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Well I came here from eastern Virginia
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with a shadow of doubt on my trail,
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through the wind in the piney black forest
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where the rain shrouded me like a veil.
Bm Em
And they asked me to fight for my country,
Bm D
a country divided in two.
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But we'd already lost and all that it cost was bleeding in red white and blue.
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There I came to a farm on the border,
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and I asked the kind man for a drink.
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And it looked like at first to might shoot me,
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for he paused just a moment to think.
Bm Em
And he asked me of my allegiance,
Bm D
I told him I'd always been true
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to the stars and stripes for all of my life I'd die for the red white and blue.
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Well he scoffed and said all wars are evil,
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for they robbed a sad world of their youth.
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And the men who did wage them deceive us,
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for they never will tell you the truth.
Bm Em
They have brother fight against brother,
Bm D
like Cain poor Abel he slew.
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Like the night into day, the blue and the gray would fade into red white and blue.
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Now this man had a fairly young daughter,
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her eyes were a robin's egg blue.
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And her hair felt like ringlets of water,
G D G
washed my troubles away through and through.
Bm Em
And she lay down beside me and whispered,
Bm D
that her love every night she'd renew,
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if I stay by her side and never did ride to fight with the red white and blue.
G C G
But my love for my country grew stronger
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and I joined with the boys in the East.
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And we rode with a valor and swagger,
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while we stole through the South like a beast.
Bm Em
And we tore out the heart of its people,
Bm D
and we burned every town we went through.
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All the spoils were ours, beneath the stars, and stripes of the red white and blue.
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Then a bullet most grievous did find me,
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and my leg I could no longer feel.
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So they sawed through my bones for to save me,
G D G
and they cotted my skin for to heal.
Bm Em
As I lay there in my confusion,
Bm D
they gave me a cane and a shoe.
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Now one foot in the grave, a small price to pay, to serve in the red white and blue.
G C G
Then I made my way back to my true love,
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there was nothing left of her home.
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Just a pile of rubble and ashes,
G D G
her poor daddy was just skin and bones.
Bm Em
When I asked him where I might find her,
Bm D
he showed me where wildflowers grew.
G C G D G
Here he laid her to rest, the place she loved best, wildflowers of red white and blue.