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The Aroostook War Fighting Song

from Modern Sounds in Old​-​Time Music by Greenwood & Burns

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'The Aroostook War Fighting Song' has a better ring than 'The Pork 'n Beans War Fighting Song.' Good music-as-history-lesson material.

Song originally written in Bangor Feb 21, 1839 in the run up to a bloodless war with the British in Northern Maine.

lyrics

Lyrics:
The Aroostook War Fighting Song


We are marching on to Madawask,
To fight the trespassers;
We’ll teach the British how to walk
And come off conquerors.

We’ll have our land, right good and clear,
For all the English say;
They shall not cut another log,
Nor stay another day.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Fort Kent needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

They need not think to have our land,
We Yankees can fight well
We’ve whipped them twice most manfully,
As every child a’can tell.

And if the tyrants say one word,
A third time we will show
How high the Yankee spirit runs,
And what our guns can do.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Presque Aisle needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

They better much all stay at home,
And mind their business there;
The way we treated them before,
Made all the nations stare.

Come on! Brace fellows one and all
The red coats ne’er shall say,
We Yankees, feared to meet them armed,
So gave our land away.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Frenchville needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

We’ll feed them well with ball and shot,
We’ll cut those red coats down,
Before we yield to them a single inch
Or the titles to our ground.

Onward! My lads so brave and true
With o ur country’s right demands
With justice and with glory fight
For these Aroostook lands!

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Caribou needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Easton needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Alagash needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North to the sound of the beating drum.

Ye husbands, fathers, brothers and sons
Van Buren needs you to pick up your guns
March to the bugle and the fife
March up North and we’ll win this fight

credits

from Modern Sounds in Old​-​Time Music, released January 12, 2015
Traditional song arranged by Jeff Burns, performed by Greenwood & Burns

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Greenwood & Burns make old music for modern times... or maybe modern music for old times.

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