William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Lexington—“Seventy Five”George Lunt (1803–1885)
I
It startled the dull midnight,
Like the stirring peal of a battle horn,
It summon’d them forth to fight:
It rose o’er the swelling hill,
By the meadows green it was heard,
Calling out for the strength of the freeman’s will,
And the might of the freeman’s sword!
The valleys rung it out:
And every heart leap’d high at the voice
Of that thrilling battle-shout!
They sprang from the bridal bed,
From the pallet of labour’s rest;
And they hurried away to the field of the dead,
Like a tardy marriage-guest.
They left the steer in the yoke;
And away from their mother and child, that morn,
And the maiden’s first kiss they broke!
In the shower of the deadly shot,
In the lurid van of the war,
Sternly they stood, but they answer’d not
To the hireling’s wild hurrah.
Ere it lashes ocean to foam,
The strength of the free was in every arm,
And every heart on its home.
Of their pleasant homes they thought;
They pray’d to their father’s God;
And forward they went till their dear blood bought
The broad free land they trod!