Ok, now that everyone has just about learned the Kentucky Battle Song, we have to start all over. Here is a song I found in the Memphis Daily Appeal, September 19, 1862. The paper was been published in Mississippi, since the Federals had occupied Memphis.

Respectfully Dedicated to the Officers and Men of the 1st Kentucky Regiment, Colonel Tom Taylor, commanding, and to Kentucky Exiles generally.

Air: Bonny Blue Flag.

We were driven forth in exile
From our native happy land,
For we would not bend our spirits
To a tyrant’s stern command
We came to old Virginia
From the Ohio’s sunny shore,
To shed our blood for freedom,
As our fathers did before.

CHORUS:
For we march, we march,
To the music of the drum,
We were driven forth in exile
From our old Kentucky home.

They have branded us as felons
By their stern despotic laws,
And they doom us to the prison
When we fight for freedom’s cause.
But our hearts will never fail us,
We’ll proudly meet our doom,
And suffer deep and sorely
For our old Kentucky home.

CHORUS:

When first the Southern flag unfurled
Its folds upon the air,
Its stars had hardly glittered
When Kentucky’s sons were there.
And they swore a solemn oath,
As they sternly gathered round,
They could only live as freemen
On the dark and bloody ground.

CHORUS:

Then cheer boys, cheer,
We’ll fight the Northern scum
Who drove us forth in exile
From our old Kentucky home.

And now we are preparing
Our native soil to tread.
And we will be victorious,
Or slumber with the dead.
So mothers, sisters, sweethearts,
We bid you all adieu,
And hope that in Kentucky
We’ll soon be joined by you.

CHORUS:
For we’ll march straight ahead
Against the Yankee scum
And soon we’ll free our native State,
And welcome you at home.