William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
An Epitaph: ‘What though no angel glanced aside the ball’Colonel David Humphreys (1752–1818)
Written the day after the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in Virginia
WHAT though no angel glanced aside the ball,
ALEXANDER SCAMMEL,
Adjutant-general of the American armies,
and
Colonel of the first regiment of New-Hampshire,
while
he commanded
a chosen corps of light infantry
at the
successful siege of Yorktown, in Virginia,
was,
in the gallant performance of his duty as field-officer of the day,
unfortunately captured,
and,
afterwards, insidiously wounded—
of which wound he expired at Williamsburg, Oct. 1781,
Anno ætatis……
W
Nor allied arms pour’d vengeance for his fall;
Brave Scammel’s fame, to distant regions known,
Shall last beyond this monumental stone,
Which conquering armies (from their toils return’d)
Rear’d to his glory, while his fate they mourn’d.