[576]
[Dep. 6 Nov. 1861]
[20618]
To General McClellan.
[Major General George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885)]
CAMP SONG
[on cover page]
"Why, Soldiers, Why Should We
Be Melancholy, Boys?" [1861]
["Why, Soldiers, Why?" on title page]
[on cover page]
or
One, Two, Three or Four Voices
AND
an ad libitum accompaniment
of a
MILITARY POLONAISE
for the
Piano Forte.
[on title page only:
& Military Polonaise for the Piano Forte.]
The words attributed to
GEN[er]L. WOLFE.
[Major General James Peter Wolfe, 1727-1759)]
And sung by him, to an old air, on the night
before his death at Quebec.
The music by
S. D. S.

[Lithographer] M. G. Everest.
Phildadelphia, PA: LEE & WALKER, 722 Chestnut St.
[M 1640
  .S]
[Plate No.] 8342.9.
[Source: civilwardigital.com]

Why, soldiers, why should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers,  why? whose business ’tis to die.
Why, soldiers, why should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why? whose business ’tis to die.
Should next campaign send us to HIM who made us, boys?
We’re free from pain, we’re free from pain!
Should we remain, a bottle and kind landlady
Cure all again, cure all again.
Then why, soldiers, why, why should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why? whose business ’tis to die.
Why, solderis, why should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why? whose business ’tis to die.
Why, soldiers, why should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why? whose business ’tis to die.
Why, soldiers, why should we be melancholu, boys?
Why, soldiers, why? whose business ’tis to die.