River Runs Red - The SteelDrivers

The thirty-first day of December

Three thousand dressed in blue and gray

All sons of the heavenly father

Lay in a watery grave

And the river runs red

The river runs red

One shot woke the Tennessee morning

Soon fire and smoke filled the sky

Then rain came down with no warning

As sorrow fell down from all sides

The river runs red

The river runs red

No winners or losers

When you count the dead

We watch it roll by

We all bow our heads

The guns have gone silent

But the river runs red

Now Rogers was from Alabama

And Thomas an old New York town

But soon they would die like blood brothers

In the stream where their souls would flow down

The river runs red

The river runs red

No winners or losers

When you count the dead

We watch it roll by

We all bow our heads

The guns have gone silent

But the river runs red

Some say you could see red for miles

And it flowed that way so many years

Now the water looks clean and untainted

But Stones River will never run clear

The river runs red

The river runs red

No winners or losers

When you count the dead

We watch it roll by

We all bow our heads

The guns have gone silent

But the river runs red