Poems About Our Heroes

Poems about the soldiers and sailors who gave everything

American Revolution

We were those winter soldiers

Who stood in Britain's way

"Disperse, ye rebels!" cried the King

"You're in the empire's way!"

We stood our ground at Lexington

Who fired that fateful shot?

But the lobsterbacks retreated

A battle not forgot!

Defeated at Long Island

We fought another day

We surprised the Hessian soldiers

On that Trenton Christmas day

We froze in camps at Valley Forge

Two thousand of us died

But winter thawed, von Steuben came

He drilled us 'till we cried.

And then the Brits outflanked us

Took Phil-a-del-faye-ay

But we chased them back to old New York

And that is where they'd stay.

Up in Saratoga

We thrashed the British still

They surrendered all their army

At the foot of Bemis Hill

And when the Frenchies finally came

We marched south to old Yorktown

And bottled up Cornwallis

And he threw his weapons down

We Continental soldiers

Threw out the British Crown

We gave the gift of liberty

And rest on freedom's ground

I am the ghost of Pittsburgh
In fifty-six I'd say
A Frenchman's musket killed me
They left me where I lay

And then I fought on Bunker Hill
Many red-coats there we saw
Dead in that violent melee
I bled out in the straw

I was there at New Orleans
And the world's last human word
As I aimed my trusty rifle
"Look out!" was all I heard.

I am the ghost of Johnny Reb
I died at old Bull Run
"Up yonder come the Yankees, Boys!"
I was shot by Billy's gun

And I'm the one called Billy Yank
I died at Maryes Hill
I fell in heaps of bodies
As death's hunger had its fill

And then I was a dough boy
Who perished in the trench
As we peered out at the Germans
Who killed off half the French

And then I was a dog-face
Who fought in World War Two
I charged the beach at Normandy
Until a mortar shot me through

At Chosin in North Korea
We froze in blood and snow
Outnumbered, cold, and dying
But we would not let go

In Vietnam's dark jungles
I crept with loaded gun
Where death hung from the branches
And napalm blocked the sun

In Desert Storm’s red sunrise
Where sand and steel collide
I faced the thunder’s fury
And there, I too, have died

I fought the hidden terrorists
Across the Near East sand
In Fallujah and in Kabul
I made my final stand

Now hear me, sons of freedom
Two hundred fifty years
I’ve marched beneath your banners
Through glory, dust, and tears

Soldiers

Sailors

I was a powder monkey

At England’s Flamborough Head

I followed Captain John Paul Jones

But a cannon shot me dead

I became an able seaman

Slept below decks on a shelf

I was shanghaied by the British

And I died in 1812

I joined the Union Navy

In eighteen sixty-four

A rebel musket slaughtered me

On Old Fort Fisher’s shore

At the Battle of Manilla Bay

I was a boiler tender

A boiler blew and burned me dead

Before the Spanish could surrender

Wilson’s war did not end wars

But it surely ended me

I was a Navy bosun

Who fell overboard at sea

I was on the Arizona

When shrapnel sliced me through

As fourteen hundred of my friends

Joined Davy Jones’s crew

I was a gunboat driver

On a river called Mekong

My crew was shot to pieces

By the crafty Viet Cong

Today I crew the steel-hulled ships

And like those who sailed before

I could die for love of country

While my loved ones mourn ashore

So, hats off to the Navy folks

And the ships that go to sea

They keep the sea lanes open

And guard our liberty

Our Civil War

We are the ghosts of Shiloh

Twenty thousand of us dead

Some were killed

In the hornets nest

Some on the surgeon's bed

Now we fly as eagles

Over lines of blue and gray

We hear the shouts

"They're comin' boys!"

As dead soldiers float our way

The Minnie balls and grape shot

Raked those human ranks so clean

They fell like wheat

Before the scythe

Red fields no longer green

And thousands died at Vicksburg

Antietam, Gettysburg

We fell in droves

At Marrye's Hill

Mowed down at Fredricksburg

Our bodies lie in unmarked graves

Our families know not where

They wouldn't know us anyway

For the dirt and worms we share

We are the ghosts of Malvern Hill

The war's last battle fought

If we could have lasted one more week

We'd share that peace they bought

Looking back to '61

When we gave that warlike shout

The Rebel Yell and Yankee cry

Like our youth is now bled out

Why did we fight our countrymen?

