{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/ballad-of-princeton-battle",
 "title": "Ballad of Princeton Battle",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Henry van Dyke Jr.",
 "poet_slug": "henry-van-dyke-jr",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Chosen Poems",
 "book_slug": "chosen-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1927,
  "venue": "Chosen Poems (1927)",
  "note": "Taken from Chosen Poems (1927), a selection made from the whole of van Dyke's verse, whose copyright notices run from 1894 to 1927 and name a dozen magazines and newspapers. That is the printing this text comes from, not necessarily the poem's first appearance, and which earlier printing came first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/henry-van-dyke-jr_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10679",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3525",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29314",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43094",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/buildersotherpoe00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/toilingoffelixan00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/musicotherpoems0000henr_c7v6",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsnowfirstcol00vanduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsoutofdoors0000vand",
   "https://archive.org/details/thyseaisgreatour00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 75,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Along Assunpink’s woody bank we left our camp-fires bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While like a fox with padded feet we stole away by night;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cornwallis watched his Trenton trap,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And drained his glass, and took his nap;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "But the ragged troops of Washington outflanked him in the night⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up and away for Princeton,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "By a secret road to Princeton⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "We dragged our guns with muffled wheels to win another fight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The icy trail was hard as iron, our footprints marked it red;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our frosty breath went up like smoke to the winking stars o’erhead;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Bear Swamp and by Miry Run,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Our muskets weighed at least a ton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "We shivered, till o’er Stony Brook we saw the sun rise red;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary we tramped to Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "But all of us at Princeton",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Would follow our Chief through thick and thin till the last of us was dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We looked beyond the upper bridge, across the swollen stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there along the King’s highway, we saw the redcoats gleam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas Mawhood’s regiment marching down",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To finish us off at Trenton town!",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "“Go cut the bridge,”⁠—and Mercer’s men crept up along the stream.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the British turned towards Princeton,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Came bravely back for Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the rest of that dinner dim hour was wilder than a dream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They rushed thro’ Will Clark’s orchard, among the naked trees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With horse and foot they hammered hard; their bullets sang like bees;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Mercer fell, and Hasley fell;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The bayonets cut us up like hell;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The chain-shot mowed a bloody path beneath the twisted trees.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It looked all black for Princeton,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "We lost our hopes of Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "We wavered, and we broke and fled as leaves before the breeze.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then down the hill from Tom Clark’s house, rode Washington aflame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With holy hire through smoke and fire, like mighty Mars he came.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Come on, my men, parade with me,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ll make the braggart redcoats flee.”⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And up the hill, against the guns, rode Washington aflame.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He turned the tide at Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The land was saved at Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And they who fought, and they who fell, won liberty and fame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men praise our Chief for weighty words, for counsel calm and high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For prudence and enduring will, for cool, far-seeing eye:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One thing he had all else above⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Courage that caught the soldier’s love,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And made the soldier’s loyal heart in danger’s hour beat high.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We saw it clear at Princeton;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas written here at Princeton:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The men who make a nation great are men who dare to die.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}