While I have an article that explores this topic in a more linear fashion (link), I felt it was worthwhile to show a list of all the bluegrass songs I found with Civil War themes. I have sorted this list both alphabetically and by year; here, "year" refers to the year the song or text was recorded or received, when known. Though this is usually the same year the album was recorded or released, it is different in a few cases. For the purpose of my project, I am more interested in knowing the date the material was created rather than the date it was released or first published. The only song needing further explanation in this regard is "Those Cruel Slavery Days" by The New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters; the date here is noted as 1929 rather than the year of the recording and album, 1994, because it is a more complete recording than available elsewhere based on an oral tradition by the original Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters.

The intent of this project was to find original compositions about the Civil War in the bluegrass vernacular. While some traditional songs have been included here (either as a point of interest or because I included the rest of the album), the primary focus is on original material. Additionally, not all of these songs or artists are strictly bluegrass; some are folk, some are done by bands who primarily focus on country rock, etcetera. Similarly, some of the songs below have only a line or two which reference the Civil War, while others are instrumental songs with titles either referencing the Civil War or associated with the Civil War. In general, I'd rather lean towards being too wholistic rather than too exclusive.

Tony Trischka's 2021 experimental bluegrass album, Shall We Hope, is very interesting. While the album is not always strictly bluegrass and features several songs that are pre-Civil War -- "On The Mississippi (Gambler's Song)" and "Carry Me Over The Sea" -- it features predominantly a northern or slave perspective. Unfortunately, it was not released at the time of my paper's writing. In an interview with "American Songwriter", Trischka said:

"I decided to write a song about a river boat gambler, which became 'On the Mississippi (Gambler's Song)' on the album. I had fun doing that, so I said, 'I'm going to write some more lyrics.'"

As Trischka continued writing, an overarching theme started to emerge. "['On the Mississippi'] was sort of placed in the mid-1800s. Then I wrote a song about the hijacking of a train during the Civil War, which is called 'The General' on the album. After those two songs, it started percolating in my mind, 'Okay, I could turn this into something,” Trischka says. "I continued to write songs [set] in that period.” Finally, he realized that he could tell many different stories of that era by using the Civil War as a through-line.

"I've always had a fascination with the Civil War—it really captures my imagination,” Trischka says. "So this whole thing came together as basically a Civil War-based story.” To that end, he did in-depth online research, seeking out stories that went well beyond the often-told ones about famous battles. He says he was careful to make his lyrics as historically accurate as possible.

Some of Trischka's songs were not included here, either because they were not directly related to the Civil War or its causes, or because they are too far-removed from the bluegrass idiom.

The few texts included on this list are texts used in my essay. Their titles are italicized.

For the songs sorted by year, traditional songs are listed first, in order of the publication of the referenced version.

Lyrics

Lyrics from the above-mentioned songs are taken from the recordings listed above. If any additional information is known about the songs, it is listed there. Lyrics and information is listed for educational purposes only.

Andersonville

In the spring of '61
I kissed my mother goodbye
And I put on a blue uniform
And I fought for Lincoln's side

Til I got caught by Johnny Reb
In the woods near Chapel Hill
And I wished to God he would have killed me then
But he sent me to Andersonville

My uniform is faded now
There's no boots upon my feet
And I'm pulling worms out of the mud
There's nothing else here to eat

The Rebs can't even feed their own
There's now way that they can fill
The bellies of them Yankees here
Starving in Andersonville

CHORUS Some men are born to preach God's word
Some men are born to kill
I guess that I was only born
To die in Andersonville

I dug a hole with my bare hand
In that red, hard Georgia clay
Cause there's just no shelter from the sun
Or the cold wind or the rain

I'm too damn weak to stand up tall
So I'll just lay quiet and still
Lincoln burried me in this hole I dug
When I died in Andersonville

I dream the same dream ever night
Of a woman I've never known
She's standing by a warm fireside
She whispers "I have come home"

Every morning when I wake, I pray
Some day that she will lay
A flower on my graveside
When I die in Andersonville

CHORUS

Angel In Gray

CHORUS
I saw an angel in gray
Jump a wall to where the dying lay
On his back, no room for golden wings
All he had was water-filled canteens
Giving hope to the wounded that day
I saw an angel in gray

Fredericksburg, December '62
Skies were gray and winter winds they blew
Two armies poised for a fight
Both believing that their cause was right
Behind the stone wall, below the heights
We know Johnny's waiting for a fight
So we grab our guns and we fix our bayonnets
Try to prepare for what we know is next

We attacked wave after wave
Charged the wave on the slopes that day
Thousands called home to rest
Hundreds more dying a slow death
For hours the wounded lay
Death or water, they all prayed
No relief is on the way
Because the snipers play their deadly game

CHORUS

Only a boy of seventeen
I've seen war and all the pain it brings
Yeah, I've seen mercy from the enemy
He knelt down and he shared a drink with me

CHORUS

And if I live a hundred years from today
I can't forget the angel in gray
I won't forget the angel in gray

Antietam

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

Antietam, a tribute to you

As General Lee headed his mighty army to Antietam Creek, Maryland
No one knew or even dreamed the dreadful day that was waiting for his command
The Conferates caught the Federals resting, awaiting tomorrow's fight
And the next moment the cannon's roar drowned out their screams of fright

The dead were thicker than the cornstalks that grew on the Miller farm
And you couldn't hardly walk at all unless it was on a back, chest, or arm
The Louisiana and Georgia brigades, face to face in death row, stood
And they had to give some of the cornfield away until reinforced by General Hood

The men of the First Texas Regiment, while eight out of ten of them dying
They made Meade's Pennsylvanian's pay hard for their pain and their suffering and crying
Twelve thousand three hundred and fifty union men perished and thirteen thousand seven hundred Grays in one day's hours
These dedicated lives were lost forever, their grave was only cornstalks for flowers

Thus ended Lee's invasion north, what a terrible price he had to pay
The Southern cause was jolted south, time it was to think and pray
Antietam's battlefields are kept today in memory of those who had to die
And as we think and look at you, Antietam, we can't help but wonder why

Antietam, a tribute to you

Appomattox

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

General Lee and his troops knew now the end of the war had come
And General Grant felt surely now for their blood loss would help none

Four years of bitter fighting with mind and heart and soul
A cavalcade of heroes dead and dying in their role

What thinks a man, I've often thought, as good as General Lee
When his ragged comrades call to him, "Please let us die for thee"?

Three hundred fifty nine thousand died wearing the northern blue
Two hundred fifty eight thousand wore gray finally died too

What did a general great as Lee think of or want to say?
When tired troops stacked their battle flags and have to end the fray?

He heard their cries of "no, no no," their faces wet with tears
For him they would fight on and on, death for them had no fear

Appomattox Courthouse stands today, a shrine where peace was signed
Thank God for Generals Lee and Grant, both sides have peace of mind

Appomattox

"Appomattox" - Gary G. Smith
On April 9, 1865, the war for the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Court House. Griffith Creasy and brother, Thomas, two of about 50 remaining soldiers of the 28th, didn't remain for a pardon from U. S. Troops. They, like many other confederate soldiers, didn't trust the pardon process, so the next day they took their guns and accouterments, walked away, and went home. In Griffith's and Thomas' case, home was just a few miles south of Bedford, (then Liberty), Virginia. The song relays the hardships of the final days of the war for Southern soldiers and Griffith's leaving to go home.

