The Maryland 400 Poem by David Welch

The British had stumbled
in Boston the year last,
but came again for vengeance bold
to bleed freedom, damage untold,
with fire and with blast.
To New York their ships sailed
thirty thousand men strong,
and Washington, on islands spread,
awaited their coming with dread,
with his militia throngs.

Twenty thousand untrained souls,
armies came right for them,
divided, not knowing just where
the British would come, all were scared,
these untried minutemen.
But defenses they made,
on Long Island's low hills,
Brooklyn Heights was their great redoubt,
of its defenses they could tout,
its battlements they filled.

But to Gravesend redcoats
would soon begin to land,
fifteen thousand went unopposed,
and on to Flatbush they did go,
trained soldiers to a man.
When Washington heard this
fifteen hundred he sent,
bolstered that front to six thousand
to try and defend the homeland,
from being torn and rent.

But the militia planned
to block hilly passes,
the British has to pass through these,
where patriots would make them bleed,
then fall back to assess.
But this plan came to naught
when local localists
spoke up of the Jamaica Road,
a small pass of which few would know,
a force marched for it, brisk.

British general Clinton
divided up his troops,
for Jamaica his main force went,
scattered the five defending men,
marching in a great loop.
Grant attacked to distract
at the pass of Gowanus,
while Hessians marched for Flatbush Pass,
where General Sullivan held fast,
to match them thrust for thrust.

But then Britian's main force
from Jamaica arrived,
Attacked the rebels from the rear,
while in front the Hessians drew near,
the trap sprung, rebels died.
Sullivan fought two fronts,
and knew that he'd be beat,
now crumbling from the attack,
he ordered his men to fall back,
in orderly retreat.

Many didn't make it,
some got the bayonet,
Sullivan himself was captured,
but despite this the fight endured,
on the right it raged yet.
General Grant's distraction
became full-fledged assault,
but the rebels had held the line,
under Lord Stirling they did find,
and made the British halt.

But with redcoats in the rear
they couldn't persevere,
on narrows paths by a small creek
escape from their foes they did seek,
but who would guard the rear?
Stirling and four hundred
brave men from Maryland,
would act as the army's safeguard,
and against two thousand they charged,
sheer madness, it was said.

To a nearby stone house
the redcoats had advanced,
when Maryland came with a cry,
the British were rather surprised,
the rebels had no chance.
But on they came, on they fought,
such stubborn and doomed men,
muskets belched smoke in a black haze,
were swung like clubs amidst the fray,
the attack failed, but then

the British looked on, shocked,
as then broken rebels
reformed a line and charged once more!
Their rifles barked and cannons roared,
a mad and smoky hell.
In the end not a dozen
got back to rebel lines,
but through their bravery that day
twelve hundred other men escaped
to fight another time.

The delay meant many
got back to Brooklyn Heights,
the British thought the fight was done,
the rebels beaten, the war won,
now just a mop up fight.
They settled in for siege,
thought there was no escape,
but four days later nine thousand
would simply slip away from them,
the rebel army saved.

The war they thought over
with their great victory,
would now rage on, for five more years,
and this defeat, with all it's tears,
would not break liberty.
The martyrs from Maryland,
so many slain and dead,
ensured that we would fight again,
where would we all be without them?
I this it must be said…