John Williamson Palmer, a Baltimore physician, the author of the
famous lyric, “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” and Bret Harte’s
forerunner in “breaking the virgin soil of California in the field
of American letters,” was born in the city of Baltimore, April 4,
1825.
This ballad celebrates the heroism of the “Maryland Battalion” at the
battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, where they checked the advance
of Cornwallis, and saved a portion of Stirling’s command from capture.
Two hundred and fifty-nine were left dead on the field.
=Stanza 2.= It was in the Flatbush district, on the American left, that
General Sullivan was driven back by the Hessians and flanked by
Clinton’s light infantry and dragoons.
Martense’s lane was a “pass,” or road, on the southern border of
Greenwood Cemetery. Freeke’s Mill (stanza 4) stood upon Freeke’s
mill-pond at the head of Gowanus Creek.
=Stanza 4.= =Grant=, the British general who commanded the left wing in the
battle of Long Island. It was he who declared in the House of Commons
that the Americans could not fight, and said he would undertake to march
from one end of the continent to the other with five thousand men.
=Stanza 5.= =Stirling= (William Alexander), commonly called Lord Stirling,
was the eldest son of James Alexander Stirling, heir presumptive to the
earldom of Stirling, who fled to America in 1716 after having been
actively involved in the Jacobite conspiracy of the previous year. Lord
Stirling was born in New York City in 1726. He was aide-de-camp and
secretary to General Shirley in the French and Indian War, and received
a commission as brigadier-general in the Continental army in 1776. After
the battle of Long Island, Congress made him a major-general. He died at
Albany in January, 1783.
Mordecai Gist was a major in the “Maryland Battalion” who subsequently
rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He was a native of Baltimore.