All Quiet Along The Potomac Tonight | The Confederacy by Richard Bales

2. All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight-- Soprano Solo with Small Orchestra.
This song was popular on both sides of the conflict. Though the large armies might be quiet between battles, the lonely and dangerous duties of picket and sentry never ceased. Mrs. Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers wrote the poem, while John Hill Hewitt wrote the Confederate musical setting, altered considerably in this orchestral accompaniment, while retaining the original vocal line. Two of the five stanzas are employed in the present cantata.

1.
"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 the death rattle.
All quiet along the Potomac tonight.
2.
"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.
A tremulous sigh as the gentle night wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping,
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard over the army while sleeping.
All quiet along the Potomac tonight.