We dead can't tell you why

And our leaders ain't a-tellin'

Now with us here they lie

Patriots (Updated Memorial Day, May 25, 2026)

By Curtis Jerry Smothers, LCDR, USN (Ret.)

There are those who loved their country

Who gave everything away
Their home, loved ones, and comforts
For freedom's future day

The men who froze at Valley Forge

For freedom's fragile ember
They are the parents of our country
Do not forget: remember!

As they primed Kentucky rifles
And fought those "lobsterbacks"
Just outside of New Orleans

Stopped the British in their tracks

They died to save the Union
Or drive the Yankees from their door
But when Bobby Lee surrendered
They were countrymen once more

They were doughboys in the trenches
Endured the big guns' sound
They repaid our dear friend Lafayette
With white crosses on French ground

Four thousand died at Normandy
To see tyranny dismembered
Gold-Star parents heaved a grateful sigh
When the Japanese surrendered

At Korea's Chosin reservoir
They died in bitter weather
Outnumbered by a gathering storm
Yet fought and held together

Through Mekong's tangled jungle paths
Where hidden dangers lay
They perished in the monsoon rains
And lived from day to day

Two times in Iraq's searing sands

They fought in desert heat

Some gave all on distant ground

Their sacrifice complete

Through Afghanistan's wild sullen heights
Past cliffs and shadowed stone

They died where few would dare to tread
Far from the world they'd known

There is a cost to freedom
It's the coin of sacrifice
It's spent for love of country
And can't be given twice

Some came home to loved ones' arms

Some to a hero's rest

Yet all had borne their nation's trust

And given it their best

Dead patriots gave everything
To freedom’s alabaster
Their graves provide its solid lath
The patriot's its plaster

D-Day

The wakeup call on our crowded ship

Followed a restless, sleepless night

We hit the decks barefooted

Mere hours before the fight.

Powdered eggs and coffee

Were all we could force down

Would this be our final breakfast?

Which ones would die or drown?

With blackened face and combat kits

Gas masks and digging tools

Our gear could weigh near eighty pounds

As we faced those tidal pools

A quick letter to my family

This could be the last one I would write

As if roiling sea and off-shore wind

Were a preview of the fight

Cargo nets hung from the deck

As we walked on shaky legs

Seasickness overtook us

We threw up those powdered eggs

Big naval guns opened fire
Their thunder shook the sky
We headed for the smoke filled beach
Beneath the bluffs so high

Machine gun bullets buzzed like bees

Mortars splashed the violent surf

Some landing craft were hit and sunk

Before they touched the hostile turf

“Thirty seconds!” shoults the coxswan

Then “Drop ramps!” the final yell

As bullets rake the opening

Men in the front ranks fell

We jumped into chest-deep water

Our kits they weighed us down

Some fell into deep shell holes

Others sank and quickly drowned

We scrambled from the water

Weighed down by all that gear

Found some seawall cover

And tried to hide our fear

Our sergeants rallied the rest of us

Most officers had died

We rushed the draws toward bunkers

Where the Germans tried to hide

We fought through trenches, bunkers

And concrete machine-gun nests

We drove the Germans from their guns

And earned a brief day’s rest

We dug our foxholes near the beach

And removed our heavy pack

As men, machines, and weapons

Came ashore and had our back

D-Day was just the start of it

We breached the Atlantic Wall

We all gave some to see it through

While others, they gave all

In a letter to my parents

I wrote on VE Day

I told them I was coming home

Where freedom’s promises lay

Many years later I returned

To France’s Colleville-sur-Mer

It is the D-Day resting place

Overlooking the graves they share

Rows of white marble crosses

And Stars of David too

Remind us what freedom costs

When brave men see it through

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