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The Men of the Cumberland
By Rev. R.T.S. Lowell
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From
the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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Cheer! Cheer! For our noble Yankee tars,
That fought the ship Cumberland!
Not a sigh for these, with their maims and scars,
Or their dead that lie off the strand!
Who whines of the ghastly gash and wound,
Or the horrible deaths of war?
Where, where should a brave man's death be found?
And what is a true heart for?
Cheer! Cheer! For these men! Ah! They knew when
Was the time for true hearts to die!
How their flag sank, apeak, will flush the brave cheek
While this earth shall hang in the sky!
In the bubbling waves they fired their last,
Where sputtered the burning wad:
And fast at their post, as their guns were fast,
Went a hundred and more before God.
Not a man of all but had stood to be shot,
(So the flag might fly,) or to drown;
The sea saved some, for it came to their lot,
And some with their ship went down.
Then cheer for these men! They want not gold;
But give them their ship once more,
And the flag that yet hangs in wet and cold
O'er their dead by that faithless shore.
Our sunken ship we'll yet weigh up,
And we'll raise our deep-drowned brave,
Or we'll drain those Roads till a baby's cup
May puddle their last shoal wave.
And we'll tell in tale, and sing in song,
How the Cumberland was fought
By men who knew that all else was wrong
But to die when a sailor ought.
History of the War for the Union, Vol. II, 1861
Go to Main Category:
The Battle of Hampton Roads: March 8 & 9, 1862
Go to other documents in this category:
"The Battle of March 8, 1862" -
H. Ashton Ramsey
"Watching the Merrimac" - R.E.
Colston
"In the Monitor Turret" - S.D.
Greene
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