[00:19.170] Twas midnight when we built our fires
[00:22.240] We marched at half past three
[00:24.300] We know not when our march shall end
[00:26.490] Nor care–we follow Lee.
[00:28.510] The starlight gleams on many a crest
[00:30.619] And many a well-trod blade
[00:32.520] This handful marching on our left
[00:34.920] This lin’ is our brigade.
[00:37.479] Our lin’ is short because its veins
[00:40.200] So lavishly have bled
[00:42.300] The missing search the countless planes
[00:44.440] For battles it has led
[00:46.420] There are those Georgians on the right
[00:48.599] Their ranks are thinin’ too
[00:50.499] How in one company they say
[00:52.884] They now can count but two
[01:04.430] There’s not much talkin’ down the lines
[01:06.729] Nor shoutin’ down the gloam [twilight]
[01:08.489] For when the night is ’round us
[01:10.891] Then we’re thinkin’ most of home
[01:13.979] I saw a young soldier startled
[01:16.020] When we passed an open glade
[01:18.110] Where the low starlight, leaf, and bough
[01:20.449] A fairy picture made
[01:22.209] Nor has he uttered a word since then
[01:24.440] My heart can whisper why
[01:26.420] ‘Twas like the spot in Texas
[01:28.590] Where he bade his love goodbye
[01:31.790] And when beyond us carelessly
[01:34.150] Some soldier sang “Adieu”
[01:36.150] My comrade here across his eyes
[01:38.325] His coarse sleeve roughly drew
[01:40.320] So scarcely sound of trampling feet
[01:42.520] Is echoed through the gloom
[01:44.200] Because when stars are brightest then
[01:46.680] We’re thinkin’ most of home
[02:06.800] Hush, what an echo startles up
[02:09.540] Around this rocky hill
[02:11.698] Was a shell half buried struck my foot?
[02:13.830] Or stay–’tis a human skull?
[02:15.940] This ridge I surely seem to know
[02:17.940] By light of the rising moon
[02:19.760] While we battled here three mortal hours
[02:22.129] One Sunday afternoon
[02:25.090] Last spring, you see where our captain stands
[02:27.480] His head drooped on his breast
[02:29.360] At his feet that heap of bones and earth
[02:31.610] You know know why his rest
[02:33.660] Is broke off, and why his sword
[02:35.700] was so bitter in the fray
[02:37.590] ‘Tis the grave of his only brother
[02:39.800] Who was killed that awful day
[03:00.709] Hush, for in front I hear a shot
[03:02.830] And then a well-known cry
[03:05.010] It is the foe! See where the flames
[03:07.230] Mount upward to the sky
[03:09.139] It is the full hot breath we hear
[03:11.360] We wait the comin’ sun
[03:13.099] And ‘ere these stars may shine again
[03:15.500] A field is lost or won
[03:18.490] Is won! It is the old brigade
[03:20.549] This line of stalwart men
[03:22.690] The long roll, how it thrills my heart
[03:24.900] To hear that sound again
[03:26.827] God shield us boys! Here breaks the day
[03:29.089] The stars begin to fade
[03:30.850] Now steady here! Fall in! Fall in!
[03:33.150] Forward the old brigade!