9. Longstreet's visit to Knoxville.1
by J. W. Miller, twenty-Third Indiana Battery.
air--Yankee Manufacture. Come, gather round, my Yankee boys,And listen to my ditty:
I'll tell you all about old Longstreet's
Visit to this city.
And how the Rebs around him flocked
While he made a long oration,
Saying: “Boys, we'll drive the Yankees out,
And run them like tarnation.”
Chores.--So pass the grog, and drink unto
The Union's preservation;
Old Longstreet and his rebel crew
Are running like tarnation.
Says he: “My boys, on our success
Our fate depends, by thunder!
And if we meet with a defeat,
Our government's gone under.
So charge upon their raw recruits
Without procrastination:
We'll make them fly to wooden hams,
To save them from starvation!”
But little did old Longstreet know
The boys he had to meet him;
They fought on old Virginia's soil,
At Bull Run and Antietam.
The Western boys from Illinois
And Buckeyes wont knock under;
And Yankee steel, it made them squeal,
And Old Kentuck, by thunder!
The rebels made a bold advance,
To bag us they intended;
And up the hill on double-quick
The chivalry ascended.
Our battery's fire, and Burnside's wire,
It caused them for to stumble,
And head o'er heels, into the ditch,
Like “bull-frogs” they did tumble,
Our boys did quickly on them pile,
Amid their great confusion,
Resolved that they should pay the cost
For such a bold intrusion;
And if, my friends, I have received
The proper information,
The rebs will never charge again
That charged on that occasion.
But finding in our “raw recruits”
They sadly were mistaken,
The rebs they soon picked up their traps,
And left, to save their bacon!
Now Knoxville's free from chivalry,
And Wolford's in his saddle:
He swears outright he'll make them fight,
Or quickly to skedaddle!
Chorus.--So pass the grog, and drink unto
The Union's preservation;
Old Longstreet and his rebel crew
Are running like tarnation!
