The Veterans Of '66 Poem by Robert Kirkland Kernighan

Do you forget the robber band

That made the blood of patriots boil,
When Fenian feet were on our land,

And rebel shoes had cursed our soil?
Do you forget how women wept?

How o'er our homes there fell a pall ?
But, comrades, still our oath we kept,

And all obeyed our country's call !

Do you forget his dying face,

And how the ranks with fury thrill'd,
When someone staggered in his place,

And our first volunteer was killed ?
We rested his poor fallen head ;

We wiped his lips of froth and foam
The first young patriot, boys, was dead !

He died for comrades, flag and home !

And others died ! So round the stone

That marks the heroes of that fray,
Their comrades living yet make moan

For those who fell that fatal day.
Their patriot blood baptized the land ;

They gained a grave and won a crown-
No other but the loyal hand

Can put the ingrate rebel down !