You feeling Christians both one and all
Come pay attention unto my call
Until you hear my doleful tragedy
Of these two brothers all in Americay

James and Patrick Masterson as you may see
In Ballymena were reared most tenderly
They left their loving parents on a woeful day
To seek their fortune all in Americay

In '58 they sailed away
Bound for New Orleans in Americay
But mark what followed without delay
For the war broke out on a woeful day

To take up arms they were forced to fight
Through fatigue and hardships both day and night
With savage blocks they could not agree
Where in the regiment, proved their destiny

They were punished severely in that savage corps
And often flogged till left in their gore
They often thought of their friends so dear
They left lamenting and to shed a tear

To desert this regiment they were inclined
For to reach the north they made up their minds
By nighted travel for to make their way
And in the woods they lay, concealed by day
For three long days they could not be found
At length the picket did them would surround
They were taken prisoners with handcuffs bound
And by a court martial they were guilty found

By a court martial as you soon shall hear
Their sentence was to be flogged severe
When Patrick Masterson got loose that day
He shot the colonel without delay

The guards immediately did him surround
Been tried and sentenced and guilty found
A scaffold now erected in the square
And his brother pitched upon, to hang him there

James Masterson was called immediately
To hang his brother he would not agree
"Before I'd yield to such cruelty
I will die beside him on a gallows tree"

A wild black sergeant proposed to do the deed
To hang the brothers he went up with speed
Now all being ready he stood on the fall
And James he shot him with a pistol ball

They both were sentenced and condemned to die
And hanged that day on a gallows high
Farewell Ould Ireland, our native home
We here must die in our youth and bloom
Those two brothers met their sad downfall
They were lamented by their comrades all
From friends and parents far far away
They have suffered death and curse in South Americay