Bataan

By Mrs. Farrell [1885-1971]

Cedars on a hillside
In sunny Tennessee,
Mark the spot where soldiers fell
In eighteen sixty three.

Far from home and loved ones,
They rest in peaceful sleep.
The cedars stand as sentinels,
And faithful vigil keep.

No cedars mark the spot,
In faraway Bataan,
Where soldiers brave and fair and true,
Fell before Japan.

No cedars mark the spot!
No chiseled stone their name!
They fought, they bled, they starved.—And hoped
For help which never came!

The green growth of the jungle
Is creeping o’er the spot
Where they fought, and bled, and starved, and died—
The men whom men forgot.

Oh God of hosts, almighty—
God who created man—
Remember them—whose graves are hid
On faraway Bataan.

Mallie Wilson Farrell

Mrs. Farrell [1885-1971], poet and wife of a US Army Colonel, penned this shortly after the fall of Bataan. One of her sons, Capt. William E. “Willie” Wilson Farrell, West Point Class of 1937, was a 31st Infantry officer on Bataan. He died on the Hellship Brazil Maru. She also was the mother of Col (ret) Norman Farrell, Class of 1939, a close friend and comrade-in-arms of Col. Mel Rosen, who provided us with the poem. Editor