"We Never Can Forget It; or,
The Memories of Andersonville Prison Pens" (1865)
Words by Mrs. Mary Ann Kidder
Music by Henry Tucker, 1826-1882

New York: William Jennings Demorest
Electrotyped by Smith & McDougal, 
82 and 84 Beekman St., New York
[Source: 200002150@LoC/IHAS-CWM]

1. 
Oh, we never can forget it,
Thro’ the many years to come,
How we lingered, starved, and waited
In the prison far from home!
How at night we longed for morning,
And the morning brought despair,
As we breathed the pois’nous vapors
Of the vile and stagnant air.

REFRAIN [sung after each verse]
Freezing! starving! living death!
FATHER! can they know at home?
Oh! we never can forget it
In all the years to come.

2. 
How we suffered in our weakness—
Freezing, starving— none can tell;
Stagg’ring near the fatal “dead line,”
Where so many gladly fell;
Gazing into ghastly faces,
When all joy and hope had fled;
Longing, dying for the firelight,
With no shelter, clothes, or bed.

3. 
Oh, we never can forget it—
No, that prisonpen so bare,
Where we watched in weary silence
For our scanty, wretched fare;
For the loathsome, rancid bacon,
And the bitter, mouldy bread,
That we clutched with bloodless fingers,
Like the fingers of the dead.

4. 
How we wondered, in our anguish,
If our kindred were no more,—
If the starry banner floated
Now as proudly as before—
If our mothers, sisters, brothers,
Prayed for us when they did kneel?
Thus when thinking of our homescenes
How the giddy brain would reel!

5. 
Oh, we never can forget it,
When the gates were opened wide,
When we say the Union Banner,
And our friends were at our side;
How we laughed, and cried like children,
Though we tried to feel like men,
As we shouted in our gladness,
“Home, yes, home; sweet home again.”