My name is Jamie Cameron, by Loch Eil I was born,
I left my native Scotland on a damp and foggy morn;
I sailed to Ellis Island to begin my life anew,
But there they gave me Tartan trews, a coat of Union Blue.
Our sergeants were all veterans who’d served the British Crown,
We marched behind a bagpipe band as we left New York town;
We sang new songs that we had learned, “… the loyal, brave, and true…”
The 79th New Yorkers in the Tartan and the Blue.
We marched for miles, passed Baltimore before we stopped to eat,
We camped a while, to take some ease and curse our aching feet;
We’d scarcely time to rest, for at Manassas we were due –
The 79th were needed, in the Tartan and the Blue!
The battle was a hell-on-earth of shot, and shell, and steel,
And “Johnny Reb” was devil-bold, and caused our lads to reel;
We lost one “Jamie Cameron” – our colonel he was, too –
As we fought in the rearguard in the Tartan and the Blue.
At Chantilly, Secessionville, Manassas once again,
In battle after battle many Scottish lads were slain;
Through glory and through horror, though our numbers they were few,
We marched behind the Stars-and-Stripes – the Tartan and the Blue.
I mind the time I killed a man, a soldier just like me,
By bayonet in “hand-to-hand”, beside a live-oak tree;
I searched his pack to learn his name – he was a Scotsman too!
His name it was MacAlasdair, but he wore grey, not blue.
From Vicksburg to Fort Sanders then – och, how those days did drag!
‘Twas there we met the 51st from Georgia – stole their flag
From underneath their guns! Ah, I could tell a tale or two
About the brave and bonny lads – the Tartan and the Blue!
When every fight was over we would dance a foursome reel
To tunes from Bonny Scotland – how we made the fiddle squeal!
Then back to New York City to march in a Grand Review,
So proud behind the pipes and drums, the Tartan and the Blue.
These days I’m an American, in Kansas now I dwell.
I mind our final battle… Spotsylvania… it was hell…
Och, here’s a glass of uisge beatha, I’ll drink a toast with you –
And give a hearty “Slainte mhath – the Tartan and the Blue!”
Author notes
Based on facts in the history of the Highland Regiment, 79th New York, of the Union Army.
Gaelic glossary:
"uisge beatha" (approx. pronunciation "whiskey-ba") - whiskey, literally "water of life".
"slainte mhath" (approx pronunciation "slansha-va") - good health.
(Yes, I know I have the words of "Rally Round the Flag" mixed up - blame Jamie Cameron's memory.)
In a list
- My American Voice • next in list
- Bad Salads! • next in list
- Scotland • next in list
- Wee yellow vases • next in list
A contest entry
- Wild Wild West 1800's Revisited by Carolina Moon.
550 points, ended April 6, 6 entries
Bronze trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Poems on the Civil War by OrangeMarmalade.
600 points, ended April 24, 9 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
.
Comments
1 - 27 of 27
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Oh So Lovely
The Tartan and the Blue, the Blue was the
South's battle in the war against Santana in Mexico, it was used for a short time as the Confederate flag. It is a beautiful flag. I fly one all time beside the American Red,White and Blue. such homage as you have given it I thank you, Had I lived in those days , which I surely did( I believe in reincarnation) I would have worn the grey or butter nut of the Old South, just trying to hold on to the last shread of dignity we couled muster. I am writing a book about Rebel Jo, one who received the spirit and soul of another
Southern girl at her death and RebelJo's birth. I have tryed to keep the history factual of course the rest is fiction.
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To be honest, the "blue" that the narrator is supposed to be referring to here is the blue of the Union uniform, as the 79th was a Scottish unit in the Union Army. But I really do appreciate your comment. I think I took a wee bit of poetic license anyway, because the various "ethnic" regiments in the Union Army were given all kinds of outfits to wear, in all kinds of colours.
The war itself was a maul and a human tragedy, more than the North or the South could cope with, in so many ways.
I wish you success with the book.
