230
The Drummer Boy of Shiloh
This ballad appears in Frank Lum's The 'Beauty of Broadway'
Songster (New York, 1870), p. 13, and in Allan's Lone Star Ballads,
A Collection of Southern Patriotic Songs, Made during Confederate
Times, compiled and revised by Francis D. Allan (Galveston, Texas,
1874), p. 145. It is also included in the anonymously edited Our
War Songs North and South (Cleveland: S. Brainard's Sons,
1887), pp. 174-5, and is there ascribed to Will S. Hays. De
Marsan printed it as a broadside. See, also, Belden, Partial List,
No. 123; Henry FSSH 366; Randolph OFS 11 308.
From Miss Pearle Webb, Pineola, Avery county. It may be one of
"several song ballads" sent Dr. Brown on July 29, 1921. Compared with
the printed version in Allan's Lone Star Ballads, Miss Webb's version
shows several differences in the order and the diction of the drummer
boy's prayer, and it simplifies the account of the burial.
1 On Shiloh's dark and bloody plain
The dead and dying lay.
Among them was a drummer boy
That beat the drum that day.
2 A wounded soldier held him up ;
His drum lay by his side.
He raised his eyes and clasped his hands
And prayed before he died.
3 T love my country and my God ;
To serve them have I tried.'
He smiled, shook hands ; death seized the boy
Who prayed before he died :
4 'Angels around the throne of Grace,
Look down from heaven on me.
Receive me in thy fond embrace
And carry me home to thee.'
5 Each soldier wept then like a child.
Stout heart and brave were they
Who mourned the loss of the drummer boy
Who beat the drum that day.
6 They wrote upon a single board,
Each word it was a guide ;
They mourned the loss of the drummer boy
That prayed before he died.
7 Angels around the throne of Grace
Look down upon the brave
Who fought and died on Shiloh's plains
And now slumbers in the grave.
•Drummer Boy at Shiloh.' From Charles R. Bagley, Moyock, Currituck
county, "as sung by W. R. Dudley" ; undated, but probably sent in 1923.
Four stanzas. Stanzas i and 2 correspond to A 1-2. Stanza 3 ("O
Mother . . .") has its equivalent in the Allan's Lone Star Ballads version,
which has prayers to both "Angels" and "Mother," but not in A, which
has the prayer to "Angels" only. The equivalent of stanza 4 is not
found in either Allan's or A, but does appear in Henry FSSH 366 (from
Crossnore, N. C).
538 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
3 'O Mother,' cried the dying boy,
'Look down from Heaven on me.
Receive me to thy fond embrace,
And take me home to thee.'
4 How many homes made desolate,
How many a heart has sighed,
How many like that poor drummer boy,
Who prayed before he died.
c
Drummer Boy of Shiloh.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.
After the first stanza, corresponding, with a few verbal changes, to
A 1-2, this version differs in a number of particulars.
2 'Look down upon the battlefield,
Oh, thou our Heavenly Friend ;
Have mercy on our sinful souls.'
The soldiers cried, 'Amen,'
And gathered round the little group ;
Each brave man knelt and cried ;
They listened to the drummer boy,
Who prayed before he died.
3 'Oh, Jesus,' said the drummer boy,
'Look down from heaven on me.
Receive me to Thy fond embrace,
And take me home to Thee.
I love my country and my God,
To serve them both I've tried.'
He smiled, shook hands. Death seized the boy.
Who prayed before he died.
4 Each soldier wept then like a child ;
Stout hearts were there, and brave.
The flag his winding sheet, God's book
They laid upon his grave.
They wrote upon a simple board.
These words, 'This is the guide
To those that mourn the drummer boy.
Who prayed before he died.'
5 Ye angels 'round the throne of grace.
Look down upon the braves
Who fought and died on Shiloh's plains.
Now slumber in their graves.
How many homes made desolate,
How many hearts have sighed.
How many like the drummer boy.
Who prayed before he died.
NATIVE AMERICAN BALLADS 539