GREENBACK

Frederick Douglass
After a year of the most incompetent prosecution of any war effort in military history,
we have moved no closer to victory.
You, Mr. Lincoln, are fighting to restore a union, a union that we do not want.
It is diseased with prejudice and slavery.
And until you acknowledge this, the only ones who will be winning anything are the profiteers and theives!

Autolycus Fell
What's that smell I smell, Mabel?
Can you tell me what?

Mabel
Horse shit and blood flies

Autolycus Fell
You are right, my pussywillow
And where there's horse shit and blood flies
There's marching military
And where there's marching military, there's also the smell of greenback

Mabel
Green-what?

Autolycus Fell
M-O-N-E-double-Y, money! Gelt. Gold. Foldin' buyin' power.
Greenback.
Greenback...get you anything you need
Greenback...get you snow in July
Greenback...get you chicken fricasseed
Greenback...get you all you can buy
One man's "trouble" is another man's "meat"
When you got the goods it's the cat bird seat
One man's "holy" is another man's "sin"
Lose or win
Greenback gonna save your skin

Greenback, in a stack
Blackjack, sneak attack
Get it any way that you can
Lie, cheat, sugar sweet
Elite, Easy-street
Suckers are like gold in the pan
Johnny Reb, Billy Yank
Black, White, break the bank
Everybody's part of the plan
If it's blue or gray or it's in between
Pick 'em clean
Till the only color's green

Help! Help, help!

Mabel and Violet:
Help. Help, help.

Autolycus Fell
Allow me to introduce myself:
Mr. Autolycus Fell at your "here at last" service, gentlemen.
Boys, you look to be a good, honest intelligent set of men,
full of ...., who would gladly share their last their last biscuit or nickle with any fair lady of real...

Why, you best take advantage of my offer before your whole crowd gets here.
How many of you boys is there hereabouts, anyway?

Union Soldier
Two divisions

Autolycus Fell
Two divisions ain't too many for Mabel and Violet.
Now these ladies here is fresh from Madam Russell's bake oven in the great Tennessee city of Memphis.
Nashville.
They is free of all manner of veneral infection,
and have had but few opportunities for lewd associations.
So whichever of you is eager now for some horizontal refreshment,
can be assured of a good time generally I can tell you.
Boys...quality women like these don't go bad till later in life.

Greenback...makes the New York bankers go
Greenback...turns the cotton to wheat
Greenback...makes the Mississippi flow
Greenback...puts the shoes on your feet
One man's Yankee is a hooker girl's john
That she'll doodle-do 'til the money's gone
One man's rebel is a trader in gray
Either way, I'm the piper he's got to pay

Well, slam-bam thank you ma'am
Flimflam telegram
Get it any way that you can
Buy cheap, sell it steep
Clean sweep, pocket-deep
Suckers are like gold in the pan
Deathbed overhead
Hot lead in the red
Everybody's part of the plan
You can skin a cat if it's blue or gray
Hip-hooray
Greenback comin' either way

Captain Billy Pierce
How many?

Autolycus Fell
Two divisions. You're on their flank, and they don't know it.
Much obliged.

Blue or gray
Greenback comin' either way
Greenback comin' either way

Confederate Soldier
Do you think he's telling the truth?

Captain Billy Pierce
Go find out.

MISSING YOU

Corporal William McEwan
My dear husband,
Where are you, and what are you doing, and are you safe?

