"The Vacant Chair"
or "We Shall Meet But We Shall Miss Him" (1861)
(Thanksgiving, 1861)
Words by Henry S. Washburn
Music by George Frederick Root

1.
We shall meet, but we shall miss him
There will be one vacant chair;
We shall linger to caress him 
While we breathe our evening prayer.
When a year ago we gathered, 
Joy was in his mild blue eye,
But a golden cord is severed, 
And our hopes in ruin lie. 

CHORUS
We shall meet, but we shall miss him,
There will be one vacant chair;
We shall linger to caress him
When we breathe our evening prayer. 

2.
At our fireside, sad and lonely, 
Often will the bosom swell
At remembrance of the story 
How our noble Willie fell;
How he strove to bear the banner 
Thro' the thickest of the fight,
And uphold our country's honor,
In the strength of manhood's might.

(CHORUS) 

3.
True they tell us wreaths of glory 
Evermore will deck his brow,
But this soothes the anguish only, 
Sweeping o'er our heartstrings now.
Sleep to[-]day, O early fallen, 
In thy green and narrow bed,
Dirges from the pine and cypress 
Mingle with the tears we shed. 

(CHORUS)