Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Ralph Woodson
One of the new songs Hunter wrote for the Trichromes (with Bill Kreutzmann).
It is based on letters written home by a private in the Civil War, Newton Scott -
see Letters Home from an Iowa Soldier in the American Civil War.
Blinded with rain in the country
Blinded with rain in the town
Blinded with rain in the battlefield
Black hail pouring down
Oh the rainstorm chills me
Chills me right to the bone
Fills my heart with [rainfall]
Out there in the dark alone
Haunted with voices from yesterday
Haunted with voices that sing
Haunted with voices that slip away
Leave only the hope that they bring
Oh the voices show me
Things nobody can see
Oh the voices tell me
What hard work it is to be free
Chorus
Oh my darling Hattie
Iowa's far away
Don't forsake me for another
Hold on for one more day
Selling my heart down the river
Selling my heart on the sand
Selling my heart to Arkansas
At the Company A command
Oh the heart tells slowly
To the edge of the living line
Voices singing holy
Cut free of the prison of time
[chorus]
[chorus]
Eighteen hundred and sixty four
Cloud in the eye of the storm
Sitting here wondering what for
In a tattered blue uniform
Oh the heart grows weary
Of battles that never end
Hope this war is settled
Before there's nothing to defend
If they re-elect Abe Lincoln
Sooner the war will end
Every man in Company A
Is voting for him again
General Holmes and Marmaduke
Attacked July the fourth
Buried four hundred of their dead
Only forty four from the north
[chorus]
Oh my darling Hattie
I'd give the world to be
Next to you and those I love
Back in Monroe County
Oh my darling Hattie
Iowa's so far away
Don't forsake me for another
I will return some day
When the war is over
No matter which side prevails
When the war is over
No matter which side fails
| Recordings | |||||
| Date | Album | Recorded By | |||
| 2002 | Trichromes | Trichromes | |||