"Out in This
Terrible War[!]" (1863)
Words by
Mary W. Janvrin.

"I am alone by the hearth-stone,
    But my heart goes roving afar
Counting over its treasures
    Out in this terrible war."

Music by
H. T. Merrill.

Chicago, IL: H. T. MERRILL & CO.
A. B. Case, Music Printer Chicago.
[Source: 089/112@Levy]

1. By the smouldering western campfire
  You are sleeping tonight,
Dreaming again of the battle,
  Out in the thickest fight.
I am alone by the hearthstone,
  But my heart goes roving afar,
Counting over its treasures
  Out in this terrible war.
Counting over its treasures
  Out in this terrible war.

2. Soundly and sweetly you slumber,
  Tho’ rude is the soldier’s bed—
The knapsack hard is your pillow,
  While cushions have I instead;
Cushions yielding and downy
  As the bosoms of wild swans are;
Yet rest I can not, for thoughts of you,
  Out in this terrible war.
Yet rest I can not, for thoughts of you,
  Out in this terrible war.

3. I wonder if, for a moment,
  Your heart rush’d homeward to me,
When ’mid the crash of howitzers,
  You stood in Tennessee?
Or when the rebel sharshooter
  Singled you out from afar,
To fall, like a brave young hero,
  Shot in this terrible war!
To fall, like a brave young hero,
  Shot in this terrible war!

4. And afterward in the hospital,
  When you lay with your wounds and pain,
Pined you  not for the touch of fingers,
  So eager to clasp again,
The smokestain’d hands of her soldier,
  From the battle field afar?
O when will my hero come back to me
  Out of this terrible war!
O when will my hero come back to me,
  Out of this terrible war!