Kathy Mattea – The Vacant Chair Chords

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 eyes,
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,
while 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,
while 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 over 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,
while we breathe our evening prayer.