The Celebrated Rallying Song
"Fill Up the Ranks Boys"
(c1862; copyright filed 21 Jan 1863; 17 Aug 1864; No. 895;
2591D; M1640.W]
Words by Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875

Chicago: H. M. HIGGINS, 117 Randolf St.
[Source: 200002224@LoC/IHAS-CWM]

1. 
Listen, young heroes! your country is calling!
Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true!
Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling,
Fill up your ranks that have open’d for you! 

CHORUS [sung after each verse]
Rally brave hearts, for the great soul of WASHINGTON
Calls on his children our country to save;
Rally bold hearts, for the spirit of WASHINGTON,
Waits but to lead on to glory the brave!

2. 
You whom the fathers made free and defended,
Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame!
You whose fair heritage spotless descended,
Leave not your children a birthright of shame!

3. 
Stay not for questions while Freedom stands gasping!
Wait not till Honor lies wrapp’d in his pall!
Brief the lip’s meeting be, swift the hands’ clasping—
“Off for the wars!” is enough for them all.

4. 
Break from the arms that would fondly caress you!
Hark! ’tis the bugle blast! sabres are drawn!
Mothers shall pray for you, fathers shall bless you,
Maidens shall weep for you when you are gone!

5. 
Never or now! cries the blood of a nation
Poured on the turf where the red rose should bloom;
Now is the day and the hour of salvation—
Never or now! peals the trumpet of doom!

6. 
Never or now! roars the hoarsethroated cannon
Through the black canopy blotting the skies;
Never or now! flaps the shell blasted pennon
O’er the deep ooze where the Cumberland lies!

7. 
From the foul dens where our brothers are dying,
Aliens and foes in the land of their birth,
From the rank swamps where our martyrs are lying
Pleading in vain for a handful of earth;

8. 
From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered,
Furrowed and ridged by the battlefield’s plough,
Comes the loud summons; too long you have slumbered,
Hear the last Angeltrump— Never or Now!