Childhood’s days have long since faded,
Youth’s bright dreams like lights gone out,
Distant homes and hearths are shaded,
With the future’s dread and doubt.
Chorus.—Here, old Michigan before us,
Moaning waves that ever break,
Chanting still the one sad chorus,
At Camp Douglas by the Lake. (Repeat.)
Exiles from our homes, we sorrow
O’er the present’s darkening gloom;
Will we know that with the morrow,
We’ll wake to feel the same hard doom.
Chorus.
Oh, for one short hour of gladness,
One hour of hope, this pain to break,
And chase away the heavy sadness,
At Camp Douglas by the Lake.
Chorus.
I would some Southern bird was singing,
Warbling richest, softest lays,
Back to eager memory bringing,
Sweetest thoughts of happy days.
Chorus.
I dread the night’s uneasy slumber;
Hate the day that bids me wake,
Another of that dreary number,
At Camp Douglas by the Lake.
Chorus.
Never Sabbath bells are tolling,
Never words of cheer and love;
Wintry waves are round us rolling,
Clouds are hiding heaven above.
Chorus.
Dixie Land! still turn toward you,
Hearts that now in bondage ache,
Hearts that once were strong to guard you,
Wasting here beside the lake.
Refrain.—John Morgan crossed the river,
And I went across with him.
I was captured in Ohio,
Because I could not swim. |