Two Soldiers

She was just a blue-eyed Boston girl
Her voice was low with pain
I'll do your bidding, comrade 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 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 said "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 furloughs 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 girl with curly hair
The tall dark man who had fought by her side
Lay dead beside her there
There was was no one to write to the green-eyed girl
The words that her lover had said
While mother at home is awaiting her girl
She'll only know she's dead
She'll only know she's dead