It's Independence Day

I build my nest on the mountain's crest,
Where the wild winds rock my eaglets to rest,
Where the lightnings flash, and the thunders crash,
And the roaring torrents foam and dash;
For my spirit free henceforth shall be
A type of the sons of Liberty.

Aloft I fly from my aërie high,
Through the vaulted dome of the azure sky;
On a sunbeam bright take my airy flight,
And float in a flood of liquid light;
For I love to play in the noontide ray,
And bask in a blaze from the throne of day.

Away I spring with a tireless wing,
On a feathery cloud I poise and swing;
I dart down the steep where the lightnings leap,
And the clear blue canopy swiftly sweep;
For, dear to me is the revelry
Of a free and fearless Liberty.

I love the land where the mountains stand,
Like the watch-towers high of a Patriot band;
For I may not bide in my glory and pride,
Though the land be never so fair and wide,
Where Luxury reigns o'er voluptuous plains,
And fetters the free-born soul in chains.

Then give to me in my flights to see
The land of the pilgrims ever free!
And I never will rove from the haunts I love
But watch, from my sentinel-track above,
Your banner free, o'er land and sea,
And exult in your glorious Liberty.

O, guard ye well the land where I dwell,
Lest to future times the tale I tell,
When slow expires in smoldering fires
The goodly heritage of your sires,
How Freedom's light rose clear and bright
O'er fair Columbia's beacon-hight,
Till ye quenched the flame in a starless night.

Then will I tear from your pennon fair
The stars ye have set in triumph there;
My olive-branch on the blast I'll launch,
The fluttering stripes from the flagstaff wrench,
And away I'll flee; for I scorn to see
A craven race in the land of the free!

For My Ancestors

Mark Walton, b. 1758 in Pequannock, New Jersey. He was a Captain in the Morris County Militia. He died 22 August 1817.

And his father, Jacob Walton, who went off to the war and was never heard from again. It is possible that he is the Jacob Walton who died in the Battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania.

 

 Colonel William Prescott, Commander of the The Battle of Bunker Hill.

"Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes."--Colonel William Prescott

Oliver Prescott, son of the Honorable Benjamin Prescott. When the war broke out, he enlisted and in 1776, he was appointed Brigadier General.

Josiah Prescott of of Salisbury, Massachusetts, served in Captain John Peabody's company.

My 5th great grandfather, Francis Leighton, b. 22 July 1732 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. His son, Reuben, my 4th great grandfather, b. January, 1762. Reuben enlisted in Company G, 5th Cavalry Brigade. He received the Distinguished Service Award. 

Oliver Hildreth, Jonah Hildreth, Abijah Hildreth from Colonal James Prescott's regiment who 'marched from home for defense of ye Colony, against the ministerial troops and continued in service until ordered back to take care of the Tories in Townsend."

...From Southhold, Long Island: Thomas Bartlett, John Bartlett, John Bartlett, Richard Bartlett, Richard Bartlett, Sr....John, Jonathan, and Nathan Wheeler...

...Captain Cyrus Dehart of Elizabethtown, New Jersey.

Major General Philemon Dickerson, leading General of the Militia of New Jersey. 

My 5th great-grandfather, John Pollard, from Piscataway who served in the New Jersey Continental Line and Regiment. a teamster in Colonel Munson's brigade. And his son, John Bradford Pollard.

On this, a special day of remembrance, know that you are loved and remembered.  Know that you did not fight in vain, for I live and I am free.  Thank you for your service.

In closing, I would also like to say that today I celebrate two years free of cigarettes....my own personal Independence Day, so to speak.


Wishing you all a wonderful, joyous day.  Be safe and be happy.