[Verse 1]
Would you like to hear my song? I'm afraid it's rather long
of the famous road to Richmond double trouble.
Of the half-a-dozen trips and half-a-dozen slips
and the very latest bursting of the bubble.
 
[Verse 2]
It is mighty hard to sing and like a rolling ring,
'tis a dreadful knotty puzzle to unravel.
Though all the papers swore, when we reached Virginia's shore
that Richmond was a hard road to travel.
 
[Chorus]
So, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve,
Richmond is a hard road to travel.
Yes, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve
Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
 
 
[Verse 3]
Then Lincoln said to Pope: you can make the trip I hope,
and save the universal Yankee nation.
To make sure of no defeat, I’ll leave no lines of retreat,
then I’ll issue a famous proclamation.
 
[Verse 4]
But that same dreaded Jackson, that fellow made his whacks in,
and made him by compulsion a seceeder.
‘Till Pope to Bradford flight, in the middle of the night,
‘Twas his very last appearance as a leader.
 
[Chorus]
So, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve,
Richmond is a hard road to travel.
Yes, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve
Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
 
And last of all Bernside, with his pontoon bridges tried,
a road no one had thought of before him.
With two hundred thousand men for the rebel slaughter pen
and the blessed Union flag a wavin’ o’er him.
 
[Verse 6]
And they met a fire like hell from canister and shell
that mowed down his men with great slaughter.
‘Twas a dreadful sight to view, that second Waterloo,
and the river ran with more blood than water.
 
[Chorus]
So, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve,
Richmond is a hard road to travel.
Yes, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve
Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
 
 
[Verse 7]
We are very much perplexed to see you as the next
to command the next Richmond expedition.
For the capitol must blaze and all in ninety days
and Jeff and his men sent to perdition.
 
[Verse 8]
And when we take the town, we will surely burn it down,
and plunder and hang each cursed rebel.
For the contraband was right when he said that they would fight,
“Dem rebels, dey will fight like de Debel!”
 
[End-Chorus] (Repeat and Fade Out)
So, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve,
Richmond is a hard road to travel.
Yes, pull off your greatcoat, roll up your sleeve
Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!