Bobby Horton - All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight lyrics

All quiet along the Potomac, they say Except now and then 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 the d**h 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 camp fires are gleaming; There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread As he tramps for 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 pray'r for the children asleep And their Mother - "may heaven defend her!" The moon seems to shine as brightly as then - That night when a love yet unspoken Leap'd up to his lips and when low murmur'd vows Were pledg'd to be ever unbroken "All quiet along the Potomac tonight!" Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eye He dashes off tears that are welling And gathers his gun closer up to its place As if to keep down the heart-swelling He pa**es the fountain, the blasted pine tree The footstep is lagging and weary; Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light Toward the shades of the forest so dreary "All quiet along the Potomac tonight!" Hark! Was it the night wind that rustled the leaves Was it moonlight so wondrously flashing? It looks like a rifle -- "Ah! Mary, good-bye!" And the lifeblood is ebbing and splashing 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!"