This music is dedicated to my mother, Myrtle Creasy Smith, and to Lewis Griffith Creasy (2/10/1862 - 4/9/1865), John Hancel Creasy (4/27/1861 - 6/15/1865), Thomas Garrett Creasy (4/27/1861 - 4/9/ 1865), Co. G, 28th Virginia Infantry

Chorus
Appomattox, Appomattox you'll go down in history
Along with names like General Grant and Robert E. Lee
Appomattox, Appomattox on April nine and ten
In the town of Appomattox the war came to an end

We've fought this war for four years now
There's been some bloody fights
But here we are in this old town
To end it on this night

We fought all the way from Richmond
From White Oak to Sailor's Creek
Our clothes were dirty tattered and torn
We were hungry tired and weak

Chorus

General Lee said we'd surrender
That we'd fought our last fight
That they would give us a pardon
And food for the night

But I don't want no pardon
I ain't done nothing wrong
I'll just take my gun and walk away
And go back to my home

Chorus

General Lee rode out to meet them
The men all bowed their heads
It was a sad and mournful day
That we'd all come to dread

This war we'd fought so hard to win
Will now come to an end
Hail to the men who fought and died
Their freedom to defend

Chorus

Army of the Lord

This old war had finely made me see
I'd been living on the edge of eternity
I'd been drifting aimlessly til God got ahold of me
And joined up in the army of the Lord

CHORUS
Cause when I fought with just a gun and a sword
I wasn't sure what I was fighting for
But new orders have come down calling me to higher ground
And now I'm in the army of the Lord

Revival swept through the camp that day
I saw many men like me change their way
Nonbelievers saw the light and readied for the fight
And joined in the army of the Lord

CHORUS

Oh I know I've picked the right way
And I don't believe it's the blue or gray
Showing others wrong from right and teaching of God' might
Training soldiers in the army of the Lord

CHORUS

At the Purchaser's Option

I've got a babe, but shall I keep him?
'Twill come the day when I'll be weepin'
But how can I love him any less?
This little babe upon my breast

CHORUS
You can take my body
You can take my bones
You can take my blood
But not my soul
You can take my body
You can take my bones
You can take my blood
But not my soul

I've got a body, dark and strong
I was young but not for long
You took me to bed a little girl
Left me in a woman's world

CHORUS

Day by day, I work the line
Every minute overtime
Fingers nimble, fingers quick
My fingers bleed to make you rich

CHORUS (x2)

I've got a babe, but shall I keep him?

Atlanta Is Burning

(spoken intro accompanying some live performances)
The date of April 13th, 1865 partly closed the greatest strife this nation has ever endured. Four long and paintful years our country was divided in a great Civil War. In the spring of 1863 a young man from Georgia left his bride of just one week to wear the gray uniform of the Confederate States of America...

Two (or three) years we've been fighting, though it seems like a hundred
Away to the South is the home I once knew
Where my loved ones are waiting, for word from the captain
That the battle has ended for the gray and the blue

I left dear old Georgia on the first day of April
The grass in the valley was just turning green
I married my Sally, just a week before leaving
We now have a baby that I've never seen

She sent me a letter, that told of our baby
He's just like his daddy were the words that she said
But that's been so long now, that it seems like forever
And Lord I'm so homesick I wish I were dead

Atlanta is burning, the horizon is flame
The thunder of cannons in the distance I hear
I think of my Sally, and the son that she gave me
If I could just see her and the baby so dear

A bullet has found me, and the darkness is falling
The pain is unreal and my body's so weak
The captain is calling, but I cannot answer
My thoughts wander Southward as I go to sleep

My thoughts wander Southward as I go to sleep.

Ballad of the 20th Maine

My name is Andrew Tozier, I'm a child of Litchfield, Maine
And I left my only family for the sea, the salt, and rain
And when Lincoln called the banners in 1861
Well I joined the union army for the land that I am from

We were baptized by fire in the battle of Bull Run
And we fought our southern brothers in the wind, the snow, and sun
And when our time was over I heard the governor say
"Keep fighting for the union for just another day"
So we joined the lion of Bowdoin, Chamberlain his name
And we marched once more toward battle as the 20th of Maine

CHORUS
If we should die today, then dream a dream of heaven
Take your northern hearts with you to the grave
Be proud and true you are a union soldier
Stand fast, ye are the boys of Maine

Well, our western flank, it was missing
As the confederates, they pushed on
And I fought them tooth and nail
Our ammunition all but gone
And alone I stood with colors
I was Flying proud and true
For to let my northern brothers know
The battle was not through

And then appeared our lion, he was roaring bayonets
Charging down the mountain with what forces we had left
'Cause we're as steadfast as Katahdin
We're as hard as winter's rain
Go straight to hell with your rebel yell
We are the boys of Maine

CHORUS

The Battle Of Atlanta

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

Forgotten men who lie asleep in a lonely soldiers' grave
Who fought and die for the flag that waves across our land today

Atlanta, "gate city of the South" was in the shank end of the Civil War fight
Where William T. Sherman had a hundred thousand men backing up his might
General J. E. Johnston's sixty thousand Confederates never had a chance to hit Sherman full force
Exacted as he delayed and harried Sherman, hoping the price he'd paid would cancel Sherman's course

After General Johnston's failure against Sherman, he was replaced by a hot-headed, one-armed and one-legged General Hood
He attacked Sherman in the Battle of Peachtree Creek and there Sherman made Lee wonder if the plan was really any good
Atlanta's dying city saw its dying men, row upon row, crowding its erupted, war-torn streets
And the medical supplies were blockaded out and soon exhausted and the shelters were soon blasted down by the Federals' cannon beat

Two Kessler Brothers coming from Germany; one went north and signed for the Union first
The other went south trying to find him and was conscripted into the Confederates burst
As the fighting progressed in and around Atlanta's geographical map
One brother found the wounded other too late; tears fell as he died in his brother's lap

During the month-long Atlanta siege, every house was hit, some a dozen times
Broken homes were everywhere seen, and broken bodies steadily coming from the lines
So many soldiers who fought in the Battle of Atlanta were just young, teenaged, reckless boys
Atlanta, you must always remember this, for youth made most of the noise

Sherman boldly then cut loose from his lines, circling far to the south of the city
And General Hood's only rail line was smashed, his withdrawal from Atlanta was a pity
With the end of each desperate charge, opposing youths were killed hand to hand
While clasping each other in death's embrace, the blue and the gray died together, for Atlanta's land

Forgotten men who lie asleep in a lonely soldiers' grave
Who fought and die for the flag that waves across our land today

The Battle of Stone River

Sung by Oscar Parks. Recorded in Alton, Crawford, Co., Dec. 30, 1963, by P. Dunford and A. Rosenbaum.

