The very flag you carry Caught its reflected grace, In fierce alarms, from Southern arms, When foemen threatened all your farms, And never saw your face; Ho! braggarts of New England's shore, Back to your hills and delve The soil whose craven sons foreswore The flag in eighteen-twelve! We wreathed around the roses It wears before the world, And made it bright with storied light, In every scene of bloody fight Where it has been unfurled; And think ye, now, the dastard hands That never yet could hold Its staff, shall wave it o'er our lands, To glut the greed of gold? No! by the truth of Heaven And its eternal Sun, By every sire whose altar fire Burns on to beckon and inspire, It never shall be done; Before that day the kites shall wheel Hail-thick on Northern heights, And there our bared, aggressive steel Shall countersign our rights! Then spread the flaming banner O'er mountain, lake, and plain, Before its bars, degraded Mars Has kissed the dust with all his stars, And will be struck again; For could its triumph now be stayed By Hell's prevailing gates, A sceptred Union would be made The grave of sovereign States. THE MARCH. BY JOHN W. OVERALL. Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp! Go the Southern braves to battle, How they shine, each gleaming line! Flashing sabers! how they rattle! Every lip is now compressed, Every heart now yearns for glory, Every eye with patriot fire Burns for battle fierce and gory! Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp! Death is in each hidden saber, Reaper of the fields of Time, Look ye for a giant's labor! How sublime! when patriots feel All the strength of self-reliance, Marching on to meet the foe, With a stern and grim defiance! See how proudly floats our flag! White! our cause is pure and grand, man! Red! a living flood shall flow From every foe now in the land, man! Blue! aye, heaven's stars are there! Sparkling in their azure beauty! Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp! Go the messengers of duty! SOUTHERN WAR SONG. BY N. P. W. To horse! to horse! our standard flies, The bugles sound the call; An alien navy stems our seas-- The voice of battle's on the breeze, Arouse ye, one and all! From beauteous Southern homes we come, A band of brothers true-- Resolved to fight for liberty, And live or perish with our flag-- The noble Red and Blue. Though tamely crouch to Northern frown Kentucky's tardy train; Though invaded soil Maryland mourns, Though brave Missouri vainly spurns, And foaming gnaws the chain; Oh! had they marked the avenging call Their brethren's insults gave, Disunion ne'er their ranks had mown, Nor patriot valor, desperate grown, Sought freedom in the grave;