"Cover Them Over" (1884)
Quartet or Semi-Chorus.
Words by Will Carleton.
Music by O. B. Ormsby.

[Source: pp. 160-162 of "Our National War Songs" (1884);
Cleveland: S. Brainard's Sons, Plate No. 15803-3]

1.
Cover them over with beautiful flow'rs;
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours,
Lying so silent by night and by day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away,
Years they had mark'd for the joys of the brave,
Years they must waste in the sloth of the grave;

REFRAIN
Cover them over, yes, cover them over,
Parents and brother and husband and lover;
Shrine your hearts these dead heroes of ours,
And cover them over with beautiful flowers!

2.
Cover the faces that motionless lie,
Shut from the blue of the glorious sky;
Lips that are silent and bosoms are cold,
Hearts tried and true resting now in the mould.
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife,
Give them the garlands they lost with their life;

(REFRAIN)