Ballads of valor and victory being stories in song from the annals of America / by Clinton Scollard and Wallace Rice [electronic text]

Sergeant Jones of Tennessee

Sergeant JONES of Tennessee, Hail to heroes such as he!

North through Luzon LAWTON swept, And harried the Tagals fast and far, Until by night, if their pickets slept, They would rouse from dreams in a shake of fear, Thinking their tireless foe was near To smite by the light of the tropic star.

North through Luzon LAWTON swept, (The bravest of all the brave was he!) And with his column that never crept, Was one whose spirit to his was twinned; Danger? he laughed it down the wind! Sergeant JONES of Tennessee!

Fronting the Filipino lineOne morn as the resting soldiers lay, Hearing the Mausers whiff and whine, He saw the folds of a battle-flag In the sultry south wind rise and sag Beyond where a river wound its way.

What did the daring sergeant do? Tightened his trooper's belt by a hole, Slipped from the shelter of thick bamboo, Swam the ooze of the sluggish stream, With its rows of bayonet-reeds agleam, And forward over the rice-fields stole.

Over the rice-fields stole, and then Leaped at the banner and clutched it fast In the very face of the riflemen; And ere they rallied from palsied dread Back with the captured flag he sped With never a look behind him cast.

Around him, like invisible bees, The bullets buzzed in a deadly band From the rifles of his enemies; They ploughed the ground behind, before, But he reached the dip of the river shore Unscathed, the banner within his hand.

Oh, what a cheering, rank on rank, Down the length of the line there ran, Greeted him as he climbed the bank! Swelled about him and surged, —and we Fling it back to him over the sea, Valiant-hearted American!