Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/28

 Ringed with flame and sore beset, Where gunboat and rifle fire met; Where cannon blazed from water and land Upon the Donelson Southern band, A gallant lad of nineteen years, A stranger to tremor and to fears, Stood by a battery piece and shot The first shell in that crater hot.

His captain, Porter, smitten down Where all the volleyed thunders frown, Shouted, when borne in pain away: “John, don’t give up that gun, I say!” “No! not while a man is left,” replied The lad, in the flush of martial pride; And he kept his word to the utter end, While a man could live in that river bend.