Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.

Mexico: Buena Vista

The Soldier of Buena Vista

By Henry Morford (1823–1881)

’T WAS a fearful night when our little band

Camped far away in the Mexican land,

When the first faint light of our watch-fires rose,

In the midst of twenty thousand foes,

In the darkness of Buena Vista.

Oh, twice had risen the morning sun,

Since that fearful, hopeless fight begun,

And twice he had sunk in the blazing west,

And we still fought on, without food or rest,

The fight of Buena Vista.

But the night crept on, and its heavy shade

Brought a pause in the fearful cannonade,

And we watched, oh, a fearful watch we kept,

But we hoped—still hoped—for calmly slept

The soldier of Buena Vista.

We fought and bled till our work was done,

We have worn the meed our valor won;

But alas, one by one, our comrades fall,

And soon in vain shall our country call

For a soldier of Buena Vista.