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Bay Billy
This spirited poem recounts an unusual incident in the history of the 22d Maine at Fredericksburg. It was printed originally in the San Francisco News Letter (now Examiner). The author is Frank H. Gassaway. The text is from the authorized edition of his Poems, 1920, pp. 38 ff., published by James T. White & Co., New York (to whom I am indebted for permission to print the poem). It has long been a favorite of public reciters. In 1887 Mrs. Cora Urquhart Potter published through J. B. Lippincott Co. My Recitations, in which "Bay Billy" is included, pp. 285 ff. The preface is dated November 5th, 1886. It is found also in various collections, as: Bates's Cambridge Book of Poetry; Pert-wee's Reciter s Treasury of Verse; Shoemaker's Best Selections, Vol. VIII; Best Things from Best Authors; One Hundred Choice Selections, No. 20; Fobe's Five Minute Recitations; Shoemaker's Practical Elocution; Anna Morgan's Selected Readings.
1 You may talk of horses of renown,
What Goldsmith Maid has done, How Dexter cut the seconds down,
And Fellowcraft's great run. Would you hear about a horse that once
A mighty battle won?
2 T was the last fight at Fredericksburg, —
Perhaps the day you reck Our boys, the Twenty-second Maine,
Kept Early's men in check. Just where Wade Hampton boomed away
The fight went neck and neck. |
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