To C. D. Elliot
"The Flag of the South" (1861)
A Voice from the Old Academy,
Nashvile, Tenn.
Written by
Mrs. Anna K. Hearn,
Music by
Dr. O. Becker.

Nashville, TN: C. D. BENSON & CO.
Engraver and Printer: J. Slinglandt [sp?]
[Source: 093/057@Levy]

1. Ye Southern men that love your land,
  Gird on your armor bright!
Go ye forth like Sparta’s band,
  And battle for your right,
Raise your banners! Shout your cry,
  “God save our Sunny South,
  God save our sunny South!”
For her we live, for her we’ll die,
  E’en at the cannon’s mouth!”

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
For her we live,
For her We’ll die,
E’en at the cannon’s mouth!

2. Go ye forth with valiant arm
  To save your happy home!
Heard ye not the bold alarm
  Sound from the City Dome?
Their forts, their arms we mean to take,
   Is Tyrants’ sullen boast,
   Is Tyrants’ sullen boast,
Oh! let the earth around him shake
  With thunder from our coast!

3. Dispute with them each inch of ground
  Within our sunny land!
Let your martial thunder sound
  Along the Northern strand!
“Strike! till the last arm’d foe expires”
  On each green savannah!
  On each green savannah!
“Strike! for your altars and your fires”
  And Old Jackson’s banner!

4. Drive from our land, this coward foe
  That dares our right deny;
That aims at us a dastard blow,
  And bids us yield, or die!
Yield! yes, with the crimson flood
  That ebbs our lives away,
  That ebbs our lives away,
For our injur’d country’s good,
  We’ll yield— the worthless clay!

5. Our INDEPENDENCE we will prove,
  Tho’ ev’ry “stripe” be torn,
And all the “stars“ that own’d our love
  Another flag adorn!
Ne’er shall Northern colors o’er us wave
  That deny us “Equal Rights”
  That deny us “Equal Rights”
In the land our father’s died to save
  From England’s belted knights!

6. Then, Southern men that love your land,
  Gird on your armor bright!
And go ye forth a Spartan band
  To battle for your right!
Raise your banner! Shout your cry,
  “God save our Sunny South,
  “God save our Sunny South.”
For her we live, for her we’ll die,
  E’en at the cannon’s mouth!”