I'm uncertain if the following is what you have in mind, but I've always liked it:

Nothing But Flags

Nothing but flags--but simply flags
Tattered and torn and hanging in rags;
Some walk by them with careless tread,
Nor think of the hosts of the patriot dead
That have marched beneath them in days gone by
With a burning cheek and a kindling eye,
And have bathed their folds with their life’s young tide,
And, dying, blessed them, and, blessing, died.

Moses Owen