"Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1864)
Words and Music by George Frederick Root

1.
Just before the battle, Mother,
I am thinking most of you.
While upon the field we're watching,
With the enemy in view.
Comrades brave are round me lying,
Fill'd with tho'ts of home and God;
For well they know, that on the morrow,
Some will sleep beneath the sod.

CHORUS
Farewell, Mother, you may never (you may never Mother)
Press me to your breast again;
But O, you'll not forget me, Mother, (you'll not forget me,)
If I'm number'd with the slain.

(CHORUS pp)

2.
Oh, I long to see you, Mother,
And the loving ones at home;
But, I'll never leave our banner,
Till in honor I can come.
Tell the traitors all around you,
That their cruel words, we know,
In ev'ry battle kill our soldiers
By the help they give the foe.

(CHORUS)
(CHORUS pp)

3.
Hark! I hear the bugles sounding,
Tis the signal for the fight,
Now, may God protect us, Mother,
As He ever does the right.
*Hear "The Battle-Cry of Freedom,"
How it swells upon the air;
Oh, yes we'll rally round the standard,
Or we'll perish nobly there.

(CHORUS)
(CHORUS pp)

*In the Army of the Cumberland, the Soldiers sing the Battle-Cry
when going into action, by order of the Commanding General.