The Vacant Chair

We shall meet, but we shall miss him
 There will be one vacant chair
 We shall linger to caress him
 While we breathe our evening prayer
 When a year ago we gathered
 Joy was in his mild blue eye
 But a golden chord is severed
 And our hopes in ruin lie
 We shall meet, but we shall miss him
 There will be one vacant chair
 We shall linger to caress him
 When we breathe our evening prayer
 At our fireside, sad and lonely
 Often will the bosom swell
 At remembrance of the story
 How our noble Willie fell
 How he strove to bear our banner
 Through the thickest of the fight
 And uphold our country's honor
 In the strength of manhood's night
 We shall meet, but we shall miss him
 There will be one vacant chair
 We shall linger to caress him
 When we breathe our evening prayer
 True, they tell us wreaths of glory
 Ever more will deck his brow
 But this soothes the anguish only
 Sweeping o'er our heartstrings now
 Sleep today, oh,early fallen
 In thy green and narrow bed
 Dirges from the pine and cypress
 Mingle with the tears we shed
 We shall meet, but we shall miss him
 There will be one vacant chair
 We shall linger to caress him
 When we breathe our evening prayer