Halt!--shoulder whoop!--stop laughing, Nick--
By platoons, wheel!--halt--dress!
Hold up your muzzles on the left;
No talking, more or less.

Bill Sneezer, keep your canteen down,
We're going for to travel;
"Captain, I wants to halt a bit,
My shoe is full of gravel."

Ho--strike up music--for'ard march!
Now point your toes, Bob Rogers;
See! yonder are the red-coat men--
Let fly upon 'em, sogers.


This song was written in the early part of the revolutionary war to
burlesque the meeting of the country militia, and afterwards became very
popular. Although Brown had not much voice, he managed to give a correct
and exceedingly laughable expression to the old song.

"That may be all true enough of some of the country militia," said
Robinson, "but in our village, there was no such foolery. Regulars--and
British ones at that--couldn't have gone through a better training, or a
better rill. One of the British officers at Saratoga said that the New
England militia were equal to regulars; and as far as marching up to
cannons' mouths and driving back dragoons goes, I think they were,
myself. You see, for a long time previous to the battle of Lexington, we
had trainings all around the country, and some of our officers were men
who had seen some hard service in the old French War. Why, just look at