"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!

MRS. HETTY M. MCEWEN.

RS. MCEWEN is an aged woman of Nashville, Tennessee, of revolutionary stock, having had six uncles in the revolutionary war, four of whom fell at the battle

M

of King's Mountain. Her husband, Colonel Robert H. McEwen, was a soldier in the war of 1812, as his father had been in the revolution. Her devotion to the Union, like that of most of those who had the blood of our revolutionary fathers in their veins is intense, and its preservation and defense were the objects of her greatest concern. Making a flag with her own hands, she raised it in the first movements of secession, in Nashville, and when through the treachery of Isham Harris and his co-conspirators, Tennessee was dragged out of the Union, and the secessionists demanded that the flag should be taken down, the brave old couple nailed it to the flag-staff, and that to the chimney of their house. The secessionists threatened to fire the house. if it was not lowered, and the old lady armed with a shot-gun, undertook to defend it, and drove them away. She subsequently refused to give up her fire-arms on the requisition of the traitor Harris. Mrs. Lucy H. Hooper has told the story of the rebel efforts to procure the lowering of her flag very forcibly and truthfully:

HETTY MCEWEN.

Oh Hetty McEwen! Hetty McEwen!
What were the angry rebels doing,

That autumn day, in Nashville town,
They looked aloft with oath and frown,

And saw the Stars and Stripes wave high
Against the blue of the sunny sky;

Deep was the oath, and dark the frown,
And loud the shout of "Tear it down!"

For over Nashville, far and wide,
Rebel banners the breeze defied,
Staining heaven with crimson bars;

Only the one old "Stripes and Stars"

Waved, where autumn leaves were strewing, Round the home of Hetty McEwen.

Hetty McEwen watched that day

Where her son on his death-bed lay;
She heard the hoarse and angry cry-
The blood of "76" rose high.

Out-flashed her eye, her cheek grew warm,

Up rose her aged stately form;

From her window, with steadfast brow,

She looked upon the crowd below.

Eyes all aflame with angry fire

Flashed on her in defiant ire,

And once more rose the angry call,

"Tear down that flag, or the house shall fall!"

Never a single inch quailed she,

Her answer rang out firm and free: "Under the roof where that flag flies, Now my son on his death-bed lies; Born where that banner floated high, 'Neath its folds he shall surely die. Not for threats nor yet for suing Shall it fall," said Hetty McEwen.

The loyal heart and steadfast hand
Claimed respect from the traitor band;
The fiercest rebel quailed that day
Before that woman stern and gray.
They went in silence, one by one-
Left her there with her dying son,
And left the old flag floating free
O'er the bravest heart in Tennessee,

To wave in loyal splendor there
Upon that treason-tainted air,

Until the rebel rule was o'er

And Nashville town was ours once more.

Came the day when Fort Donelson

Fell, and the rebel reign was done;
And into Nashville, Buell, then,
Marched with a hundred thousand men,
With waving flags and rolling drums
Past the heroine's house he comes;

He checked his steed and bared his head, "Soldiers! salute that flag," he said;

"And cheer, boys, cheer!—give three times three For the bravest woman in Tennessee!"

OTHER DEFENDERS OF THE FLAG.

B

ARBARA FRIETCHIE and Hettie McEwen were not the only women of our country who were ready to risk their lives in the defense of the National Flag.

Mrs. Effie Titlow, as we have already stated elsewhere,

displayed the flag wrapped about her, at Middletown, Maryland, when the Rebels passed through that town in 1863. Early in 1861, while St. Louis yet trembled in the balance, and it seemed doubtful whether the Secessionists were not in the majority, Alfred Clapp, Esq., a merchant of that city, raised the flag on his own house, then the only loyal house for nearly half a mile, on that street, and nailed it there. His secession neighbors came to the house and demanded that it should be taken down. Never! said his heroic wife, afterwards president of the Union Ladies' Aid Society. The demand was repeated, and one of the secessionists at last said, "Well, if you will not take it down, I will," and moved for the stairs leading to the roof. Quick as thought, Mrs. Clapp intercepted him. "You can only reach that flag over my dead body," said she. Finding her thus determined, the secessionist left, and though frequent threats were muttered against the flag, it was not disturbed.

Mrs. Moore (Parson Brownlow's daughter) was another of these fearless defenders of the flag. In June, 1861, the Rebels were greatly annoyed at the sturdy determination of the Parson to keep the Stars and Stripes floating over his house; and delegation after delegation came to his dwelling to demand that they should be lowered. They were refused, and generally went off