Corporal William McEwan and Sarah
I try not to feel fearful, but at times my heart is so rebellious
All the time I allow myself to cling to the hope of your being alive

Sarah McEwan
I miss your hands on me
I miss your voice
I miss you, Bill

I learned to chop a tree today
I laughed so hard I cried
And Billy helped and scraped his knee
But he took it all in stride
Day by day I get by
Makin' do the best I can
When the sun slowly sets
Just behind our hill
Then the memories come
In the evening chill
How I long for your touch
Like a lover will
Oh, I'm missin' you
God, I'm missin' you
My Bill

The parlour roof still leaks a bit
Where the gable meets the eave
You always meant to get to it
But I know you had to leave
Thank God there's so much to do
It's the work that gets me through
When the sun slowly sets
Just behind our hill
Then the memories come
In the evening chill
How I long for your touch
Like a lover will
Oh, I'm missin' you
God I'm missin' you
My Bill

So I count the days
And I think up ways
To speed them by
But when day is through
I remember you and cry
When the sun slowly sets
Just behind our hill
Then the memories come
In the evening chill
How I long for your touch
Like a lover will
Oh, I'm missin' you
God I'm missin' you
My Bill

JUDGMENT DAY

Confederate Soldier
It's two divisions, all right. Maybe more, Captain, amongst the trees.
What do we do, sir? Do we bring the artillery out? Hit 'em at dawn?

Captain Billy Pierce
Do it.

I sit among my charts and maps
And hear the lonely call of taps
Like the wind across the moon

Captain Emmett Lochran
I pray to God that I am right
And then I send boys off to fight
Travel home in boxes far too soon

Both
God have mercy on my soul
For all the years that I have stolen
From the men who follow what I say
And may their families all forgive
The orders I so calmly give them
As I march their sons into harm's way

Captain Emmett Lochran
I write to mothers of their sons
And say they were the bravest ones
Then I pour a drink and sleep

Private Sam Taylor
But sleep is only filled with drums
A slice of death till morning comes
The heart of darkness where my soul can weep

Both
Come walk a mile in bloody shoes
And lose the men that I am losing
Watch them pay the piper for my tune
Come walk among their ghosts with me
And look through eyes too used to seeing
Faces who have joined the lost platoon

Come Judgment Day, God only knows
If man will reap the pain he sows
And what will be the price he has to pay
But down here on the killing floor
Among the crimson rags of war
For me each day I live is Judgment Day
Every day for me is Judgment Day

All soldiers
God have mercy on my soul
For all the years that I have stolen
From my brothers, be they blue or gray
And may their families all forgive
The bayonet I rush to give them
As we march ourselves into harm's way

Down here on the killing floor
I hear the bloody sounds of war
And watch a thousand more souls slip away
Captain Billy Pierce
Watch them slip away
All soldiers
And sometimes it's too much to bear
The dead and dying everywhere
Every day for me is Judgment Day

Captain Emmett Lochran
Sometimes it's too much to bear
The dead and dying everywhere
Every day for me is Judgment Day
Both Captains
Every day for me is Judgment Day

FATHER HOW LONG?

Frederick Douglass
After eighteen months of a conflict in which we outnumber the enemy four to one,
The President finally brings up news of a Union victory near Sharkberg, Maryland
A victory in which 22,000 men were killed and maimed
A Union "victory", Mr. Lincoln?
How many such victories can we afford?
How much longer can this go on?

Clayton Toler
Tell me, my father, tell me how long
Will boys keep dyin' for freedom's song
Before we find a place to belong
Tell me, my father, how long?
Won't bow to no man, I got my pride
This dream I'm dreamin' can't be denied
How long till I can sing freedom's song?
Tell me, my father, how long?

I cry my tears
The same as any man you see
So God, please tell me why
This man ain't free
No more this darkness, bring me the light
Show me your mornin' cast off this night
How long till I can sing freedom's song?
Tell me my father,
Tell me my father
Tell me my father, how long?

SOMEDAY

Bessie Toler
That man over there says that women need to be helped into
carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place wherever.
Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over mud puddles,
or gives me any best place.
And ain't I a woman?
Look at me! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into
barns and no man could best me ever. But ain't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man-
when I could get it-and bear the lash as well.
And ain't I a woman?
I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off into
slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, ain't
nobody but Jesus heard me. And ain't I a woman?

