|
Oh, we're the bully soldiers of the "First of Arkansas," |
|
We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law, |
|
We can hit a Rebel further than a white man ever saw, |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
Chorus: |
|
Glory, glory hallelujah. |
|
Glory, glory hallelujah. |
|
Glory, glory hallelujah. |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
See, there above the center, where the flag is waving bright, |
|
We are going out of slavery; we're bound for freedom's light; |
|
We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight, |
|
As we go marching on! |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
We have done with hoeing cotton, we have done with hoeing corn, |
|
We are colored Yankee soldiers, now, as sure as you are born; |
|
When the masters hear us yelling, they'll think it's Gabriel's horn, |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin, |
|
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin, |
|
They will have to give us house-room, or the roof shall tumble in! |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
We heard the Proclamation, master hush it as he will, |
|
The bird he sing it to us, hoppin' on the cotton hill, |
|
And the possum up the gum tree, he couldn't keep it still, |
|
As he went climbing on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
They said, "Now colored brethren, you shall be forever free, |
|
From the first of January, Eighteen hundred sixty-three." |
|
We heard it in the river going rushing to the sea, |
|
As it went sounding on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
Father Abraham has spoken and the message has been sent, |
|
The prison doors he opened, and out the pris'ners went, |
|
To join the sable army of "African descent," |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
|
|
|
Then fall in, colored brethren, you'd better do it soon, |
|
Don't you hear the drum a-beating the Yankee Doodle tune? |
|
We are with you now this morning, we'll be far away at noon, |
|
As we go marching on. |
|
|
|
(Chorus) |