Doc Parks sang this vivid ballad for us a hundred and one years to the day after the Army of the Cumberland, under General William W. Rosecrans, and the Army of the Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg, met to fight one of the fiercest battles of the Civil War in the cedar thickets along Stone River, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Many Indiana men participated in the hard-won Union victory that cost both sides nearly 19,000 killed and wounded. Many Civil War songs tend toward the sentimental, as does the Ohio song about the same battle:

Among the pines that overlook Stone River's rocky bed,
Ohio mourns many a son that's numbered with the dead ... (EDDY, p. 127)

By contrast, the Union man who composed this ballad had no time for pious comment and concentrated on recording both the significant military movements and the feelings of a foot-soldier who had been through the bitter fight. The resulting piece, from the magnificent first verse to the sarcastic concluding one, has many of the qualities of the classic British ballads.

The confederate generals referred to are William Hardee and John C. Breckenridge; the Union ones, Richard Johnson and Horatio P. Van Cleve. General Joshua Sills was indeed killed leading a charge. We hope that no one is offended by Doc Parks' description of the man who claimed to have slain him, a rebel who was exceptional in the Kentucky hills, where sympathies were generally with the Union cause.

For background, see Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, New York, 1956.
See Parks earlier recording: AAFS 1727

Last New Year's Day we had a fight, and on the day before
And then we fought right straight along, for three or four days or more

Old Bragg he called his men to line, and he told them they must hold
Stone River and the country around, or else that they'd be sold

Hardee was in the cedar swamp, that line just on the right
Our general had his men in line all ready for the fight

When General Johnson saw their force, he told them men to run
He said that it was in vain to fight them rebels ten to one

But when Rosecrans saw their scheme, he understood their plot
And he reinforced General Van Cleves, and make them rebels hot

I never will forget that day, the ground all stained with blood
When hundreds of our gallant men lie weltering in the mud

We fought them full five hours or more, them rebels would not yield
Until our dead and wounded men lie piled upon the field
They swore that they would not leave the field, and Breckenridge rolled in

He took advantage of the night while everything was still
And he bravely dashed into the fight, and there fell General Sills

In wild confusion they left the ground, Stone River they plunged through
And they never stopped to look around for Yankees as they flew

I used to sing that--there's an old Col. Perry, right in that fight, and he shot old General Sills. And I used to sing that to him--he rode up un me one day, a-singin' it right out in the woods, and he made me sing it all to him... And when I'd sing it to him, he'd say "I'M THE VERY GODDAM MAN THAT SHOT HIM" and his neck-veins would get as big around as your fist--arm! Yeah, he'd say it just thataway, when I'd come over that part of it, "and there fell General Sills", he's say, "Yes, and I'm the very damn man that shot him," and those neck veins would just crawl up!

Battlefield Blues

This fast moving instrumental represents the emotions Civil War soldiers must have had following a hard fought battle. The tension set by a G minor tuning gives rise to the exhaustion and forlorn feelings, and loss of friends that the soldiers experienced. Even the high from victory could not erase the devastation of the battle. It is a tribute to great uncle John Creasy who served four years in the Confederate Army, April 27, 1861 to June 15, 1865. John played the banjo on many occasions in the camps when one was available. His talent has been passed through four generations and is demonstrated in this performance by Tom Smith, its author.

Big Round Top March / Drummer Boys

My prized possession was my drum; I loved it. Though I recall to this day the tired muscles after a long day's march over northern fields and southern miles, scorching sun, blinding storms, the drum growing heavier and heavier until it took all the grit a fella had not to let the others know just how near a body came to collapsing. Then, someone would shout "Lively, there, boys!" And then, the little fellas went at it with renewed vigor.

We sons of Kerry in the drummers' brigade
We hit the long road, every battle I pray

I prayed for my father, was he lost in the war?
I wondered if I'd see him once more

We marched for days, shoeless and worn
Drums at our shoulders, our uniforms torn

Drummer boys, drummer boys, dreaming of glory
Set the tempo for battle, I'll tell you a brave story
Set the tempo for battle, I'll tell you a brave story

The smell of the powder that June afternoon
Our drumsticks blazing to the limerick tune

[Vocalizing]

My friend bore the flag, but to him death came
He was cut down in a volley of flame

I knelt by his side and I closed his white eyes
I lifted his colors and I carried them high

We rallied the troops, we strengthened their hearts
As the bullets, they flew, each man did his part

Drummer boys, drummer boys, through bodies new fallen
Over cannon shot roar hear Gabriel calling
Over cannon shot roar hear Gabriel calling

Drummer boys, drummer boys, dreaming of glory
Set the tempo for battle, I'll tell you a brave story
Set the tempo for battle, I'll tell you a brave story

Billy Yank and Johnny Reb

Who's gonna blow the bugle
And give the battle cry?
Who's gonna fire the gatling gun
And who's gonna bravely die?
Who's gonna be the daring?
Who's gonna be the bold?
Who's gonna bathe in pools of blood
And sleep out in the cold?

Billy Yank
And Johnny Reb
Billy Yank
And Johnny Reb

Who's that with the blisters
On their feet and mouth?
Not the politicians
In the north and in the south!
Who's that in the moonlight
Talkin to his pa?
Who's that in the bushes
Tradin coffee for a chaw?

When the war is over
Lawsy mercy me!
Who's gonna guard our country
From some foreign enemy?
Who's gonna drive the cattle?
Who's gonna fed the mill?
Who's gonna plow cotton n corn
And who's gonna run the stills?

Who's gonna court the ladies
And buy their wedding bands?
Who's gonna shoe their pretty little feet
And glove their pretty little hands?
Who's gonna be the leaders?
Who's gonna be the men?
Who's gonna see that we
Don't ever fight ourselves again?

Blue-Eyed Boston Boy

The song, "Blue-Eyed Boston Boy" taken from "The Last Fierce Charge," a Civil War era song, tells the story of a pact made by two fellow cavalrymen, one a young blue-eyed, blonde-haired boy, the other a tall, dark man. The pact was made just before their cavalry unit's last fierce charge of a well fortified Rebel position at the top of a hill. They each agreed to tell the others loved ones if one should fall. Both are killed in the battle so none was left to write to the tall man's sweetheart or the blue-eyed boy's mother. The song depicts clearly the Civil War soldier's deep-seated desire to inform love ones should they die in battle and the faith and trust they placed in each other.

He was just a blue-eyed Boston Boy
His friend a tall dark man
The tall dark man was first to speak
I fear this will be my end

I have a face pinned to my breast
Of a damsel oh so fair
Write to her friend if I should fall
Tell her I died up there

There were tears in the eyes of the blue-eyed boy
His voice was low with pain
I'll do your bidding comrade mine
If you will do the same

I have a mother whose waiting at home
To hear the news of me
If you ride on and I should fall
Write to her tenderly

Just then the orders came to charge
For a moment hand touched hand
They answered "Aye" and on they rode
That brave and devoted band

They rode together to the top of the hill
And the Rebels with shot and shell
Tore furrows and gaps in the struggling ranks
And cheered them as they fell

There soon came a horrible dying sound
From the heights they could not gain
And those that death and doom did spare
Rode quietly back again

Among the dead at the top of the hill
Lay the boy with the yellow hair
And the tall dark man who rode by his side
Lay dying by him there

There was no one to write to the blue-eyed girl
The words her lover had said
And a mother awaiting the news of her boy
Will only find he's dead

Brandy Station

Instrumental

Brotherly Love

During the Civil War, many families were divided on the issues that led to the Civil War. Although not confined to areas of Border States, many of these differences of opinion between brothers, fathers and sons sprang from border states that created boundaries dividing North and South. Several cases were reported where brothers who met on one of the battlefields visited with each other during a lull in the fighting. The song "Brotherly Love" shares a story of a divided family and develops the concept of two brothers, one Union, the other Confederate, meeting on a battlefield. It relates the emotions of brotherly love following the death of one brother unintentionally killed by the other.

