Two Soldiers

He was just a blue-eyed Boston boy

His 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 left

You'll do as much for me

Mother, you know, must hear the news

So write to her tenderly

" She's waiting at home like a patient saint

Her fond face pale with woe

Her heart will be broken when I am gone

I'll see her soon, I know. "

Just then the order came to charge

For an instance hand touched hand

They said, "Aye," and away they rode

That brave and devoted band

Straight was the track to the top of the hill

The rebels they shot and shelled

Plowed furrows of death through the toiling ranks

And guarded them as they fell

There soon came a horrible dying yell

From heights that they could not gain

And those whom doom and death had spared

Rode slowly back again

But among the dead that were left on the hill

Was the boy with the curly hair

The tall dark man who rode by his side

Lay dead beside him there

There's no one to write to the blue-eyed girl

The words that her lover had said

Momma, you know, awaits the news

And she'll only know he's dead