Daniel Decatur Emmett wrote "Dixie" and "
Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel".
John Reuben Thompson, editor of the Southern Literary Messenger wrote new lyrics titled "Richmond is Hard Road". The lyrics are:
Would you like to hear my song? I'm afraid it's rather long Of the famous "On to Richmond" double trouble, Of the half-a-dozen trips and half-a-dozen slips And the very latest bursting of the bubble. 'Tis pretty hard to sing and like a round, round ring 'Tis a dreadful knotty puzzle to unravel; Though all the papers swore, when we touched Virginia's shore That Richmond was a hard road to travel. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, Richmond is a hard road to travel Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe. First,
McDowell, bold and gay, set forth the shortest way, By
Manassas in the pleasant summer weather, But unfortunately ran on a
Stonewall, foolish man, And had a "rocky journey" altogether; And he found it rather hard to ride o'er
Beauregard, And
Johnstonproved a deuce of a bother, And 'twas clear beyond a doubt that he didn't like the route, And a second time would have to try another. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For Manassas is a hard road to travel; Manassas gave us fits, and Bull Run made us grieve, For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe! Next came the
Wooly-Horse, with an overwhelming force, To march down to Richmond by the
Valley, But he couldn't find the road, and his "onward movement" showed His campaigning was a mere shilly-shally. Then
Commissary Banks, with his motley
foreign ranks, Kicking up a great noise, fuss, and flurry, Lost the whole of his supplies, and with tears in his eyes, From the Stonewall ran away in a hurry Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For the Valley is a hard road to travel; The Valley wouldn't do and we all had to leave, For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe! Then the great
Galena came, with her portholes all aflame, And the
Monitor, that famous naval wonder, But the guns at
Drewry's Bluff gave them speedily enough, The loudest sort of reg'lar Rebel thunder. The Galena was astonished and the Monitor admonished, Our patent shot and shell were mocked at, While the dreadful
Naugatuck, by the hardest kind of luck, Was knocked into an ugly
cocked hat. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For
James River is a hard road to travel; The gun-boats gave it up in terror and despair, For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I declare! Then
McClellanfollowed soon, both with spade and
balloon, To try the
Peninsular approaches, But one and all agreed that his best rate of speed Was no faster than the slowest of "slow coaches." Instead of easy ground, at
Williamsburg, he found, A
Longstreet indeed, and nothing shorter, And it put him in the dumps, that
spades wasn't trumps, And the
Hills he couldn't level as ordered. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve For Longstreet is a hard road to travel - Lay down the shovel, and throw away the spade For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I'm afraid! Then said
Lincoln unto
Pope, "You can make the trip, I hope, I will save the
Universal Yankee nation, To make sure of no defeat, I'll leave no lines of retreat, And issue a famous proclamation." But that same dreaded
Jackson, this fellow laid his whacks, And made him, by compulsion, a
seceder And Pope took rapid flight from
Manassas' second fight, 'Twas his very last appearance as a leader. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For
Stonewall is a hard road to travel; Pope did his very best, but was evidently sold, For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I am told! Last of all the brave
Burnside, with his
pontoon bridges, tried
A road no one had thought of before him, With two hundred thousand men for the Rebel slaughter pen, And the blessed Union flag waving o'er him; But he met a fire like hell, of canister and shell, That mowed his men down
with great slaughter, 'Twas a shocking sight to view, that second
Waterloo, And
the river ran with more blood than water. Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve,
Rappahannock is a hard road to travel Burnside got in a trap, which caused him for to grieve For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe! We are very much perplexed to know who is the next To command the new Richmond expedition, For the
Capital must blaze, and that in ninety days, And
Jeff and his men be sent to perdition. We'll take the
cursed town, and then we'll burn it down, And plunder and hang up each cursed Rebel; Yet the
contraband was right when he told us they would fight "Oh, yes, massa, they fight like the devil!" Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For Richmond is a hard road to travel; Then pull off your coat and roll up your sleeve, For Richmond is a hard road to travel, I believe!
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