Decoration Hymn.
William H. Randall.
Soldiers! who freely for our country’s glory
Upheld our flag on Southern hill and plain,
Long may your deeds be told in grateful story,
Ye have not lived in vain!
Brothers! who fought for more than empty honor
That all our land united might be free,
May shine for evermore upon our banner
Each star for liberty.
Heroes! who toiled through all the dusty marches,
And life surrendered on those shot-plowed fields,
To ye who fled where the blue sky o’erarches,
Tribute a nation yields.
Your spirits, watching from out heaven’s dominions,
Shall not see lost what ye so dearly bought;
The shackles that once clogged the eagle’s pinions
Shall not again be wrought.
And now with garlands decorate each dwelling
Where all that earth could claim serenely sleeps;
While love, like perfume from the flower upwelling
Grateful remembrance keeps.