So that soldiery legend is still on its journey –
            That story of Kearney, who knew not to yield!
‘Twas the day when with Jameson, fierce Berry and Birney,
            Against twenty thousand he rallied the field.
Where the red volleys poured, where the clamor rose highest,
            Where the dead lay in clumps through the dwarf oak and pine,
Where the aim from the thicket was surest and nighest,
            No charge like Phil Kearney’s along the whole line.

 When the battle went ill and the bravest were solemn,
            Near the dark Seven Pines, where we still held our ground,
He rode down the length of the withering column,
            And his heart at our war cry leaped up at a bound.
He snuffed, like his charger, the wind of the powder;
            His sword waved us on and we answered the sign.
Loud our cheer as we rushed, but his laugh rang the louder –
            “There’s the devil’s own fun, boys, along the whole line!” 

How he strode his brown steed! How we saw his blade brighten
            In the one hand still left, and the reigns in his teeth,
He laughed like a boy when the holidays heighten,
            But a soldier’s glance shot from his visor beneath.
Up came the reserves to the valley infernal,
            Asking where to go in, through the clearing or pine?
“Oh, anywhere! Forward! ‘Tis all the same, Colonel;
            You’ll find lovely fighting along the whole line!” 

Oh, coil the black shroud of night at Chantilly
            That bid him from sight of his brave men and tried!
Foul, foul, sped the bullet that clipped the white lilly,
            The flower of our knighthood, the whole army’s pride.
Yet we dream that he still, in that shadowy region,
            Where the dead form their ranks at the wan drummer’s sign.
Rides on as old, down the length of the legion,
            And the word still is “Forward!” along the whole line.