He Laid Away The Gray

He Laid Away the Gray
23010

Outaldea Southern cottage, an old woman, bent and gray,
A last farewell was bidding to her boy;
Her husband wore a suit of gray ‘way back in ’01
Now for the blue she’s giving up her joy; The uniform his father wore for what he thought was right
The boy had often, donned Li, childish play
But when the Union called to arms to fight a for- eign foe
The uniform of gray he laid away

Chorus
He laid away a suit of gray to wear the Union blue,
He said: “We’ll show that Dixie’s sons will to the flag prove true
His father’s sword he girded on, resolved to dare and do
So he laid away a suit of gray to wear the Union blue

A summer’s day was dawning when the bugle called to arms,
The camp awoke from dreams of far away;
A Southern soldier fighting for his country’s stars and stripes,
Fell dying in the thickest of the fray
Afar from dear old Dixle, and the mother that he loved,
They laid hini in a rude grave all alone,
And o’er his head in memory a comrade from the North
These words cut roughly on a slab of stone:
“He laid away a suit of gray to wear the Union blue”