"There's a Cottage on the Hill-Side of The Noble Prairie State;
or The Dying Volunteer"
(filed 21 Jan 1863; copyright library 17 Aug 1864;
No. 868; 25996; M1640.W]
Words by Minnie Moore
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875

Chicago: H. M. HIGGINS, 117 Randolph St.
[Source: 200002223@LoC/IHAS-CWM]

1. 
Oh! “wrap the flag around me, boys,
And lay me down to die,
Where the cannons roar around me,
And the carnage rises high,
While my last thoughts of my country
And my mother— Oh! my God!
Let Thy strong right arm support her,
While she passes ’neath Thy rod.

CHORUS [A] [sung after each verse]
Then wrap the flag around me, boys,
The red, the white, the blue,
For in ev’ry word and in ev’ry act,
To them you have been To them I have been true.

+CHORUS [B] [sung after verses 1 and 4 only]
Living I fought beneath its folds,
Our prayer shall Dying my prayer shall be,
That ev’ry star may typify
A country truly free. 

2. 
There’s a cottage on the hillside,
Of the noble Prairie State,
Where a golden willow droopeth
O’er a little rustic gate,
And my grey haired sire is sitting,
With his bible on his knee,
By his heartstone, while he prayeth,
Even now perhaps for me.

3. 
And farther one another still,
But, oh, the mad’ning thought,
What mis’ry to thee, beloved,
Treason’s black hand has wrought;
But thine is not the only heart
That bows in woe tonight,
Nor thine, the only striken soul,
That looks above for faith.

4. 
But be ye strong, and bear ye up,
We have not bled in vain,
The fetters we have striken off
Will ne’er be forg’d again,
And had I now a thousand lives,
I’d give them all for thee,
My native land, my precious home,
If they might make me free.