James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
September 24Monterey
By Charles Fenno Hoffman (18061884)
W
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if but he could
Have with us been at Monterey.
In deadly drift of fiery spray,
Yet not a single soldier quail’d
When wounded comrades round them wail’d
Their dying shout at Monterey.
Through walls of flame its withering way;
Where fell the dead, the living stept,
Still charging on the guns which swept
The slippery streets of Monterey.
When, striking where the strongest lay,
We swoop’d his flanking batteries past,
And braving full their murderous blast,
Storm’d home the towers of Monterey.
And there our evening bugles play:
Where orange-boughs above their grave
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.
Beside the brave who fell that day,—
But who of us has not confess’d
He’d rather share their warrior rest
Than not have been at Monterey?