Бегом от СУПа - Барбара Фритчи

FRITCHIE, Barbara, also Frietchie,

legendary American heroine, who reputedly defied the Confederate troops

under Stonewall Jackson as they advanced through Frederick, Md.,

by waving the Stars and Stripes from an upper window of her home.

This story, now considered apocryphal, is the subject of a popular patriotic poem,

"Barbara Frietchie" (1864), by John Greenleaf Whittier, and a play, Barbara Frietchie (1899), by Clyde Fitch.

    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 trees 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;

ver 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!