Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek

Subject: Lyr Add: BATTLE OF ANTIETAM CREEK (Warde Ford)
From: Kevin Rietmann
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 09:14 AM

Dunno if this is transcribed in the CD Songs & Ballads Of American History & Of The Assassination Of Presidents, which I haven't picked up a copy of yet.

Battle Of Antietam Creek
Sung by Warde Ford
Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Central Valley, California on September 4, 1939.

Was on the field of Antietam
Where many the soldier fell
It's where occurred the story
Which now to you I'll tell.
The dead lay all around me
We all together lay
For we had had a fearful fight
Upon the field that day.

And as I lay there musing
Upon the damp cold ground
My knapsack for a pillow
My blanket wrapped around;
And as I lay there musing
I heard a bitter cry
It was "Lord Jesus save me,
And take me home to die."

I was the eldest brother
Just three years ago
I left my home and kindred
For the state of Ohio.
Finding any other work
To which I might apply
I bound myself apprentice
My fortune to try.

I did not like my master
He did not use me well
I fixed a resolution
Not long with him to dwell;
And with this resolution
From him I ran away
I started then for New Orleans
And cursed be the day.

It was then I was conscripted
And sent into the field
Not having any other hope
But I must die or yield.
So with many another boy
I marched away that night
And this has been the tenth time
That I have been in fight.

I thought the boy who shot me
Had a familiar face
But in the battle's fury
Twas difficult to trace.
I thought it was my brother Jay
If him I could but see
I'd kiss him and forgive him
And lay me down and die.

I quickly ran unto him
And heard his story 'oer
It was my long last brother
Who lay weltering in his gore;
As I spoke of our loved ones left behind
And soothed his fevered brow
He whispered "My dear brother
I can die happy now."

Then quickly as a slumbering babe
His fluttering eyelids closed
I saw him sink with shortening breath
To death's long last repose;
And with many a tear and sad farewell
I scooped a narrow grave
And there he sleeps beneath the sod
By Antietam's rippling waves.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DRUMMER OF ANTIETAM
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 02:51 PM

American Memory has this little poem about Antietam. Both it and the Cowell verses far surpass the bloody boasting of a Col. Langenschwartz (thread 60314).

Lyr. Add: THE DRUMMER OF ANTIETAM
(Air: The Last Rose of Summer)

The drummer of Antietam
Lays dead and alone,
Upon the cold battle-field,
Where his blood has flown;
No friends mourn around him,
No comrades are near
To lament his early fate,
Or o'er him shed a tear..

Now, the moon faintly beams
On the spot where he lays,
Making his features more ghastly,
With its misty rays:
While hundreds sleep near him,
In death's icy-chain,
Who've fought their last battle,
Who'll ne'er wake again..

And thus are the bravest
Cut off in their bloom,
And manhood's hopes crushed
In the cold tomb!..
But they shall be cherished
In the hearts of the free,
As true martyrs of justice,
And sweet Liberty!..

American Memory, song sheet printed by H. De Marsan, NY.

(The song posted by Rietman may be heard at American Memory)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:12 PM

How is Antietam pronounced?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:35 PM

An-'tee-tam.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:29 PM

With the stress on the tee?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:43 PM

Yes

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Battle of Antietam Creek
From: Kevin Rietmann
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 02:11 AM

Forgot to include the link to the page with the audio: Warde Ford performing Anglo-American songs.