Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Music: Are you ready for that? Driving your car down a desert highway listening to the seventies and eighties rise like zombies from the rippling sand? I hope so.

The Rifleman at Bennington to the British Granadiers

Jerry Stratton, August 12, 2026

The British Grenadiers sheet music: Sheet music for The British Grenadiers, with lyrics.; nineteenth century; 1800s; sheet music; Rifleman’s Song

You can use this popular melody for The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington.

Sunday is the 199th anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Bennington. I marked the 198th last year, in the run-up to 2026, with Samuel B. Young’s 1819 commemoration speech. I first ran across the battle, however, unknowingly: from a song called “The Rifle” in Jerry Silverman’s How to Play the Guitar. It’s a rousing song and a striking demonstration of how Americans have always celebrated new technologies. And that’s what I meant to write about last year, before I discovered that the song was more commonly attributed to the Battle of Bennington.

So for me, at least, it’s fitting to bookend my Sestercentennial Year with Bennington, by finally getting a period melody down for this wonderful song. This is the end of the Sestercentennial celebrations on my blog, although not in my personal life.

This is also the official end of the Padgett Sunday Supper Club’s centennial-ish recipes. Some will continue throughout the year, and beyond. There are so many wonderful recipes in those centennial and bicentennial books, as well as in American Cookery and Thomas Jefferson’s Cook Book. But they’ll be there because they’re great recipes, not because they’re great centennial recipes.

Some of the founders were very much techies. I already wrote about how Jefferson incorporated technology into his kitchen. But one of the most relevant new technologies during the revolution was the rifle. Rifled barrels had much greater range than smoothbore muskets, at least twice—and up to three times—the range of older long guns. The rifle’s precision shooting was very suited to the tactics of America’s Indian-style wilderness fighters such as Francis Marion.

Americans appear to have considered the rifle one of their advantages over the British from the start. Oscar Brand quoted, in Songs of ’76, the patriot Freeman’s Journal on its report of the British hiring mercenaries:

[The British government had] sent over to Germany to engage troops for American service, and succeeded in raising a legion of Jagers, people brought up in the use of the rifle-barrel guns, in boar hunting. They are amazingly expert, and the ministry plume themselves much in the thought of their being a complete match for the American riflemen.1

Was the British government worried about a rifle gap with the Americans? If that account is true, some Americans thought they were!

Perhaps the greatest example of praise for the rifle is The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington, alternately known, as I discovered it, as “The Rifle” and also as “The Riflemen of Bennington”. The lyrics are commonly attributed to William McCarty’s 1842 Songs, Odes, and Other Poems, on National Subjects. McCarty attributes them not to a Bennington, Vermont source but to The New York Mirror.

Original Rifleman’s Song at Bennington: From the December 9, 1837 New-York Mirror.; nineteenth century; 1800s; Rifleman’s Song

The original Rifleman’s Song, from the December 9, 1837, New-York Mirror.

The earliest reference to the lyrics I can find on newspapers.com is in the December 19, 1837, Vermont Gazette. They also attribute it to the Mirror. The lyrics/poem then appeared in several newspapers through January 1838, with one straggler in June.

New-York MirrorNew York, New YorkDecember 9, 1837
Vermont GazetteBennington, VermontDecember 19, 1837
The Enterprise and VermonterVergennes, VermontDecember 27, 1837
The MadisonianWashington, DCJanuary 3, 1838
Richmond EnquirerRichmond, VirginiaJanuary 6, 1838
The Weekly StandardRaleigh, North CarolinaJanuary 17, 1838
Burlington SentinelBurlington, VermontJune 25, 1838

The actual first publication seems to be the December 9, 1837, New-York Mirror, “A Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts”. It appears on page 192 of the annual or biennial collection.

The Mirror, the Gazette, and all of the newspapers of 1837-1838 title it “The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington” with no year; the Mirror labels it “Original”, and the rest label it as from the New York Mirror. McCarty’s “1777” is likely a reference added by McCarty to the year of the battle, which was in 1777.

While the Mirror labels their poem as “original”, it doesn’t say who wrote it. So while it probably originated around that time, it might have been older, or older in a different form. It sounds like a folk song, like something that could have been made up on the march by a band of riflemen in the hills. That probably helps explain its popularity. The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington is the kind of song that could well have been sung long before it was printed.

The New-York Mirror, 1837Vermont Gazette, 1837The Enterprise and Vermonter, 1837William McCarty, 1842
THE RIFLEMAN’S SONG AT BENNINGTON.
Original.

