Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook

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	War	-35
	94 BOLD DIGHTON This is a broadside song of the early nineteenth century which is also found m a number of American songsters. For references and for a discussion of texts of the song and its author, P. Russel, see Mackenzie, pp. 216-222. Version A was sung m 1935 by Mr. E. W. Harns, Greenville, who learned the song in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, about i860.


	Come all ye bold heroes that plow the rough main, Give ear to my story, and the truth I'll explain. It's of our misfortune that happened in the great war, And how we escaped from the French at Bastar. We were there confined on the Gawdlop shore, True valiant seamen four hundred or more, All shut up in small compass and greatly distressed, With painful diseases and famine oppressed. A galyant young seaman, from St. Louis he came, Both generous and wealthy, called Dighton by name. He had the heart of a lion, the soul of a prince, And friendship's kind impulse to us did advince.