When shells fell on Fort Sumpter that dreary April day
Many families were divided between the Blue and Gray
Mine was such a family who lived along that line
That divided North and South in everybody's mind

My father and my brother chose the union way
But I had different feelings so I dressed in Rebel Gray
Each time we fought a battle and I fired my gun
I wondered if I'd hit my Pa or his other son
(Place of optional verse if used) see bottom of page

Chorus
Brotherly love will break your heart
When a Civil War tears a family apart
If you kill your brother, you will surely pay
For your memories will haunt you the rest of your days

In that awful bloody battle of eighteen sixty-two
We were firing cross a cornfield at the men in blue
As we charged into the Yankees, someone called my name
I looked and found my brother who fell among the slain

I sat there with his head cradled in my arms
I told Joe that I loved him and meant to do no harm
The fighting raged around us though I could take no part
For I had sent a bullet into my brother's heart

Chorus

Yes my memories will haunt me the rest of my days

Optional verse (not sung on tape)
You see, I still respected and loved them in my heart
And it hurt me awful bad to see us torn apart
But I did what I did and what I thought was right
Still I worry that I'll shoot them each time we have a fight.

Burning Georgia Down

The Yankee letter said that they’d be comin’ any day
And if you planned on getting out alive we’d best be on our way
Our tattered gray was torn between if we should run or fight
But our Southern pride swelled up inside as we dug in for the night
Then I heard a rider callin’, they’re coming down the road
And the fiery flash of twenty pounders started to explode
We tried our best to stop them but our efforts were in vain
In the distance you could hear the sound of Dixie’s last refrain

CHORUS
They’re burnin’ Georgia down
Those devils dressed in blue
They took the higher ground
Dying’s all we can do
Atlanta's bound to fall
Smell the smoke and the cinder
They're burnin’ Georgia down
But we never will surrender

Sherman left Atlanta leading sixty thousand of his best
Spreading the destruction over 50 miles abreast
Marching to the sea, leaving nothing in their path
Factory farms and churches, nothing spared their wrath
Ah, Christmas day in ‘64, they cut off all supplies
And then they offered Mr. Lincoln up Savannah has a prize
And though our lives are broken, we fought on ‘til the end
And pray someday we’ll find some way to Dixie once again

CHORUS

Butler Brothers

The Butler Brothers grew up on the Loudon County line
As winds of war blowing through the north Virginia pine
Reuben was the baby, Zach was the eldest son
Those boys became men too soon in 1861

One foot on Yankee soil, one foot on rebel ground
Soon Virginia split in two just like the north and south
Zach fought with George McClellan, Reubeb with Longstreet
And left their momma fighting anxious teardrops on her cheeks

CHORUS
With one hand on the Bible and both knees on the floor
She begs and pleads with Heaven to end this bloody war
Surely God's heart breaks in two when He hears her praying
"Stop the guns that called my sons away"

Once a week they posted on the county courthouse door
The names of all the soldiers killed the week before
She always double checked it for names she might have missed
And wept each time she couldn't find a Butler on the list

CHORUS

Brother against brother, they marched to different drums
Til they covered Williamsburg one spring in Butler blood
Reuben went home dressed in gray, Zach in Union blue
And left their momma wearing black in 1862

CHORUS

Can You Run

There's smoke down by the river
Hear the cannon and the drum
I've got one thing to ask you honey
Can you run?

You know I hate to ask so late
But the moment's finally come
And there won't be time to change your mind
Can you run?

CHORUS
Can you run, to the freedom line of the Lincoln soldiers?
Where the contraband can be a man
With a musket on his shoulder
I've got to stand up tall before I'm done
Wrap these hands of mine around a gun
And chase the taste of bondage from my tongue
Can you run?
Can you run?

I'm taking nothing with me
We've just got time to beat the sun
And the boys in gray are never far away
Can you run?

CHORUS

There's smoke down by the river
Hear the cannon and the drum
And even if I die, I've got to try
Can you run?

CHORUS

Carrie's Graveyard Book

“Unaffrighted by the sight of blood, unawed by horrid wounds, unblanched by ghastly death, [Carrie] walked from room to room, from man to man, her very skirts stained in blood.” – Colonel W. D. Gale, in a letter to his wife.

The soldiers who fought in the Battle of Franklin in 1864 may have been far from home, but it took place right on Carrie McGavock’s doorstep. Her home plantation, Carnton, was commandeered as a field hospital, where she first treated the wounded, and after the battle, the dead. More than a thousand soldiers needed to be buried, and Carrie took it upon herself to make sure each boy rested peacefully in her graveyard. Until her death in 1905, she spent her time and fortune burying and recording each name in her graveyard book so that every family could know the fate of their husband, son, or brother.

With the loss of three children down in Franklin, Tennessee
Carrie McGavock was no stranger to tragedy and grief
So with rows of wounded soldiers lying on her blood-stained floor
She nursed them by the hundreds back in 1864

Five hours the battle ended, but for Carrie it lived on
Many long years after, the winds of war grew calm
And on the field of battle, bones in danger of the plow
Moved to Carrie's graveyard, they rest peacefully now

CHORUS
In that two acre graveyard, over fourteen hundred lay
And to honor every soldier, Carrie kept a list of names
So they wouldn't be forgotten, like so many others would
And now they live forever in Carrie's graveyard book

From all across the southland, for years the letters came
From mothers, wives and fathers, searching for a loved-one's name
When that name was written with honor on a page
They'd come by horse and wagon to mourn upon his grave

CHORUS

Carry Me Back

Well, I come from the valley, I'm a rebel boy
Born on the banks of the Shenandoah
In '61, I went to the war to win one for Virginia
Yeah, my brother went first and they called me too
I was green as clover in the morning dew
So I marched to the drum and I sang to the tune
Carry me back to Virginia!

Fire in the cannon, water in the well
Raced through the valley with a rebel yell
I learned right quick how to march like hell
And affix that bayonet

Won't ya carry me back?
Won't ya carry me back?
Carry me back to Virginia

With a sword and a saddle, powder in the gun
We thought for a minute our fight was done
So they lined us up with our medals on
And hammered us into the quicksand
Then they burned that valley in a blaze of fire
Cut through the lands like a red hot iron
Til the men took cover where the horses piled
Then we shivered in the cold against them

But the war raged on like flames of hell
We dug through the pockets of the ones who fell
Dressed in rags and we ate like rats
When they cut off our legs we cried!

