"Close up!" "Close up!" is heard, and said,
And yet the rain of steel and lead
Still leaves a livid trail of red
Upon the San Juan Hill!
"Charge!" "Charge!" The bugle peals again;
'Tis life or death for Roosevelt's men!--
The Mausers make reply!
Aye! speechless are those swarthy sons,
Save for the clamor of the guns--
Their only battle-cry!
The lowly stain upon each face,
The taunt still fresh of prouder race,
But speeds the step that springs a pace,
To succor or to die!
With rifles hot--to waist-band nude;
The brawn beside the pampered dude;
The cowboy king--one grave--and rude--
To shelter him who falls!
One breast--and bare,--howe'er begot,
The low, the high--one common lot:
The world's distinction all forgot
When Freedom's bugle calls!
No faltering step, no fitful start;
None seeking less than all his part;
One watchward springing from each heart,--
Yet on, and onward still!
The sullen sound of tramp and tread;
Abe Lincoln's flag still overhead;
They followed where the angels led
The way, up San Juan Hill!
And where the life stream ebbs and flows,
And stains the track of trenchant blows
That met no meaner steel,
The bated breath--the battle yell--
The turf in slippery crimson, tell
Where Castile's proudest colors fell
With wounds that never heal!
Where every trooper found a wreath
Of glory for his sabre sheath;
And earned the laurels well;
With feet to field and face to foe,
In lines of battle lying low,
The sable soldiers fell!
And where the black and brawny breast
Gave up its all--life's richest, best,
To find the tomb's eternal rest
A dream of freedom still!
A groundless creed was swept away,
With brand of "coward "--a time-worn say--
And he blazed the path a better way
Up the side of San Juan Hill!
For black or white, on the scroll of fame,
The blood of the hero dyes the same;
And ever, ever will!
Sleep, trooper, sleep; thy sable brow,
Amid the living laurel now,
Is wound in wreaths of fame!
Nor need the graven granite stone,
To tell of garlands all thine own--
To hold a soldier's name!
[In the city of New Orleans, in 1866, two thousand two hundred and
sixty-six ex-slaves were recruited for the service.
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