Why come ye hither, stranger?
Your mind what madness fills?
In our valleys there is danger—
And danger on our hills!
Hear ye not the singing
Of the bugle, wild and free?
Full soon ye’ll know the ringing
Of the rifle from the tree!
The rifle, the sharp rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!

Ye ride a goodly steed;
He may know another master:
Ye forward come with speed—
But ye’ll learn to back much faster
When ye meet our mountain-boys,
And their leader, Johnny Starke!
Lads who make but little noise—
But who always hit the mark,
With the rifle, the true rifle!
In their hands ’twill prove no trifle!

Had ye no graves at home,
Across the briny water,
That hither ye must come,
Like bullocks to the slaughter?
If we the work must do,
Why, the sooner ’tis begun,
If flint and trigger hold but true,
The quicker ’twill be done,
By the rifle, the good rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!
THE RIFLEMAN’S SONG at BENNINGTON
New York Mirror.

Why come ye hither, stranger?
Your mind what madness fills?
In our valleys there is danger—
And danger on our hills!
Hear ye not the singing
missing line
missing line
Of the rifle from the tree!
The rifle, the sharp rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!

Ye ride a goodly steed;
He may know another master:
Ye forward come with speed—
But ye’ill learn to back much faster
When ye meet our mountain boys,
And their leader, Johnny Starke!
Lads who make but little noise—
But always hit the mark,
With the rifle, the true rifle!
In their hands ’twill prove no trifle!

Had ye no graves at home,
Across the briny water,
That hither ye must come,
Like bullocks to the slaughter?
If we the work must do,
Why, the sooner ’tis begun,
If flint and trigger hold but true,
The quicker ’twill be done,
By the rifle, the good rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!
From the New York Mirror
THE RIFLEMAN’S SONG AT BENNINGTON

Why come ye hither, stranger?
Your mind what madness fills?
In our valleys there is danger,
And danger on our hills!
Hear ye not the singing
Of the bugle, wild and free?
Full soon ye’ll know the ringing
Of the rifle from the tree!
The rifle, the sharp rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!

Ye ride a goodly steed—
He may know another master:
Ye forward come with speed,
But you’ll learn to back much faster
When ye meet our mountain boys,
And their leader, Johnny Starke!
Lads who make but little noise,
But who always hit the mark
With the rifle, the true rifle!
In their hands ’twill prove no trifle!

Had ye no graves at home,
Across the briny water,
That hither ye must come,
Like bullocks to the slaughter?
If we the work must do,
Why the sooner ’tis begun,
If flint and trigger hold but true,
The quicker ’twill be done
By the rifle, the good rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!
From the New York Mirror.
THE RIFLEMAN’S SONG AT BENNINGTON.—1777

Why come ye hither, stranger?
Your mind what madness fills?
In our valleys there is danger,
And danger on our hills!
Hear ye not the singing
Of the bugle, wild and free?
Full soon ye’ll know the ringing
Of the rifle from the tree!
The rifle, the sharp rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!

Ye ride a goodly steed;
He may know another master:
Ye forward come with speed,
But ye’ll learn to back much faster,
When ye meet our mountain boys
And their leader, Johnny Starke!
Lads who make but little noise,
But who always hit the mark
With the rifle, the true rifle!
In their hands will prove no trifle!

Had ye no graves at home
Across the briny water,
That hither ye must come,
Like bullocks to the slaughter?
If we the work must do,
Why, the sooner ’tis begun,
If flint and trigger hold but true,
The quicker ’twill be done
By the rifle, the good rifle!
In our hands it is no trifle!
The Rifleman’s Song, Vermont, 1837: The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington, as printed in the December 19, 1837, Vermont Gazette—missing a couple of lines.; rifle; American Revolution; Battle of Bennington

The first reprinting that I could find, with two lines missing. From the Vermont Gazette, December 19, 1837.

Except for bits of punctuation and emphasis, there is practically no difference in these four lyrics. The Vermont Gazette uses “ye’ill” instead of “ye”, but I suspect a typesetter’s error. The Enterprise and Vermonter, oddly, used “you’ll”, despite keeping “ye” for all of the non-contractions. Possibly more deliberately, McCarty changed “’twill” to “will” in “’twill prove no trifle”, but kept it in “the quicker ’twill be done”.

