Then there was the sound of constant drumming,

And the mad men clutched their temples running,

And I curse the memory of the damned damp day,

Cause I saw them carry my baby brother away.

 

I did not shoot at the boys in blue

Because I saw them carrying my brother through

The line of men intertwined to fight our stormy front. 

 

I was just seventeen at the time

I had not a penny, nor a dime

And on that day vengeance was not mine

Said the Lord my God.

 

When at my feet the demon fell

One of the  blue coat boys sent from hell

And why I cried I could not tell,

But he had my brother's eyes.

 

Old Thompson beside me pulled out his gun,

He went for the trigger

Blue Coat did not run

Blue Coat, Blue Coat was somebody's son

Blue Coat had a Maw.                                                                                                                                                          

 

He looked at me like a bird in a trap,

His wings bound, his legs snapped,

And I found myself listening for the tap

Of that damned old Winchester gun. 

 

Blue Coat, Blue Coat began to sob.

Blue Coat, Blue Coat's childhood was robbed

From him, just like my brother's was.

 

And with one swift snap of my shaking hand,

Old Thompson I did reprimand

And his gun fell to the bloody earth

And Johnny came marching home. 

 

Johnny came marching home,

sweet Maw.

Johnny came marching home, hoorah.

Hoorah, then Johnny came marching home.

They gave him a rowdy welcome then, hoorah, hoorah...

 

The old church bell rang again,

to welcome home the boy they lost back way back when

But my brother lay in an icy grave, purged with

Blue Coat's sin.

 

The war was over, and there I stood

In the shadow of the Northern steeple

I promised myself there was nothing good,

about these city people. 

 

But then Blue Coat's Maw came running out,

as did Blue Coat with a shout

For I was a prisoner 

In this foreign land,

and I felt surely that I was damned. 

 

Blue Coat knelt down beside of me

He beckoned that I might be free

And with a whisper he let me be

And I was saved from the hanging tree.