SONGS OF THE CIVIL WAR
Songs of the Civil War
Music was an important part of a soldier's life. A bugle call announced the activities of a soldier's daily routine. Drum call announced certain marching drills for battle. Many soldiers also passed a lonely evening around a campfire telling stories and singing songs.
The Bonnie Blue Flag
We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for our Liberty,
With treasure, blood, and toil;
And when our rights are threaten'd,
The cry rose near and far,
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag,
that bears a Single Star!
Hurrah! Hurrah!
for Southern rights
hurrah!
Hurrah! for the Bonnie Blue Flag
that bears a Single Star.
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(255K 91 sec/28.8 modem)
Battle Cry of Freedom
Yes we'll rally 'round the flag, boys,
we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of
Freedom,
We will rally from the hillside,
we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle
cry of Freedom.
The Union forever
Hurrah, boys, Hurrah!
Down with the traitor,
Up with the
star;
While we rally round the flag, boys,
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of
Freedom.
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(240K 90 sec/28.8 modem)
Tenting on the Old Camp Ground
We're tenting tonight on the old Campground,
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home,
And friends we love so dear.
Many are the hearts
that are weary tonight,
Wishing for the war to cease,
Many are the hearts looking for the
right
To see the dawn of peace.
Tenting tonight,
Tenting tonight,
Tenting on the old
Camp ground.
Dying on the old Camp ground.
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(77K 28 sec/28.8 modem)
Goober Peas
Sitting by the roadside on a summer day
Chatting with my mess mates, passing time away,
Lying in the shadow underneath the trees,
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober pear!
Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! eating goober peas!
Goodness how delicious
eating goober peas!
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(72K 26 sec/28.8 modem)
Hard Crackers Come Again No More
Let us close our game of poker,
Take our tin cups in hand,
While we gather round the cook's
tent door
Where dry mummies of hard crackers Are given to each man;
Oh, hard crackers come again
no more!
'Tis the song and the sign of the hungry,
"Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no
more!
Many days have you lingered upon our stomachs sore,
Oh, hard crackers, come again no more."
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(67K 25 sec/28.8 modem)
Just Before the Battle, Mother
Just before the battle, Mother,
I am thinking most of you,
While upon the field we're watching,
With enemy in view,
Comrades brave are round me lying,
Fill'd with tho'ts of home and God;
For well they know that on the morrow,
Some will sleep beneath the sod.
Farewell, Mother, you may never
Press me to your heart again;
But O, you'll not forget me, Mother,
If I'm number'd with the slain.
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(88K 32 sec/28.8 modem)
Wait for the Wagon
Will you come with me, my Phyllis dear,
to yon Blue Mountain free,
Where blossoms smell the sweetest
come roving along with me;
It's every Sunday morning,
when I am by your side,
We'll jump into the wagon
and all take a ride.
Wait for the wagon,
wait for the wagon,
Wait for the wagon and we'll all take a ride.
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(68K 25 sec/28.8 modem)
O, I'm a Good Old Rebel
O, I'm a good old rebel,
Now, that's just what I am,
For this "Fair Land of
Freedom" I do not care at all;
I'm glad I fit against it,
I only wish we'd won;
And I don't want no pardon
For anything I've done.
I hates the Constitution,
This Great Republic, too
I hates the Freedman's Buro
In uniforms of blue;
I hates the nasty eagle,
with all his brags and fuss,
The lyin', thieven' Yankees,
I hates 'em wuss and wuss.
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(73K 27 sec/28.8 modem)