FIRST ARKANSAS MARCHING SONG
By Captain Lindley Miller

Oh, we're the bully soldiers of the "First of Arkansas."
We are fighting for the Union; we are fighting for the law.
We can hit a Rebel further than a white man every saw,
As we go marching on.

CHORUS: Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
As we go marching on.

See, there above the center, where the flag is waving bright,
We are going out of slavery; we are bound for freedom's light;
We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight,
As we go marching on.

CHORUS

We have done with hoeing cotton; we have done with hoeing corn.
We are colored Yankee soldiers, now, as sure as you are born.
When the masters hear us yelling, they'll think it's Gabriel's horn,
As we go marching on.

CHORUS

They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin.
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin.
They will have to give us house-room, or the roof shall tumble in!
As we go marching on.

CHORUS

They said, "Now, colored brethren, you shall be forever free,
From the first of January, eighteen hundred sixty-three."
We heard it in the river going rushing to the sea,
As it went sounding on.

CHORUS

Father Abraham has spoken and the message has been sent,
To the prison doors he opened, and out the prisoners went,
To join the sable army of the "African descent,"
As we go marching on.

CHORUS

Then fall in, colored brethren. You'd better do it soon.
Don't you hear the drum a-beating the Yankee Doodle tune?
We are with you now this morning. We'll be far away at noon,
As we go marching on.

CHORUS

Thanks to Benjamin Tubb of The Music of the American Civil War (1861-1865) for permission to use his MIDI file of The First Arkansas Marching Song. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without permission.

Songs of the Union

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Jan-02.