Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Yankee Chronology

I NEED not now tell what it was drove our sires

To seek on these shores for a country and name;

It is very well known, and the whole world admires

Their valour, their wisdom, their fortune, and fame.

The name of the hero who conquer’d the ocean

They gave to the world which his wisdom unveil’d:

COLUMBIA!—the land of my dearest devotion!

Thy sons still have triumph’d wherever assail’d.

Then huzza for the sons of Columbia so free!

They are lords of the soil—they’ll be lords of the sea.

I’ll begin my chronology just as those times, sirs,

When Britain with her thunder shook the sea and the land,

And declared truth and honour were the basest of crimes, sirs,

And threatened chastisement from her mighty hand.

But the first time she tried it, O! dire the disgrace, sirs,

When Percy, so bold, march’d to Lexington plain;

But he danced Yankee Doodle home, instead of Chevy-chase, sirs,

And was very glad to get back to Boston again.
Then huzza! &c.

On the seventeenth of June, in the year seventy-five, sirs,

The gallant British troops march’d to take Bunker-Hill:

O, the fame of that battle must ever survive, sirs,

When courage and justice battled numbers and skill.

There were Warren and Prescot, and the brave Yankee yeomen:

They mow’d down whole ranks like grass in the field.

When their powder was gone, why, they beat down their foemen

With the buts of their guns, still disdaining to yield!
Then huzza! &c.

In the year seventy-six came the two noble brothers

With an army and fleet fit to conquer a world:

And Cornwallis, and Rawdon, and Tarleton, and others,

And murder and rapine on our country were hurl’d.

When the Briton in his power swore he’d soon make an end on’t!

And our troops, though indignant, step by step forced to fly;

Then our Congress declared we were free and independent,

On the ever, ever glorious Fourth of July!
Then huzza! &c.

Great Washington, then, like his own native eagle,

From the hill-tops look’d down on these vultures and crows:

Jove’s bird! arm’d by Heaven with power more than regal,

Descended in thunder! and pounced on his foes;

Through the snows of December he push’d into Trenton:

Cross’d the Delaware midst ice and the storm’s surly moan;

Gallant Rahl and his Germans were the prey he was bent on,

And they fell bravely fighting in a cause not their own.
Then huzza! &c.

The month not yet ended, when Washington again, sirs,

Shone resplendent in arms, and his foes fled with shame;

’Twas at Princeton he found them a full, open plain, sirs,

And charged like a Mars leading victory and fame!

The year seventy-seven crown’d the labours of Schuyler,

When Burgoyne and his army surrender’d to Gates;

And Britain found that Yankees at all points could foil her,

And her stars shone unclouded through the United States.
Then huzza! &c.

Of the many gallant actions and heroes who fell, sirs,

Should I here make record, time and patience would fail,

And my song to a volume in folio would swell, sirs,

And still do injustice to the glorious tale.

But I must speak of Monmouth, where Sir Harry, retreating,

Felt his hardest day’s march, and so sore and so hot;

And Washington again gave the red-coats a beating,

Till their ships gave them shelter from the damn’d rebel shot!
Then huzza! &c.

It is very well known, in the famous year eighty,

How Sumpter, and Morgan, and Green led the field;

Their acts were a prelude to one more still weighty,

Which forced haughty Britain the contest to yield,—

I mean that at Yorktown, where noble Cornwallis

Surrender’d an army in eighty-and-one,

And Britain paid the price of her injustice and follies,

And Washington could say, “Now my labours are done.”
Then huzza, &c.

We are now, sirs, at war with the same haughty nation;

Our wrongs to redress and our rights to maintain;

Each son of Columbia will soon find his station,

And Europe be taught to respect us again.

Here’s success to our navy, here’s success to our army;

Here’s success to the rulers and statesmen all round;

All Europe united in arms cannot harm ye,

While true Yankee hearts in your bosoms are found!
Then huzza, &c.

On the nineteenth of August, in the present blessed year, sirs,

Our brave Captain Hull met the Guerriere so proud:

Stout Dacres, her commander, who had never yet known fear, sirs,

Bade his merry men stand by and his three ensigns show’d.

But our good Constitution and our brave Yankee seamen

In less than forty minutes forced the Englishmen to strike;

All her masts by the board show’d our guns were served by freemen,

And the oldest English tar swore he’d never seen the like!
Then huzza, &c.