An unknown soldier of the 63rd Regiment, New York Infantry wrote the following lyrics:

 

SONG OF THE IRISH BRIGADE

We've never swerved from our old green flag,

Upborne o'er many a bloody plain;

'Tis now a torn and tattered rag,

But we will bear it proudly oft again.

We will raise on high, this dear old flag,

From Liffy's bank to Shannon's stream,

'Till victory o'er the pirate rag

Upon our sacred cause shall beam.

CHORUS

Hurrah! Hurrah! For our dear old flag.

Hurrah for our gallant leader, too;

Though 'tis a torn and tattered rag,

We would not change it for the new.

We've borne it with the Stripes and Stars,

From Fair Oaks to Frederick's bloody plain;

And see, my boys, our wounds and scars,

Can tell how well we did the same.

Be sure, our chieftain, of his race,

Was ever foremost 'mid the brave,

Where death met heroes face to face,

And gathered harvests for the grave.

CHORUS

We miss fully many a comrade's smile,

The grasp of many a friendly hand,

We mourn their loss, and grieve the while

They had nor died for fatherland.

Bur o'er their fresh and gory graves-

We swear it now and evermore-

To free green Erin, land of slaves,

And banish tyrants from her shore

CHORUS

Now we've pledged to free this land,

So long the exile's resting-place;

To crush for aye a traitorous band,

And wipe out treason's deep disgrace,

Then let us pledge Columbia's cause,

God prosper poor old Ireland, too!

We'll trample all the tyrant laws;

Hurrah for the old land and the new!

CHORUS

 

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