Won't ya carry me back?
Won't ya carry me back?
Carry me back to Virginia
Won't ya carry me back?
Won't ya carry me back?
Carry me back to Virginia

And they died in the valley, died in the swamp
On the banks of the river where the whitetail jumped
Died in the ditches, died in the fields
In the belly of a wagon 'fore our wounds were healed
Died in the war, starved in the camps
Locked in the prisons of a meaner man
Spilled our blood in the fight to defend
And they buried us all over Dixieland

Down in Alabama, down in Caroline
Way down in Georgia, on the Tennessee line
We fought for the rebels, and Robert E. Lee
Now we want to go home to Virginia
Say we want to go home to Virginia!

Won't ya carry me back?
Won't ya carry me back?
Carry me back to Virginia
Won't ya carry me back?
Won't ya carry me back?
I wanna be buried in Virginia

Centreville

I left my friends who wear the gray
Along a rocky run
To see my darling Juliette
The only girl I love

Tomorrow I must leave her
The blue-clad foe to fight
But my darling sleeps within my arms
In Centreville tonight

The seven days, the seven pines
The seven deadly sins
Have got the best of this poor boy
As from the battle I ran

Three days and then I saw the lights
Along the war turnpike(?)
But the flag of the foe from the North now flies
In Centreville tonight

I made my way up to her door
My spirit overflowed
But the sight I saw through her window
It made my blood run cold

I saw a soldier dressed in blue
My darling on his knee
My bullet finished both of them
His saber finished me

A few more feet for me to crawl
As the world fades from my south?
And my darling sleeps within my arms
In Centreville tonight

The Cedar Forest

When I saw the first wave coming I loaded and primed my gun
When I saw the next wave coming I took to my heels and run
I run clear up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and down the other side
I run til I come to the cedar forest, there I found my bride

She lived at the edge of the cedar forest, working her father's land
She said he'd gone to be in the war and died in a foolish stand
She didn't much care for my suit of blue and I told her I felt the same
We dug a hole in the cedar forest and buried it with my name

Well, we worked the land and dreamed our dreams and bore ourselves a son
And three years passed before we heard that foolish war was done
But wars are sometimes hard to end and in a month or two
Six men rode out of the cedar forest dressed in ragged blue

And at their head was Sergeant Crumb, the man who'd taught me fear
He laughed when he saw me with my gun and said, "Now lads, look here
We've found ourselves a cowards' nest, I watched him run away
So we shall have his food and drink and his woman here today"

Well they were six and I was one but I was hard to kill
I drove them back in the cedar forest, I guess they're running still
Now a man who turns and runs away from a politicians' war
Might fight and die for what he loves though hell be at the door

Charleston Town

Don't cry, don't cry
Don't cry, Liza Jane
Oh, goodbye, goodbye
Oh, goodbye Liza Jane

Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane
Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane

I'm gonna get my musket
Don't cry, don't cry
I'm gonna get my musket
Goodbye Liza Jane
Where will I be in the mornin'?
Don't cry, don't cry
Where will I be in the mornin'?
Goodbye Liza Jane

Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane
Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane

Don't cry, don't cry
Don't cry, Liza Jane
Ooooh, goodbye, goodbye
Ooooh, goodbye Liza Jane

Who's gonna save Atlanta?
Don't cry, don't cry
Who's gonna save Atlanta?
Goodbye Liza Jane
Oh, I'm gonna ride with Beauregard
Don't cry, don't cry
I'm gonna ride with Beauregard
Goodbye Liza Jane
Well, I'm gonna be with General Lee
Don't cry, don't cry
Fancy me with Robert E. Lee!
Goodbye, Liza Jane

When will I kiss your lips again?
Don't cry, don't cry
Will I ever kiss your lips again?
Goodbye Liza Jane
I'm gonna get my musket
Don't cry, don't cry
I'm gonna get my musket
Goodbye Liza Jane
Where will you be, my darlin'?
Don't cry, don't cry
Where will you be, my lover?
Goodbye Liza Jane

Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane
Charlestown town is burnin' down
Goodbye, goodbye
Cotton balls are turnin' brown
Goodbye Liza Jane

Said Goodbye, Goodbye Liza Jane!

Christmas Cheer (This Weary Year)

Just this one night, let's step back to celebrate and pray
May the cannons cease and peace abide to honor Christmas Day
Let us still our guns and dry our tears, friends and foe alike
Brother must love brother evermore this Christmas night

Looking 'cross the fortress grounds, sun through thinning cloud
One smithy's shop shop and bake house door to greet the piney boughs
Some play winter football while waiting for the dinner
It's been a hard, cold Autumn and we're looking all the thinner

CHORUS
Christmas cheer this weary year
Not like the last, you know
But hopefully by the next we'll be
United with our families back home

Sergeant Kant, for recreation, scrambles up a pole
We greased it well, he slides right down, his comrades laugh and roar
Roasted goose and oysters and a soup of greens and hock
All simmered down with beef bone and a thimble full of 'nog

Now hear the guns within the forts saluting old Saint Nick
Who's just arrived through triumph's arch, he'll do just the trick

CHORUS

Fading light of winter, Major Bartlett finds a stocking
A meerschaum pipe awaiting him and pretzels, interlocking
Young Collin, our drummer boy, opens up his gift
A jack in the box jumps right up, we watch his spirits lift

As Santa comes, so he must leave for Richmond and the west
"G'lang" he cries and off he speeds, his sleigh with vested dress
His absence leaves an empty space a song could never fill
A battle looms, the war resumes, we face the evening chills

CHORUS

Christmas In Savannah

“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah.” -General William T. Sherman, in a telegram sent to President Lincoln on Christmas Day 1864

The capture of Savannah on Christmas Day 1864 marks the completion of Sherman’s March to the Sea and the tipping point of the war in the Union’s favor. Savannah was occupied on December 20th, and though he flooded the rice fields around the city, Sherman largely spared the city itself. None of the mansions were harmed, and the churches were allowed to stay open. In areas where food was scarce, the troops put together carts loaded with Christmas dinner and delivered food pulled by mules dressed as reindeer. Despite the war and occupation, Christmas still came to Savannah.

