LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864)

I'm nothing but a plain old soldier
Language: English 
I'm nothing but a plain old soldier,
An old revolutionary soldier,
But I've handled a gun
Where noble deeds were done,
For the name of my commander was George Washington.
My home and my country to me were dear,
And I fought for both when the foe came near,
But now I will meet with a slight or sneer,
For I'm nothing but a plain old soldier.
CHORUS
 Nothing but a plain old soldier,
 An old revolutionary soldier,
 But I've handled a gun
 Where noble deeds were done,
 For the name of my commander was George Washington.

The friends I loved the best have departed,
The days of my early joys have gone,
And the voices once dear
And familiar to my ear,
Have faded from the scenes of the earth one by one.
The tomb and the battle have laid them low,
And they roam no more where the bright streams flow,
I'm longing to join them and soon must go,
For I'm nothing but a plain old soldier.
(CHORUS)

Again the battle song is resounding,
And who'll bring the trouble to an end?
The Union will pout,
And Secession ever shout,
But none can tell us now which will yield or bend.
You've had many Generals from over the land,
You've tried one by one and you're still at a stand,
But when I took the field we had one in command,
Yet I'm nothing but a plain old soldier.
(CHORUS)

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), title 1: "I'm nothing but a plain old soldier", title 2: "Nothing but a plain old soldier" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), "I'm nothing but a plain old soldier", alternate title: "Nothing but a plain old soldier", published 1863 [voice and piano], New York, John J. Daly [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: T. P. (Peter) Perrin

This text was added to the website: 2011-11-10
Line count: 35
Word count: 247

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris