from The Worcester Daily Spy, November 5, 1861 , (Volume 16 # 261)

                                                  THREE HUNDRED AND TEN

When the battle of Ball’s Bluff was announced, Mayor Davis dispatched Charles B. Pratt, Esq. to the scene of the action, with instructions to order the Massachusetts Fifteenth regiment, in behalf of the city, any assistance or succor they might require.  The duty was performed and Mr. Pratt returned with this message: “Tell our friends at home that we want immediately three hundred and ten men to fill the places of those killed  and missing, and a blanket and a pair of mittens for each of us.  This is all we ask for the present.”

                                                           By Henry S. Washburn.

Listen wanted today, three hundred and ten
Of the strong and the brave of our New England men:

They’re wanted to fill a dread chasm that’s made
In the gallant Fifteenth, by the ball and the blade.
From the heart of the Commonwealth, steady and true,
The call to The Rescue! is sounded anew:

Ho! men of the anvil, ho! men of the plow,
Gird the armor on quickly, nay, tarry not now:
Ho! merchant and banker, ho! statesman and priest,

Ho! lawyer and client, ho! men at the feast,
Today there are wanted, three hundred and ten,
Of the strong and the brave of our New England men;

They’re wanted to fill a dread chasm that’s made
In the gallant Fifteenth, by the ball and the blade.

We’ve a noble Republic to lose or to save,
The boon that the blood of our ancestors gave;
A land that was flowing with honey and wine,
‘Till the heel of the traitor polluted the shrine.
From the heart of the Commonwealth, steady and true,

The call To The Rescue! is sounded anew:
by the love that we bear for our Puritan sires,
By our altars and temples, our bright winter fires,
With the blessing of God, we are summoned to save.

Then on To The Rescue! Three hundred and ten
Of the strong and the brave of our New England men;
You’re wanted to fill the dread chasm that’s made
In the gallant Fifteenth, by the ball and the blade.

 

 

15th Massachusetts VI