We'll Fight Those Southern Soldiers

from Alone on the Wide Wide Sea by Craig Edwards

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about

We’ll Fight Those Southern Soldiers (1860s)
Harlow learned this capstan chantey from a sailor friend who’d worked aboard the extreme clipper ship “Young America” during the American Civil War (or, as I call it, the War of Southern Aggression). Harlow’s source said it was the most often-sung capstan chantey aboard that vessel in the 1860s. The crews of those large vessels often led the topsail halyards to the capstan, since the combined weight of the yard and topsail might be two to three thousand pounds. The source only remembered a couple of verses, but they fit a common frame recounting women disguising themselves as men to join naval vessels. I’ve filled out the tale with the second and third verses, taken from verses found in other songs.

lyrics

Oh, then Susie, lovely Susie, I can no longer stay
For the bugle sounds the warning that calls me far away
It calls me to New Orleans the enemy for to rile
And to fight the southern soldiers way down on Dixie’s Isle

The owners they gave orders that no women were to come
And the Captain likewise ordered that they all should stay at home
For their waists are much too slender and their figures not the style
For to fight then southern soldiers way down on Dixie’s Isle

Then Susie cut her curling locks and man’s clothes she put on
And signed aboard our vessel and we sailed off with the dawn
Saying, “My waist it may be slender but you’ll find I have the style
To fight the southern soldiers way down on Dixie’s Isle.”

We heard those bullets flying, we heard them rebels yell
My feelings at that moment no human tongue can tell
Then Susie raised our banner and she led us all in style
And we whipped those southern soldiers way down on Dixie’s Isle

Oh, my curse attend those cruel wars and when they first began
They robbed New York and Boston of many a noble young man
They robbed us of our sweethearts, our wives and brothers while
We went to fight the southern soldiers way down in Dixie’s Isle

credits

from Alone on the Wide Wide Sea, released August 9, 2022

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Craig Edwards New London, Connecticut

I play American roots music, from Appalachian fiddle and banjo tunes to Zydeco accordion. For nearly four decades i worked as a staff musician at Mystic Seaport Museum, demonstrating the use of chanteys, or sailor work songs, aboard the museum's collection of historic ships. I've plumbed the depths of sailor music, from the African American origins of chanteys to world maritime traditions. ... more

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