Last Letter

(Words from a letter from Lieutenant Sullivan Ballou to his wife, Sarah, on the eve of the first battle of Bull Run, Virginia, 1862; music by Livingston Taylor)

The memories of the blissful moments

I have spent with you

Come creeping over me

And I feel most gratified to God and to you

That we have enjoyed them so long

And hard it is for me to burn to ashes

The hopes of future years

When, God willing, we might still have lived and loved

And watched our sons grow

To honorable manhood around us

I have, I know, but few and small claim

Upon Divine Providence, but

Something whispers to me.

Perhaps it is the wafted prayer

Of my little Edgar that I may return home

To my loved ones unharmed.

If I do not, my dear Sarah,

Never forget how much I loved you

And when my last breath escapes me

On the battlefield

It will whisper your name.

Sarah, if the dead can come back

To this earth, and flit unseen

Around those they loved

Then I shall always be near you

In the gladdest days, in the darkest nights

Always, always.

Sarah do not mourn me dead.

Think I am gone and wait for thee

For we shall meet again.