| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
Bretvster: Ballads and Songs of Indiana 253
47 BROTHER GREEN
Only one text of this song- has been recovered in Indiana, but several people remember having heard it sung in the state.
For other texts, see Cox, p. 273; Wyman and Brockway, p. 18 (text and air); Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, p. 212; Cambiaire, East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads, p. 13.
"Brother Green." Contributed by Mr. O. F. Kirk, seventy-nine, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. "This song has been in our family ever since I can recollect. I don't know who we learned it from, or any more of its history." June 10, 1935.
1. 0 Brother Green, do come to me,
For I am shot and bleeding; And I must die, no more to see
My wife and my dear children.
2. A Southern foe hath laid me low,
On this cold ground to suffer; Dear brother, stay and lay me away, And write my wife a letter.
3. Tell her I am prepared to die,
And hope we'll meet in heaven; When I believed on Jesus Christ, My sins was all forgiven.
4. I know that she has prayed for me,
And now her prayers are answered, That I might be prepared to die If I should fall in battle.
5. My little babes, I love them well;
O could I once more see them! To bid them both a long farewell Till we should meet in heaven.
6. But I am here in Tennessee
And they are in Illinois, And I must now soon buried be, No more to hear their voices. |
||