“The Maryland Line”
The Maryland regiments in the Confederate army have adopted the title of “The Maryland Line,” which was so heroically sustained by their patriot sires of the first Revolution, and which the deeds of Marylanders at Manassas, show that the patriot Marylanders of this second Revolution are worthy to bear.
By old Potomac’s rushing tide,
Our bayonets are gleaming;
And o’er the bounding waters wide
We gaze, while tears are streaming.
The distant hills of Maryland
Rise sadly up before us—
And tyrant bands have chained our laud,
Our mother proud that bore us.
Our proud old mother’s queenly head
Is bowed in subjugation;
With her children’s blood her soil is red,
And fiends in exultation
Taunt her with shame as they bind her chains,
While her heart is torn with anguish;
Old mother, on famed Manassas’ plains
Our vengeance did not languish.
We thought of your wrongs as on we rushed,
’Mid shot and shell appalling;
We heard your voice as it upward gush’d,
From the Maryland life-blood falling.
No pity we knew! Did they mercy show
When they bound the mother that bore us?
But we scattered death ’mid the dastard foe
Till they, shrieking, fled before us.
We mourn for our brothers brave that fell
On that field so stern and gory;
But their spirits rose with our triumph yell
To the heavenly realms of glory.
And their bodies rest on the hard-won field—
By their love so true and tender,
We’ll keep the prize they would not yield,
We’ll die, but we’ll not surrender.