The Vermont Gazette also leaves out “who” in “But who always hit the mark”, and again I’m suspecting an exuberant typesetter more than a deliberate change. Both of the Gazette’s errors indicate that later sources weren’t copying from the Vermont Gazette but from The New-York Mirror itself.

Ballads of the American Revolution announcement: From the Los Angeles Daily News, April 25, 1940, Bruno David Ussher’s “Sounding Board” in the “Stage and Screen” section, a blurb about John and Lucy Allison’s album “Ballads of the American Revolution and the War of 1812”.; record industry; John and Lucy Allison

From the April 25, 1940, “Stage and Screen” section of the Los Angeles Daily News, this is a very rare album.

Also interesting are some of the changes over the years. These changes extend even to the title. Silverman titled the song merely “The Rifle”, which is why I had no idea it was specific to Bennington until writing last year’s post. Others pluralize Rifleman to Riflemen.

The modern versions of the lyrics appear to have come from John Allison in 1940 or so with the album Ballads of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. However, I have not been able to find a copy or archive of that album.

In the newer versions, instead of singing to an individual “stranger” the song is sung to a mass of “Redcoats”. The original is certainly an interesting variation on insult! Calling them “stranger” specifically says, you don’t belong here, go away! But the change from singular to plural in the modern version is also interesting.

Other changes include “in our hills” instead of “on our hills”. The latter conjures up images of mountaineers, where the former, to me at least, merely hilly forests.

And more weirdly, modern versions change “Ye ride a goodly steed; He may know another master…” to “Ye may know another master.” Was the original poet making the point that their horses and equipment were all owned by the Crown, instead of being the property of the individual?

The modern lyrics also get rid of the variations in the refrain.

The modern version of The Rifleman’s Song is accompanied by a wonderful tune; as I noted earlier I first ran across it in Jerry Silverman’s guitar tutorial. It’s available in other places as well, all of them using the melody that appeared with John Allison’s version.2 This melody appears to be a creation of Allison. I don’t know if this song was actually sung in 1837 (and found no evidence it was older than 1837) but if it was, it doesn’t seem to have been with that tune.

Because I hadn’t yet found the original version in the Mirror, I chose the version from the Vergennes Enterprise and Vermonter and the Bennington Vermont Gazette for A Sestercentennial Cookery. Both papers introduced potential typos, so I combined them into one non-typoed version. For this post, however, I assumed the New-York Mirror version when searching for a melody.

And finding a period-appropriate melody, whether for 1777 or 1837, was difficult. Some writers cite Allison or McCarty as the author of the lyrics with the melody as traditional; this is backward. The lyrics definitely appeared by 1837, over a century before Allison’s version. While it’s possible that Allison used an existing “traditional” melody, I can’t find any reference to one before him. All melodies seem to be both (a) from after 1939 and (b) variations on Allison’s melody.

I am convinced that there had to be a melody from the start. While the lyrics are often listed under poetry in the early newspaper incarnations, from its earliest printing in the New-York Mirror it is very clearly a song. It has a repeated refrain and the kinds of repetitions elsewhere that only make sense in songs.

Songs were often printed without melodies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially songs like this. Go onto the Internet Archive and there are hundreds of old “song” books and even “melody” books that contain no actual music.

Sadly, the lyrics don’t fit the ubiquitous Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Performed by The Committee of Correspondence

I even resorted to using AI. The AI Overview on Google kept giving ridiculously off-topic “answers” to my attempts at searching, so I decided to give it an actual question and see if it could respond usefully. It suggested, as period-appropriate melodies: “The Cruel War is Raging”; “The Girl I Left Behind Me”, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”.

Ignoring the obvious that the AI didn’t appear to know that melodies of that era had their own names (it probably doesn’t know what an era or period is either), I already knew that “Yankee Doodle” is laughably bad for these lyrics. “The Cruel War is Raging” might well work, but I can’t find any period melody for it either—all of the melodies for “The Cruel War is Raging” that I’ve been able to find appear to be from the folk music era of the sixties.

There’s a melody for “The Girl I Left Behind Me” dated to 1894 that itself suggests a 1760 origin, though this may be for the lyrics. The melody actually does sort of fit, from a metrical standpoint. In fact, if you ignore the meaning of the words, and the chorus, it fits The Rifleman’s Song quite well. It has nowhere near the appropriate spirit of Allison’s melody. “The Girl I Left Behind Me” is a plaintive love song. That is not what The Rifleman’s Song at Bennington needs.