Christmas in Savannah is candy to the eyes
Steeped in rich traditions of Savannah's southern life
They celebrate with Santa and a festival with lights
Rolling down the river, singing Silent Night

CHORUS
Christmas in Savannah, 1864
Came with no holly, no wreaths upon the door
Christmas in Savannah came in the worst of times
'Cause Santa couldn't make it through General Sherman's line

Savannah fell to Sherman as that year drew to an end
And a victory letter from General Sherman's pen
Was sent with pride to Lincoln as a Christmas gift
While people in Savannah had to make the best of it

CHORUS

There were no Christmas carols heard in that war-town town
Til ninety Yankee soldiers from Michigan came 'round
With food and fresh provisions in wagons that were pulled
By little Christmas reindeer that looked a lot like mules

CHORUS [ends: Til ninety Yankee Santas brought cheer from Sherman's line (x2)]

Civil War

Well, that old stone house is standing in the middle of the dell
Yes, that old stone house is standing where my brother used to dwell

Well, my family split in two by that Mason-Dixon Line
Yes, my family split in two by that Mason-Dixon Line

CHORUS
Well we stormed the hill at Potter's Point like lightning from the skies
And I shot my brother dead before I ever saw his eyes
And I swore right then and there, never to again
And I swore right then and there, never to again
Well I walked a thousand miles and my boots are showing skin
If I walk a thousand more I'll never kill again
And you can call me what you want, but a coward's what I am
You can call me what you want, but a coward's what I am

Well my brother took the north road and I stayed at home with pa
Yes, my brother took the north road and I stayed at home with pa

Well, the day my brother died, I quit the revolution
Yes, the day my brother died, I dropped my guns and ran

CHORUS

Civil War Diary

It was cold and wet the morning we left for Atlanta
We marched twenty five miles in the rain
Walking on muddy roads, crossing flooded creeks
Bridges burned out by rebel boys

Sent for men in horses to get more supplies
It's been sixth months since we've been paid
I've had a fever and a chill five weeks now
Haven't eaten in at least a couple days

CHORUS
Can't wait to see the old home
Is it still the way that I left it
Don' you cry, I'll be coming home soon
And we'll get married in the spring

We captured thirty rebels, they were hungry and cold
Most of them were only boys
Just turned twenty a few months ago
Spent my birthday in a camp near Bowling Green

Fought Rebels near Selma, more in Montgomery
They were outnumbered, their supplies very low
Looks like the end is coming pretty soon
Those Southern boys won't quit without a fight

CHORUS

I hope I'll be coming home soon

Company of Cowards

As I was walkin' down the road, 'twas on one summer's day
What d'you suppose I chanced to see, goin' the other way?
Well I knew it weren't the Navy nor the whole McDougal clan
'Twas a company of cowards, I could tell by the way they ran

Oh get around oh get around get around
Oh get around get away
'Tis a company of cowards
And they've come to save the day

You should've seen their uniforms, shabby as you please
Mighty shy of buttons, rather baggy at the knees
And such was their appearance, we laughed until we cried
It's a pity, Mr. Lincoln, they're not on the other side
Oh get around oh get around get around
Oh get around get away
'Tis a company of cowards
And they've come to save the day

I don't recall I ever heard that bugle sound retreat
I could only hear the thunder of a hundred scamperin' feet
It was forward into battle they came marching one by one
But I guess they thought it over, and they thought it best to run

Oh get around oh get around get around
Oh get around get away
'Tis a company of cowards
And they've come to save the day

All men who bear the saber share the scandal of that day
Napoleon would have died of shame to see them run away
Remember George at Valley Forge made the British boys behave
You can well imagine now he's rolling over in his grave

Oh get around oh get around get around
Oh get around get away
'Tis a company of cowards
And they've come to save the day

Confederate Flag

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

A beloved way of life, in Southland's lazy way
Came into being as many worlds would say
Plantation's fertile fields and colonnaded home
A symbol of the Southland, its dignity and loam

Many slaves were slowly getting freedom's taste
As time-measured means, back then, to stop a war in haste
The War Between the States, South's blood and honor mars
They found their glorious flag: red and white with stars and bars

A waving fabric cloth, honors white and colored red
Reminds us of the promises that warring wounds had bled
The purity in its blue, ladyhood's southern belle
Rebels Lee, Jackson and Stuart, they never cease to tell

Battle-borne and battered, proudly waves through all the fray
Bullet-scarred and blood-stained, "never leave us" they did pray
When Appomattox came, in marched the Rebel men
They stacked their guns that caused this loss to assault the flag again

The loss of Southern Cause so slow for legs that lag
Never will the South surrender, its stars and bars displayed

Confederate Gray

Nighttime comes to Cumberland Mountain
I hear the sound of the distant bell
The birds all sing in the deep dark forest
They sing a song I know so well

CHORUS
Please don't go, please don't go
Can't you see I love you so?
But I've had to leave, Lord, I could not stay
For I wore a coat of Confederate Gray

I miss my home in the Cumberland Mountain
I long to lay by my sweetheart's side
The battle's won but there's no one singing
Seems I hear true love cry

CHORUS

Now I'm at home in the Cumberland Mountain
I'll stay til Judgment is at hand
My true love sings to me each evening
It's hard for her to understand

CHORUS

And her tears fall silent on my grave
For I wore a coat of Confederate gray
For I wore a coat of Confederate gray

Confederate Horseman

Instrumental

Confederate Soldier

We were on a walk down by the old field
Where the fire line led up where they kneeled
A hush filled our ears as we began to pray
The whole Union Army was asleep in our way

CHORUS
And I still remember you telling those lies
They sooner ran through them then through my disguise
Confederate soldier running through the night
You should grab my hand and see my eye

Well I thought we were safe til I heard the call
A lonesome old bugle sang the devil's song
Well, I dropped my rifle, picked up my speed
My old horse in Georgia was all I did need

CHORUS

Passing a homestead, saw a flickering light
You motioned me inside out of the night
You took off my coat, dear, and offered me some wine
And when the soldiers came knocking, one of their own they did find

CHORUS

Confederate soldier running through the night
You should grab my hand and see my eye

Confederate Soldiers

Instrumental

Crossing the Wall (Pickett's Charge)

"Crossing the Wall" is a story about great grandfather, Griffith Creasy, a confederate soldier, Co. G, 28th Virginia Infantry when as an old man, he returned to Gettysburg to visit one last time the scene of Pickett's Charge where he fought and survived this famous battle. As he stands by the angle, he reminisces about the battle and shares the emotions of that day July 3, 1863. Just as he did, thousands of Union and Confederate Veterans came back to visit this bloodstained battlefield.

I went back to the battlefield to visit just once more
To see the scene of Pickett's charge where we fought in that war
I walked out to the angle and stood beside the wall
Recalled the face of thousands as they begin to fall

We marched up here from Richmond with Robert E. Lee
We came to fight the Yankees in eighteen sixty-three
Two long days we struggled to drive them from this land
And on the third we crossed this field to make our final stand

As memories flooded back, tears rolled down my face
I looked around at Gettysburg and saw a bloodstained place
I saw my brothers dying and others who would fall
I lived through the Rebel charge as we crossed this wall

Through the smoke of battle, I saw their faces well
Heard their cries of agony amid their Rebel yell
I heard the cannons rumble and the muskets roar
So many comrades crumbled gone forever more

We charged across the angle in hopes of victory
An awful fate awaited us there at that clump of trees
We fought them hand-to-hand with swords and stones and guns
But in the end, the fight was lost the boys in blue had won

This battlefield is silent it's been nigh sixty years
I still recall the thousands of comrades who were dear
Soon I'll go to greet them on that other shore
And one again we'll heed that call to charge across this wall

Yes one more time we'll dress in gray to charge across this wall

The Curse of Cain

Another moon on the stinking Potomac
I'll be ready when the dogs break their chains
They’ve chased me like a thief through the dark roads of Virginia
But if I had to I would do it all again

