirred within my spirit fiercer ire;
And I gripped my sword-hilt firmer, and my arm and heart
grew stronger;
And I longed to meet the wronger on the sea of steel and fire.

On they came, our might disdaining, where the raining bullets leaden
Pattered fast from scattered rifles on each wing;
Here and there went down a foeman, and the ground began to redden;
And they drew them back a moment, like the tiger ere his spring.

Then said Morgan, "Ball and powder kill much prouder men
than George's;
On your rifles and a careful aim rely.
They were trained in many battles -- we in workshops,
fields, and forges;
But we have our homes to fight for, and we do not fear to die."

Though our leader's words we cheered not, yet we feared
not; we awaited,
Strong of heart, the threatened onset, and it came:
Up the sloping hill-side swiftly rushed the foe so fiercely hated;
On they came with gleaming bayonet 'mid the cannon's
smoke and flame.

At their head rode Tarleton proudly; ringing loudly o'er the yelling
Of his men we heard his voice's brazen tone;
With his dark eyes flashing fiercely, and his sombre features telling
In their look the pride that filled him as the champion
of the throne.

On they pressed, when sudden flashing, ringing, crashing,
came the firing
Of our forward line upon their close-set ranks;
Then at coming of their steel, which moved with steadiness untiring.
Fled our mountaineers, re-forming in good order on our flanks.

Then the combat's raging anger, din, and clangor, round and o'er us
Filled the forest, stirred the air, and shook the ground;
Charged with thunder-tramp the horsemen, while their sabres
shone before us,
Gleaming lightly, streaming brightly, through the smoky
cloud around.

Through the pines and oaks resounding, madly bounding from
the mountain,
Leapt the rattle of the battle and the roar;
Fierce the hand-to-hand engaging, and the human freshet raging
Of the surging current urging past a dark and bloody shore.

Soon the course of fight was altered; soon they faltered at the leaden
Storm that smote them, and we saw their centre swerve.
Tarleton's eye flashed fierce in anger; Tarleton's face
began to redden;
Tarleton gave the closing order -- "Bring to action the reserve!"

Up the slope his legion thundered, full three hundred;
fiercely spurring,
Cheering lustily, they fell upon our flanks;
And their worn and wearied comrades, at the sound so spirit-stirring,
Felt a thrill of hope and courage pass along their shattered ranks.

By the wind the smoke-cloud lifted lightly drifted to the nor'ward,
And displayed in all their pride the scarlet foe;
We beheld them, with a steady tramp and fearless, moving forward,
With their banners proudly waving, and their bayonets levelled low.

Morgan gave his order clearly -- "Fall back nearly to the border
Of the hill and let the enemy come nigher!"
Oh! they thought we had retreated, and they charged in
fierce disorder,
When out rang the voice of Howard -- "To the right about,
face! -- Fire!"

Then upon our very wheeling came the pealing of our volley,
And our balls made red a pathway down the hill;
Broke the foe and shrank and cowered; rang again the voice
of Howard --
"Give the hireling dogs the bayonet!" --
and we did it with a will.

In the meanwhile one red-coated troop, unnoted, riding faster
Than their comrades on our rear in fury bore;
But the light-horse led by Washington soon brought it to disaster,
For they shattered it and scattered it, and smote it fast and sore.

Like a herd of startled cattle from the battlefield we drove them;
In disorder down the Mill-gap road they fled;
Tarleton led them in the racing, fast he fled before our chasing,
And he stopped not for the dying, and he stayed not for the dead.

Down the Mill-gap road they scurried and they hurried with
such fleetness --
We had never seen such running in our lives!
Ran they swifter than if seeking homes to taste domestic sweetness,
Having many years been parted from their children and their wives.

Ah! for some no wife to meet them, child to greet them,
friend to shield them!
To their home o'er ocean never sailing back;
After them the red avengers, bitter hate for death had sealed them,
Yelped the dark and red-eyed sleuthhound unrelenting on their track.

In their midst I saw one trooper, and around his waist I noted
Tied a simple silken scarf of blue and white;
When my vision grasped it clearly to my hatred I devoted
Him, from all the hireling wretches who were mingled
there in flight.

For that token in the summer had been from our cabin taken
By the robber-hands of wrongers of my kin;
'T was my sister's -- for the moment things around me were forsaken;
I was blind to fleeing foemen, I was deaf to battle's din.

Olden comrades round me lying dead or dying were unheeded;
Vain to me they looked for succor in their need.
O'er the corses of the soldiers, through the gory pools I speeded,
Driving rowel-deep my spurs within my madly-bounding steed.

As I came he turned, and staring at my glaring eyes he shivered;
Pallid fear went quickly o'er his features grim;
As he grasped his sword in terror, every nerve within him quivered,
For his guilty spirit told him why I solely sought for him.

Though the stroke I dealt he parried, onward carried, down
I bore him --
Horse and rider -- down together went the twain:
"Quarter!" -- He! that scarf had doomed him! stood a son
and brother o'er him;
Down through plume and brass and leather went my sabre to
the brain --
Ha! no music like that crushing through the skull-bone to the brain.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net