Barbara Frietchie
Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach tree fruited deep,
Fair as the garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain-wall;
Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.
‘Halt!’ - the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
‘Fire!’ - out blazed the rifle-blast.
It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.
Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.
Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!
This poem recounts one of the most famous incidents that never occurred during the War Between the States. Although legend has it that Stonewall Jackson and Barbara Frietchie faced off over Confederate treatment of the Union flag during Lee's Antietam campaign, historians tell us that the encounter never took place.In fact, the incident upon which the legend was based involved neither Jackson nor Frietchie but an unnamed Confederate officer and Mrs. Mary Quantrill, a Unionist in-law of the notorious Confederate raider William C. Quantrill. Mrs. Quantrill and her young daughter stood at their front gate boldly waving the Stars and Stripes as Confederate troops marched through Frederick, Md., on September 6, 1862. Touched by their bravery, a Confederate officer saluted the elder Quantrill with the words, "To you, madam, not your flag." Because Frietchie was already something of a local legend owing to her having once met George Washington, the story attached itself to her, and neither she nor her family did anything to correct the misapprehension.John Greenleaf Whittier, apparently believing the popular contemporary account, wrote his poem in good faith and thereby immortalized the "non-incident." These verses have become some of the best loved and best remembered to emerge from the War.
