“If I should fall, remember what you see here.” - Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

Can’t Take Me

We are different colors
But we see only one
That would be
The color of blood.

It stains our skin
And melts my heart
Riffle in one hand good book in the other
These unforgettable truths shall impart.

I hold the bayonet close to you
That is only when
You look in my eyes
And not at my skin.

They say that any colored man caught
By a Confederate
We will be killed
But still not one walked out that gate.

We are brothers
Fighting for Family
Fighting for Honor
Freedom and Glory.

The attack on Fort Wagner
We were the first
To see such bravery
This battle would be our last and the worst.



May God bless the souls
Of the deceased
And send angels
As we be seized.

Though I am dead
I am freer now
Then what I’ve been
And the defeat we shall disavow.

For you may cut
Me down at the knee
But still
You can’t take me!