So I pulled out Oscar Brand’s Songs of ’76. He doesn’t include The Rifleman’s Song but what I did was go through and sing, to Allison’s modern melody, each of the songs in the book. Most of the time the lyrics didn’t fit at all, and I’d go on to the next. But I ended up with a short list of songs that could fit Allison’s melody. I then looked up period melodies for the Brand songs that fit, hoping that the reverse would also be true, that The Rifleman’s Song would fit any melody whose lyrics fit the modern Rifleman’s Song melody.

The obvious choice came from the very first song in Brand’s book: American Taxation. American Taxation was, in its time, very likely sung to the same melody as that used for the popular British Grenadiers. That melody actually started as a tune for “All You That Love Good Fellows”, but it was through the popularity of Grenadiers that “the tune quickly became widely known in Britain and America, a staple as a march and a melody for topical song lyrics.”

I found two pieces of sheet music for British Grenadiers, one attributed to “ca. 1775” by the Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project, and one from the late 1800s published by the W. Marshall & Co. of London. The latter is undated, but the “popular songs and ballads” listed for purchase on the back include some from 1866 (Arabian Love Song, by the pseudonymous Julian Mount) and 1872 (Close the Shutters, Willie’s Dead, a wonderful title).

Either of those arrangements of “British Grenadiers” do in fact fit The Rifleman’s Song easily. Since The Rifleman’s Song must be from somewhere between 1777 (when the battle took place) to 1837 (its original appearance in the Mirror), I chose the earlier one (PNG, 348.5 KB). It’s also a livelier arrangement, which is both more appropriate for the lyrics and more fun to do up in GarageBand with my piano script.

The music with a slideshow of American riflemen.

Probably the biggest difference between the British Grenadiers melody and the modern Rifleman melody is that Grenadiers is a much more joyful tune.

As with the modern versions of the song, at least the one I learned from Silverman’s book, the chorus is sung twice. Those are the final two lines of each verse; they differ slightly in the original poem, but only slightly:

    • The rifle, the sharp rifle!
    • In our hands it is no trifle!
    • With the rifle, the true rifle!
    • In their hands ’twill prove no trifle!
    • By the rifle, the good rifle!
    • In our hands it is no trifle!

For the slideshow, I chose to go with American riflemen over the years, mostly the World Wars. The two photos under the outro are modern tributes to soldiers of World War II. The intro begins with rifle-wielding patriots at Long Island, then Bennington, then a portrait of “Johnny Stark” himself.

I created the slideshow in iMovie, which is not really designed for longer slideshows—it requires adjusting the length of each photo individually. The music, as usual, I created by using my piano script from 42 Astounding Scripts. I generated separate MIDI files for the treble and clef staves of each of the intro, verse, and outro. I pulled the MIDI files into GarageBand and assigned musical instruments to each.

FileTrebleBass
IntroFrench HornsTuba
VersesSaxophoneHarp
OutroSteinway GrandSteinway Grand

I would’ve really liked to go with a fiddle, fife, and maybe even some drums, but not only does GarageBand not have a fiddle, it doesn’t even really have a violin, just a violin combo. Still, I like the way it turned out, and the Isaiah Thomas arrangement isn’t meant for simple instruments anyway.

The Rifleman’s Song melody (verse only) (2.6 MB MP3 file)

View audio.

The MP3 of the tune is just the verse, to make it easier to match the words with the melody. Note that there are still some flourishes in the melody, so you may have to experiment to get it to match exactly for singing. The archive (Zip file, 4.0 MB) contains the piano files, the MIDI files, the sheet music, and the melody for the verse, as well as the original 1837 lyrics.

Enjoy (Zip file, 4.0 MB), and I hope you’ve been having and continue to have a wonderful 250th celebration summer!

In response to Songs of the American Revolution: Various songs, and the history of the songs, that made the Revolution—sometimes decades later.

  1. Songs of ’76, page 62. Brand describes the Freeman’s Journal merely as “a Rebel publication”. There have been multiple publications with that name, at least one even in Ireland. I trust music book histories about as much as I trust cookbook histories, which is to say, not at all. I was unable to find an original for this. However, there is a matching quote attributed to The Constitutional Gazette of April 19, 1776, in Danske Dandridge’s 1910 American Prisoners of the Revolution. See page 95.

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  2. Or at least, all modern versions with an attribution attribute the melody to Allison. But as I wrote, I have not heard Allison’s version, only subsequent ones.

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  1. <- Sing of Marion’s Men