Throwback: Christmas Poem, 1949

In the December 1949, Infantry Journal printed Colonel Sidney Morgan’s poem about Washington crossing the Delaware (which is a rich topic in professional writing).

Below, we reprint it for ease of reading.

All Christmas Day and wintry night
Not “Peace! Goodwill” but … “March! … a fight!”

Shrieking wind, lashing sleet,
Stiffened fingers, anguished feet;
Ten hours (was it more?)
Slithering up to the ice-caked shore.

No bands ablare, no torches aflare;
Every man hungry, stumbling, a-shiver
They load up and cross the sullen river,
Hunched up, the frost a burr in their throats,
They grope their way in the clumsy boats
Ten freezing hours, toiling at a
Fiendish, frantic midnight regatta.

Then afoot (forsooth!) lunging through the night
With ice and snow for sup and bite.
Five … hours … head down … to the piercing gale;
Snow flakes quickly hiding red guilt in the trail …

“Knox!” The Chief hailed low from the bordering thicket:
AHEAD IS THE HESSIAN PICKET!”

Now grim deploy, and grimmer still assailing
A foe whose wits and wills were still wassailing
… “All your powder’s wet? … Use the bayonet!”
Drowned, the revellers’ night laughter
In the shock and smash of morning after!
Captives, a thousand men,
Victory! And HOPE! … since God knows when!

O, Fortunate Young Nation,
What a Christmas Celebration!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Harding Project.