Elijah Owen Johnson rode with Jackson in the war He served his time in Caroline up the east Virginia shore He’d seen enough of that rebel blood to drive any man insane Somebody mentioned Yankee, he’d just spit and cuss the name
They called him old Elijah from the day that he was born And he worked the wheel at the grinding mill sacking Carolina corn And his woman died with a stillborn child and left him there to raise His only livin’ daughter with a sweet angelic face
And he swore he would love her, and he swore that he would kill Any man who threatened danger to his angel, Sara Jill
One night as he lay sleepin’ he heard footsteps in the rain And he saw a shadow movin’ in the dim light of a flame And he swore it was the uniform of a union man he dread So he fired out in his anger from his window as he said Your union killed my brothers when they took their rebel stand Now I’m gonna spill your Yankee blood here on my southern land And When the gun laid silent and when all the words were said He ran to hide his daughter, but he found an empty bed
And he swore that he would love her, and he swore that he would kill Any man that threatened danger to his angel, Sara Jill
He ran up toward the mill side where he’d seen the shadow go And he found the lamp still burning in there in the ember glow Lay a bloody woolen overcoat and a petticoat of lace and a lifeless little body with a sweet angelic face
The preacher and the family sadly bowed their heads to pray And with solomn words they sought the Lord Beside a double grave Cause they found Elijah lying by her body in the dawn His finger on the trigger of the pistol he had drawn
Cause he swore that he would love her, and he swore that he would kill Any man that threatened danger to his angel, Sara Jill