All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight

All quiet along the Potomac tonight Except here and there a stray picket is shot as he walks on his beat to and fro By a rifleman hid in the thicket 'Tis nothing! A private or two now and then will not count in the news of the battle Not an officer lost, only one of the men Moaning out all alone a death rattle All quiet along the Potomac tonight All quiet along the Potomac tonight Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming And their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon And the light of the campfires are gleaming There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread As he tramps from the rock to the fountain And thinks of the two on the low trundle bed Far away, in the cot' on the mountain All quiet along the Potomac tonight His musket falls slack, his face dark and grim Grows gentle with memories tender As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep And their mother, may heaven defend her The moon seems to shine as brightly as then That night, when the love yet unspoken Leapt up to his lips, and when low murmured vows Were pledged to be ever unbroken All quiet along the Potomac tonight Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes He dashes off the tears that are welling And gathers his gun close up to his breast As if to keep down the heart's swelling He passes the fountain, the blasted pine tree And his footstep is lagging and weary Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light Toward the shade of the forest so dreary All quiet along the Potomac tonight Hark! Was it the night wind that rustled the leaves? Was it the moonlight so wondrously flashing? It looked like a rifle, "Ha, Mary, goodbye!" And his lifeblood is ebbing and plashing All quiet along the Potomac tonight No sound save the rush of the river While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead The picket's off duty forever! All quiet along the Potomac tonight