From: jeromema@cc.uvcc.edu
Subject: Civil War Lyrics for Veteran's Day
Organization: Utah Valley Community College
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 23:14:12 GMT

Here are the lyrics to two songs about the dead
and dying of the Civil War from contemporaries.


The Battle of Shiloh Hill:

     [M. B. Smith, a member of the 2nd Texas
Volunteer Infantry wrote these lyrics to describe the
horrors he witnessed at the two day Battle of
Shiloh]

Come all ye valiant soldiers,
     A story I will tell
About the bloody battle
     That was fought on Shiloh Hill.
It was an awful struggle
     And will cause your blood to chill.
It was the famous battle
     That was fought on Shiloh Hill.

It was the sixth of April
     Just at the break of day.
The drums and fifes were playing
     For us to march away.
The feeling of that hour
     I do remember still
For the wounded and the dying
     That lay on Shiloh Hill.

About the hour of sunrise
     The battle it began,
And before the day had vanished
     We had fought them hand-to-hand.
The horrors of the field
   Did my heart with anguish fill,
For the wounded and the dying
     That lay on Shiloh Hill.

The wounded men were crying
     For help from everywhere.
While others who were dying
     Were offering God their prayer,
"Protect my wife and children
     If it is thy Holy Will".
Such were the prayers I heard
     That night on bloody Shiloh Hill.

And early the next morning
     We were called to arms again,
Unmindful of the wounded
     And unmindful of the slain.
The struggle was renewed
     And ten thousand men were killed.
This was the second conflict
     Of the famous Shiloh Hill.

The battle it raged on,
     Though dead and dying men
Lay thick all over the ground
     On the hill and on the glen.
And from their deadly wounds
     The blood ran like a reel.
Such were the mournful sights I saw
     On bloody Shiloh Hill.

Before the day was ended
     The battle ceased to roar,
And thousands of brave soldiers
     Were felled to rise no more.
They left their vacant ranks
     For some other ones to fill.
And now their moldering bodies
     Lie on Shiloh Hill.

And now my song is ended
     About those bloody plains.
I hope this sight by mortal man
     May ne'er be seen again.
But I pray to God, The Savior,
     If consistent with Thy Will,
To save the souls of all who fell
     On Bloody Shiloh Hill.


Somebody's Darling:

     [The words came from Marie Revenal de la
Coste, a woman deeply moved by what she had just
witnessed inside the hospital ward, where the
ravaging effects of "bayonets, sabres and balls" were
omnipresent, this song paints a haunting scene of
human grace in the face of hopeless depression.  She
sent her poem to a Savannah music publisher who
forwarded it to noted Southern composer John Hill
Hewitt; he not only fashioned a timeless musical bed
for the verse, but created the chorus that elevated
the song to the status of a classic.  The song showed
up later in Margaret Mitchell's Civil War
spectacular "Gone With The Wind".]

Into the ward of the clean whitewashed halls
Where the dead slept and the dying lay
Wounded by bayonets, sabres and balls
Somebody's darling was borne one day.

Somebody's darling, so young and so brave
Wearing still on his sweet yet pale face
Soon to be hid in the dust of the grave
The lingering light of his boyhood's grace.

Chorus: Somebody's darling
        Somebody's pride
        Who'll tell his mother
        Where her boy died.

Matted and damp are his tresses of gold
Kissing the snow of that fair young brow
Pale are the lips of most delicate mould
Somebody's darlin' is dying now
Back from his beautiful, purple-veined brow
Brush off the wandering waves of gold
Cross his white hands on his broad bosom now
Somebody's darling is still and cold.

Chorus

Somebody's watching and waiting for him
Yearning to hold him again to her breast
Yet there he lies with his blue eyes so dim
And purple, childlike lips half apart
Tenderly bury the fair, unknown dead
Pausing to drop on his grave a tear
Carve on the wooden slab over his head
Somebody's darling is slumbering here.

Chorus
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa