"This poem was written in strict conformity to the account of the incident as I had it from respectable and trustworthy sources. It has since been the subject of a good deal of conflicting testimony, and the story was probably incorrect in some of its details. It is admitted by all that Barbara Frietchie was no myth, but a worthy and highly esteemed gentlewoman, intensely loyal and a hater of the Slavery Rebellion, holding her Union flag sacred and keeping it with her Bible; that when the Confederates halted before her house, and entered her dooryard, she denounced them in vigorous language, shook her cane in their faces, and drove them out; and when General Burnside's troops followed close upon Jackson's, she waved her flag and cheered them. It is stated that May Quantrell, a brave and loyal lady in another part of the city, did wave her flag in sight of the Confederates. It is possible that there has been a blending of the two incidents."--WHITTIER. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1809. He studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, and later at Harvard College, where he graduated in the famous class of 1829. He tried law for a year, but gave this up for medicine. In 1833 he went abroad, returning in 1835 for a medical degree at Harvard. He at once began the active practice of his profession, but accepted a professorship at Dartmouth in 1838. He remained there only a short time, coming back again to Boston, where he married and resumed his work as a physician. In 1847 he became Parkman Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Harvard, and held this position until 1882. In 1857, through the influence of James Russell Lowell, he began to contribute regularly to the _Atlantic Monthly_. After 1882 he devoted himself almost exclusively to writing and lecturing. He died in 1894 in Boston. While Holmes is best known as the author of _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_ and other prose works, he published numerous poems, most of them humorous in tone. Many of them were written for specific occasions, and as such are distinguished for their wit and cleverness rather than for strong emotion or profound thought. GRANDMOTHER'S STORY OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE (Page 230) First published in 1875 at the time of the centennial of the battle of Bunker Hill. The so-called battle of Bunker Hill was the first important engagement of the Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1775, five thousand British soldiers under Howe, Clinton, and Pigott attacked a smaller number of Americans then stationed on Breed's Hill near Boston, under Colonel William Prescott. They were twice beaten back, but captured the hill on their third charge. The British loss was about twelve hundred men, while the Americans lost only four hundred, among them, however, being the patriot, Dr. Joseph Warren. [328] 2. =Times that tried men's souls=; a quotation from the first of a series of tracts called _The Crisis_ by Thomas Paine, 1776.