Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

General Montgomery

The following lines are ascribed to a private who fought under the banners of Montgomery while he lived, and who mourns his untimely fate, in strains which, though not very poetical, are “warm from the heart and faithful to its griefs.”

COME, soldiers, all in chorus join,

And pay a tribute at the shrine

Of brave Montgomery:

Which to the memory is due

Of him who fought and died, that you

Might live and yet be free.

With cheerful and undaunted mind,

Domestic happiness resign’d,

He, with a chosen band,

Through deserts wild, with fix’d intent,

Canada for to conquer went,

Or perish, sword in hand.

Six weeks before St. John’s we lay,

While cannon on us constant play,

On cold and marshy ground;

When Prescott, forced at length to yield,

Aloud proclaim’d it in the field,

Virtue a friend had found.

To Montreal he wing’d his way,

Which seem’d impatient to obey,

And open wide her gates;

Convinced no force could e’er repel

Troops who had just behaved so well,

Under so hard a fate.

With scarce one-third part of their force,

Then to Quebec he bent his course,

That grave of heroes slain!

The pride of France, the great Montcalm,

And Wolfe, the strength of Britain’s arm,

Both fell on Abraham’s plain.

Having no less of fame acquired,

There, too, Montgomery expired,

With Cheeseman by his side;

Carleton, ’tis said, his corpse convey’d

To earth in all the grand parade

Of military pride.