American Old Time Song Lyrics: 37 The Last Roll Call

Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 37

THE LAST ROLL CALL.
Copyright, 1893, by Frank Harding.
Written and Composed by Charles Osborne.

Fifty years ago last Friday, on a wild and stormy day,
I was fighting for our colors, many thousand miles away;
Tho' we were but one to twenty, still we beat them-yes, they lost'
We were victors, heroes all; but what a price that vict'ry cost!

Chorus.
Side by side, like a crimson tide, in the days of long ago.
On we dash'd und our sabres crash'd, till we conquered ev'ry foe;
But one by one ere the fight was done, I saw my comrades fall.
And I was the only one left to answer the Last Roll Call!

Fifty brave and stalwart soldiers thrashed a host of deadly foes.
Fifty sabres flashed like lightning ere the shout of vict'ry rose.
Like an avalanche of thunder on we swept-Hurrah! they run!
Then I rode back home in silence, all had fallen there but one- Chorus.

By the dim and ghostly torchlight, there we sought them where they fell,
They who'd saved their country's honor, they who'd fought and died so well;
Who is this, beneath those shadows? Halt! lads, gently raise his head;
Turn the light, this way, men-silence, Jack, my own twin brother, dead!- Cho.