Lyr Add: The Santa Fe Volunteer

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SANTA FE VOLUNTEER
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 05:03 PM

Lyr. Add: THE SANTA FE VOLUNTEER
Air- Mary's Dream, by John Lowe
(A Civil War Song)

O when I went away from you, it fill'd my heart with grief and woe;
You gave to me the parting hand, wishing me safe in yonder land;
Then to the wild West we did steer, across those plains and waters clear;
But we arrived at Santa Fé after many a weary day.

When we arrived at the place, health was blooming in ev'ry face;
When scarce four months had passed by, two hundred of our men did die;
Four of my messmates left this shore, and went where sorrow is no more;
They paid the debt that all do owe- they left this world of grief and woe.

While death was raging all around, but little health was to be found;
And you could hear it daily said, another volunteer is dead!
A few more lines I'll write to you, before I bid you all adieu;
If I am spared two months or three, I hope to leave old Santa Fé.

If ever I reach my native shore, these plains will I cross nevermore!
I'll bid these Yankees all adieu, and forever stay with you;
Ne'er more shall I wish to roam, but settle down and get a home!
I'll marry me a handsome wife, and settle down with her for life.

Francis D. Allan, 1874, "Allan's Lone Star Ballads, A Collection of Southern Patriotic Songs Made During Confederate Times," p. 150. Burt Franklin NY. Reprint Lenox Hill (Burt Franklin) 1970.

The ill-fated "volunteers" were mostly Texans, under General Sibley. Author unknown.
For a partial history, see "The Battle of Glorieta," 1862, in the "Handbook of Texas." Glorieta