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Oh So Lovely
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This is just awesome
I'm speehless. This is just so fantastic anything I might say would be anticlimactic. -
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I am glad you found this one, 'Rider. I wondered if you would like it. I am hoping that it might be reproduced in a forthcoming bulletin of this organisation http://www.wcwa.net as the setter of one of the contests belongs to one of the participating units.
(I really must get round to some reciprocal reading - and soon!)
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Well I have to admit this is a fantastic piece... Our red white and blue melting pot certainly had some rough beginnings... but it's our diversity and our hard fought battles for personal freedom and democracy that have made us great... Very well done!!!
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I can't speak to that, not being American, but thank you for the appreciation.
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Congratulations, excellent poem
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Thank you.
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You have captured the true spirit of the Civil War. I noticed so much detail within this and I congradulate you on your gold trophy...very much deserved.
**Ktulu Blackwolfe**
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Thank you for this very complimentary comment.
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Excellent poem, so many people lost their lives, even brother against brother Good luck in the contest
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Thank you.
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Awesome!
Well done! Very few but us history buffs and historians often chose to write from the first person view. Well Done! Very good job!
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I'm betting that "26thnc" in your screen name refers to the "farthest to the front" 26th North Carolina, who lost more men than any other Reg. at Gettysburg, Confederate or Union.
People keep asking me how come I know so much American history, when I'm British. History is fascinating. Mainly because you get to find out such a lot of things that bust myths.
I am very glad you like my poem.
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Excellent
What a wonderful take about this era in time. So detailed and well expressed. Congrats on the bronze.
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This is a great ballad. I loved the way you always had "the tartan and the blue" at the end of each verse. It gave the poem more of a regularity, just like the rhythm.
And the story is a great one, too, but sad, somehow.
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This is a beautiful rhyming quatrain penned as a flowing history lesson. I learn something every time I read your work. All the best in this contest but not too much because I'm a contestant too. hehe....
Love,
Amera
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And a little bit of luck to you too, Sis.
Thank you.
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Exceptional bookmark poetry.
Exceptional write .. brilliantly painted vividly with colour and word and a tribute to my favourite poet who has excelled herself. I loved this and only can aspire as a burning ambition to be able to write this way. Incredible and wonderful and really words just cannot do this justice. (words that i can concieve that is)
Proudly,
Bazza
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So far, Bazza, I have had praise from an Irishman, and Englishman, and Australian, and an American for this work. I am either in a joke, or I am doing something right!
I am glad you like it. I know how much you like poetry that tells a story.
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The Scots have of course fought their way around the world for as long as there have been Scots!
And very often on both sides, Scottish and German Soldiers defeating Scottish and French soldiers at Culloden for instance. The British empire was said to be built on English money and Scottish troops. How many Scottish Taliban are there I wonder...
Of course I have to talk all this tommy-rot in comments because I can't find any problems in the poem so I better mutter dark thoughts about Bloody Scottish poets showing off give you your hatful of bunnies and say well done greatest poet.
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Hatful of bunnies gratefully received. Got to get as much as I can from the English while I still can!
Thanks bro.
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Wow, this is wonderful. I might be wrong, probably am lol, but wasn't this around 1861 or there about? Great job. Thanks so much for your entry. Best of luck!
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The 79th was formed just before the war, and served all the way through, from 1861 to 1865, I believe.
Thank you - I am glad you liked it.
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Maith thú go leor, a Mháirín! All my critical faculties went out the window on reading this stirring ballad. I was swept along by the flow of the narrative.
Many of my countrymen also fought on both sides of that conflict.
Bill
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Indeed they did, Bill - and many of them were put into uniform as their first foot hit the quay at New York. The astonishing ethnic mix of the Union Army alone can scarcely be credited -
Approximately 45% were of British-American origin, 23% German, 9.5% African-American, 9% Irish, 4% Dutch, 2% Canadian, 2% native English, nearly 2% French or Quebecois, nearly 1% from the Scandinavian countries, plus Italian, Jewish, Mexican, Polish, Native Americans, Hungaians, Portuguese, Chinese, and natives of the Indian sub-continent.
I am glad you enjoyed this.
M
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