Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching

A song by George Root, detailing the life of a Union prisoner in the Civil War.

In the prison cell I sit,
Thinking Mother dear of you,
And our bright and happy home so far away,
And the tears they fill my eyes
Spite of all that I can do
Though I try to cheer my comrades
and be gay.

Chorus:
Tramp! tramp! tramp!
The boys are marching
Cheer up comrades,
They will come.
And beneath the starry flag
We shall breathe the air again
Of the free land in our own beloved home.

In the battle front we stood
When their fiercest charge they made,
And they swept us off a hundred men or more;
But before we reached their lines
They were beaten back, dismayed,
And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er.

So within the prison cell
We are waiting for the day
That shall come to open wide the iron door;
And the hollow eye grows bright
And the poor heart almost gay
As we think of seing home and friends once more.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• george
• root
• prisoners
• civil
• war
• andersonville
• united
• states

[SouthrnConservative]

Great song -- i've been looking for this for quite a while. All I found was the confederate version.

[rexlibris99]

Root's version was original, and much better, so I'm surprised by that. The lyrics and sound file were pretty easy to locate.

[oldscout379]

Thanks for the posting. Do you know where I could get a transcript of the lyrics? This a bittersweet song for me as my great-greatgrandfather was imprisoned in an Union camp where his health was broken. He died on the way home after being paroled/pardoned by President Lincoln in '65 before the war ended in April. He was accused of being a Confederate sympathizer because the Federal telegraph lines were destroyed that were on his property although he had two sons in the Union Forces.

[rexlibris99]

I added the lyrics to the introduction. There are different versions of the song with slightly different lyrics. You can generally find these on Google fairly easily.

It seems that both sides were intolerant of anyone who might have interfered with telegraph lines, bridges or railroads. Unfortunately, as in your ggf's case, most of them were innocent.

[camprandle]

Tramp, tramp, tramp, Uncle Sam over North Korea!

[GettysburgGhost1863]

They just borrowed the tune. There's no dishonor in that.

[MrTThorne93]

@redconfederate there was no camp douglas you illiterate hick . There was detention centers in chicago

[MrTThorne93]

@SouthrnConservative The confederate Version is like the nazis bitching about their own death camps . DEATH TO THE SOUTH GOD SAVE AMERICA DEATH TO THE NAZI CONFEDERACY

[redconfederate]

@oldscout379 was ur kin in the prison camp duglas in chacogo?

[graemec150917]

We're on the march with Ally's Army! lol

[blacklion1798]

@SouthrnConservative it's messed up how to this very day people from all regions of the united states have such a raging hard-on for all things confederate

[jacobwolf124]

Damn,both versions are good.

[AverellDalton]

Deutschland, Deutschland, er soll ein sein; sozialistisch und vereint. Unter Führung der Partei, kämpfen wir und werden frei...

Seems like the DDR borrowed the tune too.

[Dicknose88]

The 1st POW song and still the best!!! BTW the rest of the CD is pretty good too.