Kennesaw Line

Don Oja Dunaway


Well now I am just a simple man.
I go no command of the written word.
I can only try to tell y'all
About the things that I've seen and heard.
Won't you listen to this picture
Forever etched upon my mind.
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line.
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line.

Well the sun rose high above us that morning
On a clear and cloudless day
A peckerwood, he tapped on a tree
That would soon be shot away
The heat blistered down through the leaves on the trees
The air seemed hot enough to catch fire
Heaven seemed to be made of brass
The sun rose higher and higher

And then everything got real still and quiet.
My old mess mate, Walter Hood
Said, "Them boys down there they're up to something
I know it ain't no damn good"
Well it was then the storm broke, swept down on us
Rumbling through the hills
Walter sighed and he dropped his rifle
I heard him say something 'bout whippoorwills

He said, "Sammy, can't you hear 'em singing
Singing for you and me
Yes, and all the Maury Grays, Lord
Carry me back to Tennessee
God bless the First and the Twenty-seventh
The Grand Rock City Guard
Sammy, nobody every told me
That dying would be so hard"

Sammy, I think I'm hurt real bad.
Ain't this a hell of a day.
You'd best go and leave me now.
I think I need time to pray.
You know how bad I been wantin' to go home,
But I couldn't see rightly how.
Colonel Field ain't gonna have a choice this time.
Guess I'm gonna get my furlough now.

He said, "Sammy, can't you hear 'em singing
Singing for you and me
Yes, and all the Maury Grays, Lord
Carry me back to Tennessee
God bless the cowards and the brave alike
Who died where the seeds of death are sewn
And I pity those poor Yankee bastards
Who died so far from home.

Repeat First Verse, repeating last line 3 times


Note: "Marietta" is pronounced "Mayretta" by many people who live
there or nearby.