We met during the Revolutionary War
Near Old Man Smith's grocery store
Conditions were bad, morale kind of scary
Half our men dead from dysentery
I ran the French canons from Lake Champlain
That we slid across the Hudson in the ice and the rain
When we won Boston, headed down to York
A town with a temple and thirty churches
And there were girls like I'd seen in the pictures
Living on down in the Red Light District
I was lost, just looking for a martyr
When I fell in love with the madam's daughter
The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight
I asked the madam for her daughter's hand in marriage
She said, "There's nothing more that I'd disparage.
Got no money, think your cause is just
I lose business when you tar and feather the Loyalists."
Ophelia was seventeen, I was a half year older
Bonniest lily of York I told her
We both agreed to run away that night
Get married beneath the forest in the pale moonlight
The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight
We met south of the city 'neath the midnight moon
Made love under the stars, heard the sound of the loons
Ground started shaking, lightning came in a blast
That could take out seven men in its path
And we were separated by the night and the storm
And I went into a cave where it was dry and warm
The next day Ophelia was nowhere to be seen
She came with the night and was gone like a dream
The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight
So I was alone, the punishment was murder
Worse off than the Loyalists as a deserter
I was caught by the crown, wouldn't praise it out of reason
So they put me in the brig, gonna hang me for treason
The moon was hidden and the night was cold
Ophelia came to me some have told
We flew home some how got away
Rode British horses through the night
Crossed the Hudson by daybreak
So if you see two birds black as midnight
Running as if escaping from the pale moonlight
Fleeing from the British and American hands
Some say that was me and sweet Ophelia
The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight