I think this version is a bit older than any that have been posted so far:

From Lake and Forest as I Have Known Them by Captain F. C. Barker (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1903), page 221:

From an appendix titled "Some Old-Time Lumbermen's Songs":


THE DYING SOLDIER

The sun was sinking in the west, and shed its lingering ray,
Through the branches of a forest, where a wounded soldier lay,
'Neath the shade of a palmetto, 'neath a southern, sultry sky,
Far away from loved New England, they had laid him down to die.

A group had gathered 'round him, his comrades in the fight,
And a tear coursed down each manly cheek, as he said his last good-night.
One dear friend and companion was kneeling by his side,
Trying to stay the life-blood, but, alas, in vain he tried.

"Stand up nearer, comrades, nearer, listen to the words I say,
There's a story I would tell you, ere my life-blood ebbs away.
Far away in loved New England, in that old Pine Tree State,
There is one who for my coming with a radiant heart will wait;

"A fair young girl, my sister, my joy, my darling, and my pride,
My loving care from childhood, for there's no one else beside.
For my mother, she is sleeping, 'neath the old churchyard sod;
Many, many years ago her spirit went to God.

"And my father, he is sleeping 'neath the deep, dark blue sea.
I've no brothers, I've no kindred, there is only Nell and me.
When our country was in danger and called for volunteers,
She threw her arms around my neck and, bursting into tears,

"Saying: 'Go, my darling brother, drive those traitors from our shore,
Although I need thy presence, yet our country needs thee more.
Oh, go, my darling brother, I will not bid you stay,
But here in this old homestead I will wait you day by day.'

"Now my comrades, I am dying, and I'll never see her more,
Who will be to her a brother, shield her with a father's care?"
His comrades spoke together, like one voice it seemed to fall,
"She shall be to us a sister, we'll protect her, one and all."

A radiant smile of splendor his countenance overspread,
And one quick convulsive shudder, and the soldier boy was dead.
By the waves of the Potomac, there they laid him down to rest,
With his knapsack for his pillow, and his rifle 'crost his breast.