The twenty-fourth of April was slowly coming on,
And in the East were shining the red gleams of the dawn,
As the good ship Cayuga the vanguard bravely led:
She was the Admiral's flag-ship, of the "Column of the Red."
She was a wooden gunboat, and looming far away,
We saw where all the Rebel rams in iron armor lay.
Out spoke the gallant Captain, as we sailed swiftly in,
"It isn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that win!"
Eleven bore down upon us—we fought them, one by one;
Oh! heavily they felt that day our heavy Dahlgren gun!
They swept our deck with broadsides, but the gunners still held on,
And terribly we answered with the heavy Dahlgren gun!
Three of their ships were sinking, but still the rest drew near,
When Boggs, in the Varuna, attacked them with a cheer!
With answering cheers we filled the air, above the battle's din:
"It isn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that win!"
A shell from the Varuna came screaming from the sky,
And falling by the Dahlgren gun, struck down the powder-boy!
'Twas gallant Gustav Fincke, the bravest of us all;
It made the sternest weep to see our little hero fall!
He turned to the forts and the city, and gave a cry of pain:
"My God," he said, "I can never fight for my country again!"
We heard it, and fought the harder, to think that he could not;
And through their iron armor we drove our iron shot!
Shall I tell the end of the battle? You know from Fame's own lips;
The spirit of our Yankee tars was stronger than their ships;
The spirit of Gustav Fincke, the boy of the Dahlgren gun—
And it wasn't the iron ships, boys, but the iron hearts that won!