Jefferson Davis is just a shadow
No heart left in Robert E. Lee
Useless, useless, they're all worse than cowards
Every Confederate heart has cut me free

CHORUS
Abandoned with the curse of Cain upon me
I am abandoned with the curse of Cain upon me

Abraham Lincoln had it coming
He had the blood of the Union to bear
He may rise like a ghost in every dream north of Richmond
But behind him I will always be there

CHORUS (x2)

Damn Yankee Lad

I'm just a Damyankee way down in the South
I love to kiss Southern belles in the mouth
I laugh when they say all Damyankees are bad
For nobody knows I'm a Damyankee Lad

When I found old Sherman had left me behind
A very strange notion came into my mind
I dressed up in grey and I made up a spiel
And I headed straight for the town of Mobile

CHORUS
I'm having fun like I never have had
Nobody knows I'm a Damyankee Lad

Not far from Atlanta I heard people say
Old Sherman had taken the food all away
'Twas there that I smiled on a lovely Mad-dam
Who fed me on honey and peaches and ham

I stopped in the country and got in a tight
Where six widows claimed me and had a big fight
I had to be slick as a slippery eel
To get on my way to the town of Mobile

CHORUS

I got to Mobile and I found a Creole
She captured my heart an' she captured my soul
It's been twenty years since I made up my spiel
And went on my Damyankee way to Mobile

I've raised a fine family of girls and young men
They swear that damn Yankees are all full of sin
They'd call you a liar if you said their dad
Had marched to Mobile as a Damyankee Lad

CHORUS

When I get so old that I'm ready to die
I'll put on my uniform blue as the sky
They'll march 'round my coffin and won't they get mad
When they learn that I was a DamnYankee Lad

I'm just a Damyankee way down in the South
I love to kiss Southern belles in the mouth
I laugh when they say all Damyankees are bad
For nobody knows I'm a Damyankee Lad

CHORUS

Darling Alalee

The song is originally from the pre-Civil War ballad called 'Ella Rhee.' It is, no doubt, from the Negro-minstrel stage, though its history is vague. The chorus is unchanged from the original but the verses in this version are of the post-Civil War era. It is the story of a slave who has run away from his master but longs for his love (Alalee, who is undoubtedly a slave also) and therefore wishes to return.

Sweet Alalee, so dear to me
She's gone for ever more
My home was down in Tennessee
Before the cruel war

CHORUS
Then carry me back to Tennessee
There's where I long to be
Among the fields of yellow corn
With my darling Alalee

Oh why did I from day to day
Keep wishing to be free
And from my master run away
And leave my Alalee

CHORUS

They said that I would soon be free
And happy all the day
And if they'll take me back again
I'll never run away

CHORUS

Dawn At Antietam

"Hope you enjoy my anti-war tribute to the common soldier at Antietam. Two-finger and clawhammer style banjo" (via Facebook group "Dedicated to Old Time Music" post)

I am a rebel soldier a long way from home
Am a rebel soldier a long way from home
General Lee gave the order, north we must roam

We marched all week, to Sharpsburg we did come
Marched all week, to Sharpsburg we did come
One thing I knew for sure is that I would never run

We took our possition at Antietam Creek
Took up our possition at Antietam Creek
By the dawn's early rise, we could hear the cannons' shriek

We saw the Yankee's come and bullets flying around
Saw the Yankee's come and bullets fly around
Our sargeant gave the order, "Boy's, hold your ground"

I looked to my left and I looked to my right
Looked to my left and I looked to my right
Two friends were dead and two more were dying

I fired my gun and a Yankee went down
Fired my gun and a Yankee went down
Gave up his last breath with a mournful sound

We fought all day to keep Burnside off that bridge
Fought all day to keep Burnside off that bridge
By the bloody sun went down there were four thousand dead

I am a fortunate man, I come out of there alive
Am a fortunate man, I come out of there alive
With one arm, one leg, and one good eye

Day of Liberty

The "Good Time Coming" is almost here!
It was long, long, long on the way!
Now run and tell Elijah to hurry up Pump
And meet us at the gumtree down in the swamp
To wake Nicodemus today

Nicodemus, the slave was of African birth
And was bought for a bagful of gold
He was reckon'd as part of the salt of the earth
But he died years ago, very old
'Twas his last sad request so we laid him away
In the trunk of an old hollow tree
"Wake me up!" was his charge, "at the first break of day
Wake me up for the great Jubilee!"
Fellas don't you see the light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Almost gone, the gloomy night
The day of liberty's coming

Hi-ho, we gladly sing
Aloud, loud our voices ring
Good news, the Lord he bring
Now let my people go, oh

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Almost gone, the gloomy night
The day of liberty's coming

The Union folks they wait so long
We think they never was coming, coming
And Secesh he got so strong
We think they never was coming

Now Uncle Abe he say
Come, Massa, while you may
And for the slave he'll pay
For he must let us go, oh

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Oh, the blessed, blessed sight
The day of liberty's coming

He was a prophet -- at least was as wise
For he told of the battles to come
And he trembled with dread when he roll'd up his eyes
And we heeded the shake of his thumb
Though he clothed us with fear, yet the garments he wore
Were in patches at elbow and knee
And he still wears the suit that he used to of yore
As he sleeps in the old hollow tree

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Almost gone, the gloomy night
The day of liberty's coming

Nicodemus was never the sport of the lash
Though the bullet has oft cross'd his path
There were none of his masters so brave or so rash
As to face such a man in his wrath
Yet his great heart with kindness was filled to the brim
He obeyed who was born to command
But he long'd for the morning which then was so dim
For the morning which now is at hand

By folks in this sweet trust
The day of liberty's coming, coming
We will fight and die for us
The day of liberty's coming
Yes, yes, we'llfight and sing
Loud, loud our voices ring
Soon, soon, the mighty king
Will let his people

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Now we'll help the Yankees fight
The day of liberty's coming

Oh, the Lord will bring it right
The day of liberty's coming, coming
From this dreadful bloody fight
The day of liberty's coming

Shout, everyone shout and sing
Aloud, let your voices ring
Soon, soon the mighty King
Will let his people go, oh

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Yes, the Lord will bring it right
The day of liberty's coming

'Twas a long weary night -- we were almost in fear
That the future was more than he knew
'Twas a long weary night -- but the morning is near
And the words of our prophet are true
There are signs in the sky that the darkness is gone
There are tokens in endless array
For when the storm which has seemingly banished the dawn
Only hastens the advent of day

Just you look and see that light
The day of liberty's coming, coming
Yes, the Lord will bring it right
The day of liberty's coming

Dear Sarah

Dear Sarah I’m stuck on a train bound for Richmond
We marched down from Gurnstown uphill all the way
At the train stop in Stanton, we pulled up and climbed on
Then we just sat there for a night and a day

Chorus:
And the nights are long, but I write you ev’ry day
And I hum a song that you used to sing
The one of sweet William his love, Barbara Allen
And how she was always a long ways away

My insides are all torn from hard tack and parch corn
My hat flew in a windstorm so the sun has turned me red
The first chance to lie still I pull out your Bible
But fall fast asleep before one verse is read

CHORUS

Dear Sarah in parting keep me in your heart
I do not drink or gamble ‘cause I promised you I’d do
So as not to mislead you I did have a need to
When we were surrounded and looked like we were through

CHORUS

The one of sweet William, his love Barbara Allen
And how she was always a long ways away

In Scarlet Town, I did dwell. There was a fair maid a-dwellin’
Many men cried, well, for the love Barbara Allen.

