The drummer with his drum
Shouting "Come! heroes, come!
Forward march, nigher, higher!
When the veterans turned pale,
And the bullets fell like hail,
In that hurricane of fire
Beat his drum,
Shouting "Come!
Come! come! come!"
And the fife,
In the strife,
Joined the drum, drum, drum—
And the fifer with his fife and the drummer with his drum,
Were heard above the strife and the bursting of the bomb.
The bursting of the bomb,
Bomb, bomb, bomb.
Clouds of smoke hung like a pall
Over tent and dome and hall;
Hot shot and blazing bomb
Cut down our volunteers
Swept off our engineers;
But the drummer beat his drum,
And he beat
"No retreat!"
With his drum:
Through the fire,
Hotter, nigher,
Throbbed the drum, drum, drum,
In that hurricane of flame and the thunder of the bomb,
Braid the laurel wreath of fame for the hero of the drum!
The hero of the drum,
Drum, drum, drum.
Where the Rappahannock runs,
The sulphur-throated guns,
Poured out iron hail and fire;
But the heroes in the boats
Heeded not the sulphur throats,
For they looked up higher, higher,
While the drum,
Never dumb,
Beat, beat, beat,
Till the oars
Touched the shores,
And the fleet feet, feet,
Of the soldiers on the shore, with the bayonet and gun,
Thought the drum could beat no more, made the dastard rebels run.
The dastard rebels run,
Run, run, run.
Notes
According to the Michigan Historical Center, Robert Henry Hendershot, known as "the Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock," served as a drummer boy for the Eighth Michigan.
[Robert's] regiment was stationed near the Seventh Michigan during the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. On December 11, 1862, the Seventh was trying to cross the Rappahannock River under fire. Robert answered a call for volunteers and ran to help push the boats. He had crossed the river when a shell fragment hit his drum and broke it into pieces, so he picked up a musket. He encountered a Confederate soldier and, taking him as prisoner, brought him back to the Seventh Michigan. The story of a boy capturing a man made him a hero. Robert survived the war and toured the nation putting on drumming performances and telling of his experiences. Many poems were written about him; "The Hero of the Drum" is one of those poems.
This poem originally appeared in Robert Henry Hendershot; or, The Brave Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock, written by William Sumner Dodge and published by Church and Goodman (Chicago, 1867, pp. 156-158).
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