We joined the Union army

4 years gone from county Cork

A corps of hardened Irish

from the ghettos of New York

We followed brave McDowell

to a Manassas riverbed

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

I brought my brother Seamus

and it took him to his death

I held him close against me

as he took his final breath

He called to his dear Maggie

who he never now will wed

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

CHORUS

With memories of old Ireland

surging through my blood

I'm bogged down in Virginia,

in the bodies and the mud

My brother lies beside me

with a bullet in his head

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

CHORUS

They question our allegiance

are they blue or are they green

We only hope to prove to be

the best they've ever seen

How can they choose to doubt us

with so many hundred dead

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

The rebel reinforcements

spelled our doom

when day was done

They cut our ranks to pieces

we were routed, overrun

I listen to the dying

and I fear what lies ahead

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

CHORUS

The horrors of the homeland

are imbedded in my mind

We dreamed of our new freedom

and the hope we'd sure to find

Surrounded by this carnage

now I question why I fled

And the water at Bull Run

runs blood red

CHORUS

© 2003 All Rights Reserved
Dulahan Music
Written by Kyle Aughe