Western Reserve Chronicle (Warren, O.) (July 9, 1862). The original is written as prose, with poor punctuation and a number of misspellings. A correspondent found it written out on a piece of paper near Manassas Junction, Va. and called it a "horrible mutilation of an old love song."


I am a wild and a rambling boy.
My home it is in Illinois.
Although a rambling boy I be,
I will forsake them all and go with thee.

O James, O James, I love you well.
I love you more than tongue can tell.
I love you so that I dare not show.
If you love me, let no one know.

I love my father and my mother.
I love my sisters and my brothers.
I love my friends and relations too.
I will forsake them all and go with you.

As soon as her father came to know
That his daughter Jane had loved him so,
He separated her from her beau,
And sent him on board of a man-of-war.

As James was a-sailing across the main,
Expecting to return again,
Some misfortune him befall,
And he lost his life to a cannon ball.

Her father came home late one night,
Inquiring for their [sic] heart's delight.
He ran upstairs, broke down the door,
And found her hanging in their [sic] gore.

He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note he found;
And every line did seem to appear
As if every word was written with a tear.

Saying, "Father, dig my grave,
O dig it long, both wide and deep;
And strew it round with roses sweet.
And on my breast put a turtle dove
To testify I died for love.          [extra line sic]