Three Hundred Thousand More

Anonymous

[September, 1861]

WE are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!

From Mississippi’s winding stream and from New England’s shore;

We leave our ploughs and workshops, our wives and children dear,

With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear;

We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before:

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!

If you look across the hill-tops that meet the northern sky,

Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;

And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,

And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride,

And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour:

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!

If you look all up our valleys where the growing harvests shine,

You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;

And children from their mother’s knees are pulling at the weeds,

And learning how to reap and sow against their country’s needs;

And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door:

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!

You have called us, and we ’re coming, by Richmond’s bloody tide

To lay us down, for Freedom’s sake, our brothers’ bones beside,

Or from foul treason’s savage grasp to wrench the murderous blade,

And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.

Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before:

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!