The Davenport Gazette

MONTEREY.
BY CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN.

We were not many—we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day—
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if he then could
Have been with us at Monterey.

Now here, now there, the shot, it hailed
In deadly drifts of fiery spray,
Yet not a single soldier quailed
When wounded comrades round them wailed
Their dying shout at Monterey.

And on—still on our column kept
Thro' 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.

The foe himself recoiled aghast,
When, striking where the strongest lay,
We swooped his flanking batteries past.
And braving full their murderous blast,
Stormed home the towers of Monterey.

Our banner on those turrets waves,
And there our evening bugles play;
Where orange boughs above their graves
Keep green the memory of the braves
Who fought and fell at Monterey.

We are not many—we who pressed
Beside the brave who fell that day;
But who of us has not confessed
He'd rather share their warrior rest,
Than not have been at Monterey.