D C G C G D G C G

[Verse 1]
       D                C
He was just a blue-eyed Boston boy
                       G        
His voice was low with pain.
      D               C   
"I'll do your bidding comrade mine,
               G
If I ride back again.
    D                    G
But if you ride back and I am left
       D
You'll do as much for me.
                      C
Mother you know, must hear the news
   D            C     G
So write to her tenderly."

[Instrumental]
D G C G

[Verse 2]
       D                      C
"She's waiting at home like a patient saint
              G         
Her fond face pale with woe.
    D                    C
Her heart will be broken when I am gone
                     G       
I'll see her soon, I know"
     D              G
Just then the order came to charge
       D                    
For an instant hand touched hand
                     C
They said "Aye" and away they rode
                       G     
That brave and devoted band.

[Instrumental]
D C G D C G D G D G C G C G

[Verse 3] 
D                             C          
Straight was the track to the top of the hill
                         G        
The rebels they shot and shelled.
D                                   C  
Plowed furrows of death through the toilling ranks
                         G       
And guarded them as they fell
      D                    G
There soon came a horrible dying yell
     D                           
From heights that they could not gain
                        C
And those that doom and death had spared
                  G      
Rode slowly back again.

[Instrumental]
D C G

[Verse 4]
    D                        C
But among the dead that were left on the hill
                           G     
Was the boy with the curly hair
    D                  C
The tall dark man that rode by his side
    G      C        G
Lay dead beside him there
        D                      G
There's no one to write to the blue-eyed girl
    D
The words that her lover had said
D                 C
Momma, you know, awaits the news
                          G
And she'll only know he's dead.