Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/37

HOW OLD BROWN TOOK HARPER'S FERRY "Cut the wires! Stop the rail-cars! Hold the streets and bridges!" said he,

Then declared the new Republic, with himself for guiding star,—

This Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown;

And the bold two thousand citizens ran off and left the town.

Then was riding and railroading and expressing here and thither;

And the Martinsburg Sharpshooters and the Charlestown Volunteers,

And the Shepherdstown and Winchester Militia hastened whither

Old Brown was said to muster his ten thousand grenadiers.

General Brown!

Osawatomie Brown!!

Behind whose rampant banner all the North was pouring down.

But at last, 't is said, some prisoners escaped from Old Brown's durance,

And the effervescent valor of the Chivalry broke out,

When they learned that nineteen madmen had the marvellous assurance—

Only nineteen—thus to seize the place and drive them straight about;

And Old Brown,

Osawatomie Brown,

Found an army come to take him, encamped around the town.

But to storm, with all the forces I have mentioned, was too risky;

So they hurried off to Richmond for the Government Marines, 7