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Private Lonsway reportin' for duty

October 12th Eighteen Sixty Three

Ran away to Company D

Twentieth Regiment New York Cavalry

Rebels stampeded five hundred cattle

Our mission was search and destroy

Daybreak 4th of July

Jumped upon those rebs with a battle cry

There was a freight train loaded with supplies

Corporal Jenkins volunteered to drive

Quarter mile from Blackwater he realized

Retreating troops set the bridge on fire

We jumped off as the train plunged in

Saw a big barge on the other side

Captain Ford said, Joe, I want that lighter

I hate to send you, for chances are you'll die

1864 Son tell them what grampa did in the war

1864 That's what I got my medal for

I stripped off my clothes and told Jenkins

If I don't come back write my folks and tell them

Then I put my body under water

Swam on my back towards other shore

Gunfire thick as rain fell all around

All the way across I heard that sound

Looking for the chance I finally found

Climbed on the scow & got it unbound

1864 Tell them what your grampa did in the war

1864 That's what I got this medal for

On the bank a rebel found me

Snuck behind on hands and knees

Put his pistol to my head

When my boy shot that fella dead

1864 Son tell them what your grampa did in the war

1864 Long long ago in the Civil War

1864 Tell them what your grampa did in the war

1864 That's what I got this medal for