AUGUST l6, 1777- 1877
The hills are calm, the blue streams flow
Among the breezy pines,
And over all the pulseless glow
Of fruiting summer shines.
In bannered air stands yonder town,
Where freemen rose to stay
The army of the English crown
An hundred years to-day.
The Walloomscoick purls and croons
Amid its swampy isles,
And corn-lands dream in fervid noons
Above its dimpling smiles.
Its boats lay oarless in the sun
As for the bloody fray
The farmer seized his flintlock gun
An hundred years to-day.
And peace forsook each hill-side home
Upon that summer morn,
The daughter left her wheel and loom
And left the boy the corn.
And when in his accustomed place
The grandsire knelt to pray,
He buried in his hands his face
An hundred years to-day.
The rustic parson met his flock
Before the morning light;
"God is our Fortress and our Rock,
And ours the cause of right.
God's word is 'forward,' cautious Stark,
Then forward lead the way!"
The morning rainy rose and dark
An hundred years to-day.
But broke the cloud, and poured the sun
Through billowy mists like fire;
The father marched beside the son,
The son beside the sire.
Their hearts were strong, their guns were few,
Before in war array
The red-cross flag of England blew
An hundred years to-day.
The fair boy marched beside his sire,
The sire beside the son,
But in the mellowing evening light
Returned again but one.
Their graves are here, and calm and still
The shaded waters stray,
By daisied mounds on many a hill
Where they repose to-day.
To-day old Bennington unrolls
Her flag 'mid summer blooms,
Anew her heroes' names enscrolls
In legend-haunted homes.
Forever may her blue streams run,
And west winds o'er them play,
And toss the banners in the sun,
Forever, as to-day.
A battle in the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bennington was fought on August 16, 1777 at Walloomsac, New York. A rebel army under John Stark defeated a British force.