"The Battle Song of the Great Kanawha"

Battle of Kanawha main page | song

Ye daughters and sons of Virginia, incline
Your ears to a story of woe.
I sing of a time when your fathers and mine
Fought for us on the Ohio.

In seventeen hundred and seventy-four,
The month of October we know,
An army of Indians two thousand or more
Encamped on the Ohio.

The Shawnees, Wyandottes, and Delawares, too,
As well as the tribes of Mingo,
Invaded our lands and our citizens slew
On the south of the Ohio.

They marched through the untrodden wilds of the west
O'er mountains and rivers also,
And pitched at Point Pleasant their bodies to rest
On the banks of the Ohio.

The army of Indians in battle array
Under Cornstalk and Elnipsicow
Was met by the forces of Lewis that day
On the banks of the Ohio.

They brought on the battle at breaking of day.
Like heroes they slaughtered the foe,
'Til two hundred Indians or more, they say,
Were slain on the Ohio.

The army of Indians did mourn, and her daughter did weep
For Saul and his host on Gilbow.
We'll mourn Colonel Fields and the heroes who sleep
On the banks of the Ohio.