Harriet Jackson
Listen to me sister, when you feel all hope is gone
And darkness is the only thing you see
Night time ain't forever
There will be another dawn
Tomorrow all of us will be free

Bessie Toler
I'm worn out prayin'
It's like shouting down a well

Harriet Jackson
Hush now, girl, and hear the Good Lord call

Bessie Toler
I try to hear him whisper
Over all this crazy hell

Harriet Jackson
He's promising a heaven for us all
Someday
Someday

The Enslaved
Someday
Mighty pharaoh couldn't hear
What ol' Moses heard
Through the desert loud and clear
Freedom was the word
Stronger than the oak tree
When the hard winds blow
Tellin' Pharaoh let my people go

So listen to the nightingale
Listen to his song
Hear the mighty river's tale
As she rolls along
Every time the sun comes up
Shoutin' down the day
You can almost hear the good Lord say:
Someday
We will all be free
Someday
From sea to shinin' sea
When freedom shines, shines on me
Father, Son and Holy Ghost
All of them are free Gonna break these chains and walk the walk
Gonna free the sparrow from the hawk
Gonna celebrate our independence day
Someday

Through the deepest wilderness
Through the darkest night
You gotta keep on movin' towards the light
We'll all sit down at table
And bow our heads and pray
And all of us will find
You gotta dream the dream
That God is colorblind
You gotta keep the faith
And finally mankind
Is gonna be what it should be
Someday
We will all be free
Someday
No more misery
We will all be justified
At that jubilee

Gonna raise our voices long and loud
Gonna hold our heads up strong and proud
Gonna break these chains and walk the walk
Gonna free the sparrow from the hawk
Gonna celebrate our independence day
Someday
Someday
Someday
Someday

I'LL NEVER PASS THIS WAY AGAIN

Corporal Henry Stewart
I was born beside this river
'Bout a half a mile from here
But I never seemed to notice
That the water ran this clear
And I've never seen that color green
Sparkle down the glen
Now I'll never pass this way again

I have wandered through that orchard
And played among her trees
But I never heard the secrets
That she whispers on the breeze
For the only sound on hallowed ground
Is the silence of the men
Who will never pass this way again

It never shone as beautiful
As how it looks today
We never miss the things we love
Till they go away
But I have heard the bugler's call
And it's time for me to leave
Cause there comes a day when a man must say
I will die for what I believe
I have often thrown my pennies
In that old wishing well
And if I had a penny
I would wish me a spell
I would kneel and pray that here I'd stay
Forever and amen
But I'll never pass this way
No I'll never pass this way
No I'll never pass this way again

HOW MANY DEVILS?

Soldiers
One, two
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
And watch the miles roll by
Three, four
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Until you lay down and you die
One, two
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Until your legs start to scream
Three, four
Lay your blanket on the bloody ground
And pray to God you won't dream
One, two
Those damn Yankees ain't as give up easy
As we thought they would be
Three, four
Those damn Yankees ain't as near as scared
Or half as hungry as me
One, two
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Is all a body can do
Three, four
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Until this bloody war is through

How many miles, how many fears
How many days, how many years
How many rivers of blood, sweat and tears?
How many times into the fray?
How many men won't walk away?
How many hells filled with
How many devils to pay?

One, two
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
And watch the miles roll on
Three, four
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Until your strength is nearly gone
One, two
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
And dream of home safe and sound
Three, four
Pick 'em up and put 'em down again
Until you're six feet underground
How many miles dead on our feet
Drenched to the bone, baked in the heat
Paying for ground with another retreat
How many times into the fray
How many men won't walk away
How many hells filled with
How many devils to pay?

Cut a man's throat, but don't look in his eyes
Cut till his body is still
Move to the next while the first bastard dies
Measuring life by the men that you kill
How many days, how many more?
How many men lost to this war?
I can't remember what we're fighting for
How many times into the fray?
How many men won't walk away?
How many hells filled with
How many devils to pay?