The Valiant Soldiers

by Sojourner Truth

For other versions of this work, see Marching Song of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment.

      WE are the valiant soldiers who've 'listed for the war;
      We are fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law;
      We can shoot a rebel farther than a white man ever saw,
      As we go marching on.


      Chorus.--
      Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
      Glory, glory, hallelujah, as we go marching on.


      Look there above the center, where the flag is waving bright;
      We are going out of slavery, we are bound for freedom's light;
      We mean to show Jeff Davis how the Africans can fight,
      As we go marching on.--Chorus.


      We are done with hoeing cotton, we are done with hoeing corn;
      We are colored Yankee soldiers as sure as you are born.
      When massa hears us shouting, he will think 'tis Gabriel's horn,
      As we go marching on.--Chorus.


      They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin;
      They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin;
      They will have to give us house-room, or the roof will tumble in,
      As we go marching on.--Chorus.


      We hear the proclamation, massa, hush it as you will;
      The birds will sing it to us, hopping on the cotton hill;
      The possum up the gum tree couldn't keep it still,
      As he went climbing on.--Chorus.


      Father Abraham has spoken, and the message has been sent;
      The prison doors have opened, and out the prisoners went
      To join the sable army of African descent,
      As we go marching on.--Chorus.