[Verse 1: Hazel Dickens with Alice Gerrard]
He was just a Boston blue-eyed boy
His voice was low with pain
"I'll do your bidding, comrade mine
If I ride back again"
But if you ride back and I am dead
You'll do as much for me
My mother, you know, must hear the news
So write to her tenderly
She's praying at home like a waiting saint
Her fond face pale with woe
Her heart will be broken when I am gone
I'll see her soon, I know
Just then, the order came to charge
For an instant, hand touched hand
They answered "aye," then on they rode
That brave and devoted band

[Verse 2: Hazel Dickens with Alice Gerrard]
Straight was the course to the top of the hill
And the rebels, they shot and shelled
Plowed furrows of death in the toiling ranks
And guarded them as they fell
There soon was a horrible dying yell
From heights they could not gain
And those who doom and death had spared
Rode slowly back again
But among the dead that were left on the field
Was the boy with the curly hair
The tall, dark man who fought by his side
Lay dead beside him there
But there was none to write to the blue-eyed girl
The words her lover had said
While mother at home is awaiting her boy
She'll only know he's dead
She'll only know he's dead