I yelled for glory, how we killed and slayed,
We'd show those fools, just let 'em march again,
And yelling, too, because they marched so pretty
Who came across the waters far away
To march so pretty till the plug bit home,
And yelling, too, for something deep inside me,
Like I was back with folks a minute, maybe,
And then it hit me.
Some dum fool out yonder,
Some last dum fool that risked his hide to do it,
Out there with all his kind all dead around him,
Takes time to load and shoot just one more time
Back at those cotton bales. 'Twas me he found.
Right in the chest, a red-coat musket-ball.
A rifle-plug like ours, it's small and true
And goes in easy, not much blood comes out.
But muskets, hell- if you can hit a thing,
It gives a
chunk,
it knocks a hole, and messy.
It made a mess of me. The blood came out.
Somebody held my head to give me water.
He looked, and sudden stared, and said: "Be dum."
They knew me, Isham, and they named my name.
Folks from back home, come traveling all that way
To kill some red-coats and to hold my head
While I was dying, and they named my name.
I died right easy while they named my name
Like they forgave me, even if I killed my Brother.
R .P.W.: And now in the Smithland court house on
the indictment
The Commonwealth as Plaintiff had drawn for murder,
We find endorsed:
The same Plaintiff
against
Isham Lewis Defendant
Ordered that this suit be abated by
The death of the defendant.
That is all.
It is abated. All is abated now.
