Your daddy must fight
  And I know I will miss you
  From morning till night
  You cannot go with me
  It grieves my heart so
  You cannot go with me
  Oh no my son no

  For your waist is to slender
  Your fingers to small
  And your cheeks are to tender
  To take the cannon-ball
  They will give me shiny medals
  They'll call "the killing brave"
  But I'd rather hold my darling son
  Then fill a thousand graves

  I will fight through the winter
  Through Summer, Spring and Fall
  And there's many a man that I will kill
  That I never known at all
  O listen, oh listen to me Johnny
  And heave my story well
  There's no glory in the killing
  Just the agony of hell

  Oh the cruel war is raging
  Your daddy must fight
  And I know I will miss you
  From morning till night