Authors:

They saw their injured country's woe; The flaming town, the wasted field; Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear, - but left the shield.

Philip Freneau (1963). “The Poems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution (Complete)”, p.521, Library of Alexandria
They saw their injured country's woe; The flaming town, the wasted field; Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear, - but left the shield.