[350]
Chorus-
No more the bugle calls the weary one,
Rest noble spirit, in thy grave unknown!
I'll find you and know you, among the good and true,
When a robe of white is giv'n for the faded coat of blue.
He cried, ‘Give me water and just a little crumb,
And my mother she will bless you through all the years to come;
Oh!
tell my sweet sister, so gentle, good and true,
That I'll meet her up in heaven, in my faded coat of blue.’
Lorena
This was the great sentimental song of the
South during the war period.
The years creep slowly by, Lorena;
The snow is on the grass again;
The sun's low down the sky, Lorena;
The frost gleams where the flowers have been.
But the heart throbs on as warmly now
As when the summer days were nigh;
Oh!
the sun can never dip so low
Adown affection's cloudless sky.
A hundred months have passed, Lorena,
Since last I held that hand in mine,
And felt the pulse beat fast, Lorena,
Though mine beat faster far than thine.
A hundred months-'twas flowery May,
When up the hilly slope we climbed,
To watch the dying of the day
And hear the distant church bells chime.
Mother kissed me in my dream
Set to a plaintive melody—the words of this exquisite lyric gave comfort to many a lonely soldier.
It is recorded that a wounded private of
Colonel Benj. L. Higgins' 86th New York Infantry sang this song to cheer his comrades while they were halted in a piece of woods beyond the memorable wheat-field at
Gettysburg, on the morning of July 3d, 1863.
Lying on my dying bed
Throa the dark and silent night,
Praying for the coming day,
Came a vision to my sight.
Near me stood the forms I loved,
In the sunlight's mellow gleam:
Folding me unto her breast,
Mother kissed me in my dream.
Comrades, tell her, when you write,
That I did my duty well;
Say that when the battle raged,
Fighting, in the van I fell;
Tell her, too, when on my bed
Slowly ebbed my being's stream,
How I knew no peace until
Mother kissed me in my dream.
O Wrap the flag around me, boys
O, wrap the flag around me, boys,
To die were far more sweet,
With Freedom's starry banner, boys,
To be my winding sheet.
In life I lov'd to see it wave,
And follow where it led,
And now my eyes grow dim, my hands
Would clasp its last bright shred.
Chorus—
Then
Yet wrap the flag around me, boys,
So
To die were far more sweet,
With Freedom's starry emblem, boys,
To be my winding sheet.
Cover them over with beautiful flowers:
Decoration hymn.
Cover them over with beautiful flow'rs,
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours,
Lying so silently night and day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away,
Give them the meed they have won in the past,
Give them the honors their future forecast,
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife,
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
Chorus—
Cover them over, yes, cover them over,
Parent, and husband, brother and lover;
Crown in your hearts those dead heroes of ours,
Cover them over with beautiful flow'rs.
Just before the battle, mother
Next in popularity to
when this Cruel war is over, was the sentimental song
just before the battle, mother. its pathos and simplicity touched every heart.
Just before the battle, mother,
I am thinking most of you,
While, upon the field, we're watching,
With the enemy in view.
