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- Would you like to hear my song? I'm afraid it's rather long
- Of the famous "On to Richmond" double trouble,
- Of the half-a-dozen trips and half-a-dozen slips
- And the very latest bursting of the bubble.
- 'Tis pretty hard to sing and like a round, round ring
- 'Tis a dreadful knotty puzzle to unravel;
- Though all the papers swore, when we touched Virginia's shore
- That Richmond was a hard road to travel.
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe.
- First, MacDowell , bold and gay, set forth the shortest way,
- By Manassas in the pleasant summer weather,
- But unfortunately ran on a Stonewall, foolish man,
- And had a "rocky journey" altogether;
- And he found it rather hard to ride over Beauregard,
- And Johnston proved a deuce of a bother,
- And 'twas clear beyond a doubt that he didn't like the route,
- And a second time would have to try another.
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- Manassas is a hard road to travel;
- Manassas gave us fits, and Bull Run made us grieve,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
- Next came the Wooly-Horse, with an overwhelming force,
- To march down to Richmond by the Valley,
- But he couldn't find the road, and his "onward movement" showed
- His campaigning was a mere shilly-shally.
- Then Commissary Banks, with his motley foreign ranks,
- Kicking up a great noise, fuss, and flurry,
- Lost the whole of his supplies, and with tears in his eyes,
- From the Stonewall ran away in a hurry
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- For the Valley is a hard road to travel;
- The Valley wouldn't do and we all had to leave,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe !
- Then McClellan followed soon, both with spade and balloon,
- To try the Peninsular approaches,
- But one and all agreed that his best rate of speed
- Was no faster than the slowest of "slow coaches."
- Instead of easy ground, at Williamsburgs, he found,
- A Longstreet indeed, and nothing shorter,
- And it put him in the dumps, that spades wasn't trumps,
- And the Hills he couldn't level as he ordered.
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve
- For Longstreet is a hard road to travel -
- Lay down the shovel, and throw away the spade
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I'm afraid!
- Then said Lincoln unto Pope,
- "You can make the trip, I hope,
- I will save the Universal Yankee Nation,
- To make sure of no defeat, I'll leave no lines of retreat,
- And I'll issue a famous proclamation."
- But that same dreaded Jackson, this fellow laid his whacks son,
- And made, by compulsion, a seceder
- And Pope took rapid flight from Manassas’ second fight,
- 'Twas his very last appearance as a leader.
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- Stonewall is a hard road to travel;
- Pope did his very best, but was evidently sold,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I am told!
- Last of all, Burnside, with his pontoon bridges, tried
- A road no one had thought of before him,
- With two hundred thousand men for the Rebel slaughter pen,
- And the blessed Union flag waving o'er him;
- But he met a fire like hell, of canister and shell,
- That mowed down his men with great slaughter,
- 'Twas a shocking sight to view, that second Waterloo,
- And the river ran with more blood than water.
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- Rappahannock is a hard road to travel
- Burnside got in a trap, which caused him for to grieve
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe !
- We are very much perplexed to know who is the next
- To command the new Richmond expedition,
- For the Capital must blaze, and that in ninety days,
- And Jeff and his men be sent to perdition.
- We'll take the cursed town, and then we'll burn it down,
- And plunder and hang up each cursed Rebel;
- Yet the contraband was right when he told us they would fight
- "Oh, yes, massa, they would fight like the devil !"
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel;
- Then pull off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve,
- For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
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