JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG.
Hhave you heard the story that gossips tell
Of Burns of Gettysburg?—No? Ah, well
Brief is the glory that hero earns,
Briefer the story of poor John Burns:
He was the fellow who won renown—
The only man who didn't back down
When the rebels rode through his native town;
But held his own in the fight next day,
When all his townsfolk ran away.
That was in July, sixty-three,
The very day that General Lee,
Flower of Southern chivalry,
Baffled and beaten, backward reeled
From a stubborn Meade and a barren field.
