[Traditional]



He was just a blue-eyed boston boy

His voice was low with pain

I'll do your bidding commrad mine

If i ride back again

But if you ride back and i am dead

You'll do as much for me

Mother, you know, must hear the news

So write to her tenderly



She's a-waiting at home like a patient saint

Her fallen face paled with woe

Her heart would be broken when i am gone

I'll see her soon, i know.

Just then the order came to charge

For an instant hand touched hand

They sayed "aye" and away they rode

That brave and devoted band



Straight was the course to the top of the hill

And the rebels they shot and shelled

Plowed furroughs of death through the toiling ranks

And guarded them as they fell

There soon was a horrible dying yell

From heights that they could not gain

And those who doom and death had spared

Rode slowly back again



But among the dead that were left on the hill

Was the boy with curly hair

The tall dark man who fought by his side

Lay dead beside him there

Well there was was no one to write to the blue-eyed girl

The words that her lover had said

While mother at home is awaiting her boy

She'll only know he's dead

She'll only know he's dead