Of battles and sieges when wearing the blue;
Of marchings and flankings and digging of trenches,
And loving communion with old comrades too.
The old army hardtack speaks, too, of dear comrades,
Whose faces are missing to-day in our line;
Their battles all fought, their warfare all ended,
But whose virtues still live in mem'ry's pure shrine,
Then cheer the old hardtack, the square army hardtack,
Who was flinty and wormy at times, I must own,
But when at Mine Run, he took a vacation,