Dear Sister

This could be my last letter
I may never see the cotton fields of home again
I miss you, dear sister
Tonight I never felt so all alone

And the fog was so thick
That the Stones River stars
Could scarcely invade
The dread and the dark
And all that I could see
When I closed my eyes to dream
Was home, sweet home

In the camps around Forrest
The midnight coals were glowing through the haze
The union boys sang Hail Columbia, and
We sang look away, look away

Then a hush in the rain
And there rose a sweet refrain
In the dark before dawn
And instead of battle songs
The enemy and we all sang a melody
Of Home, Sweet Home

So if this is my last letter
And I never see the cotton fields of home again
And if I fall here at Stones River
I know that God will bear away my soul
To be with Him

And I'll wait for you there
Where all is bright and fair
Where the light of his face
Outshines the blue and gray
Where all of humankind
Yes every man will find
His home, sweet home

Died Before Their Time

Devil Forrest's blood-stained hands
Father of the Ku Klux Klan
Sent many to that hanging line
Made 'em die before their time

CHORUS
Yeah, they died before their time
Died before their time

Execution in the streets
The Hutu and the Tutsi meets
Weapons falling from the sky
Helped 'em die before their time

CHORUS

When art and music threatened rule
Prison camps where once were schools
Pol Pot stacked the skulls so high
Millions died before their time

CHORUS

Charles Taylor had a dirty skill
Teaching little kids to cool
Liberia was soon inclined
To let 'em die before their time

CHORUS

The moral of the story, friend
Lust for power has no end
No matter what, where, when, or how
Those who lead must take a vow

Stand up for all human kind
So we don't die before our time

CHORUS (x2) [So we don't die... / Die before our time]

Die before our time

Dixie/Marching Through Georgia

Instrumental

Dixieland

(Introduction from Steve Earle's 2004 Farm Aid performance [link]): I have written a bunch of songs about the Civil War over the years, and I don't know why that is, but there's been a ton of them. But I think I'm probably a little different from most Southerners who write songs about the Civil War in that I'm not a Southerner who believes that the Civil War was fought about states' rights -- I figure it was probably about slavery. And the reason that I believe that is everything I've read about it leads me to believe that it was about slavery as slavery related to economics at the time. And I believe with all my heart when it gets right down to it, whether they tell us or not, all wars are fought about money.

I stole this character outright from a book called The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, which is a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, and for those of you that have lives and don't sit around reading about the Civil War all the time, the guy in this song is a composite character based on three guys that actually lived and fought and two died fighting with the 20th Maine, at Gettysburg. And the 20th Maine was the unit at the end of the line on top of Little Roundtop the second day at Gettysburg, and if it hadn't been for them, all you motherfuckers would talk like me. It was close!

But this character, Buster Kilrain, was like a lot of people that were professional soldiers in that war -- he was from Ireland -- and he believed that the reason he was fighting the Civil War, is he believed he was fighting a class war; he believed that the system that he saw in the Southern United States was the same system that he fought against in Ireland and left to avoid. And it never ceases to amaze me the kind of pinko shit that you can sneak in on a bluegrass record -- I like my job.

I am the Kilrain, and I'm a fightin' man and I come from County Clare
And the Brits would hang me for a Fenian, so I took my leave of there
And I crossed the ocean in the Arrianne, the vilest tub afloat
And the captain's brother was a railroad man and he met us at the boat
So I joined up with the 20th Maine; like I said, my friend, I'm a fighting man
We're marching south in the pouring rain, we're all going down to Dixieland

I am the Kilrain of the 20th Maine and we fight for Chamberlain
'Cause he stood right with us when the Johnnies came like a banshee on the wind
When the smoke cleared out of Gettysburg, many a mother wept
For many a good boy died there, sure, and the air smelled just like death
I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and I'd march to hell and back again
For Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, we all going down to Dixieland

I am the Kilrain of the 20th Maine, and I damn all gentlemen
Whose only worth is their father's name and the sweat of a working man
Well, we come from the farms and the city streets, a hundred foreign lands
And we spilled our blood in the battle's heat, now we're all Americans
I am the Kilrain of the 20th Maine -- did I tell you, friend, I'm a fightin' man?
And I'll not be back this way again 'cause we're all goin' down to Dixieland

Dodsworth Drum

Listen, friends, I've a tale of going to fight
The rhythm of death on an old rawhide
Old bass drum came straight from hell
Dodsworth drum played and the angels cried

It was '61 at the First Bull Run
Beauty and hope sprouted
Saw many men died on either side
While the Dodsworth drum beat counted

CHORUS
From the horror of Manassas to Abraham's final run
The beat told out the answer, no good would ever come
On morning, see the sunrise, a happy tune you'll hum
When you hear the sound of Carl's Dodsworth drum

Gettysburg called to the nation
A more stirring address was never heard
A clarion call of things to come
And along played Dodsworth drum

When the war was done and Lincoln had won
The president savior of the doomed
That Southerner decreed then shot like a thief
In a theater with Dodsworth drum drummed

CHORUS

As the funeral passed and people lost hope
The hunt for Abe's killer was done
The conspirators danced at the end of a rope
And I swear to the beat of a drum

CHORUS

When you hear the sound of Carl's Dodsworth drum

Drummer Boy Of Shiloh

From Miss Pearle Webb, Pineola, Avery county. It may be one of "several song ballads" sent Dr. Brown on July 29, 1921. Compared with the printed version in Allan's Lone Star Ballads, Miss Webb's version shows several differences in the order and the diction of the drummer boy's prayer, and it simplifies the account of the burial.

On Shiloh's dark and bloody plain
The dead and dying lay.
Among them was a drummer boy
That beat the drum that day.

A wounded soldier held him up;
His drum lay by his side.
He raised his eyes and clasped his hands
And prayed before he died.

'I love my country and my God;
To serve them have I tried.'
He smiled, shook hands; death seized the boy
Who prayed before he died:


'Angels around the throne of Grace,
Look down from heaven on me.
Receive me in thy fond embrace
And carry me home to thee.'

Each soldier wept then like a child.
Stout heart and brave were they
Who mourned the loss of the drummer boy
Who beat the drum that day.

They wrote upon a single board,
Each word it was a guide;
They mourned the loss of the drummer boy
That prayed before he died.

Angels around the throne of Grace
Look down upon the brave
Who fought and died on Shiloh's plains
And now slumbers in the grave.

Dry Creek Run

Thirteen hundred died that day
It took ten good men just to dig the grave
Burried them shallow, they burried them deep
Burried them next to Dry Run Creek

CHORUS
And their momma's cried
Oh my Lord, how their momma's cried

Well, they weren't just blue and they weren't just gray
Death took no sides when it came that day
They laid them down side by each
They placed no stones at their head or feet

CHORUS

When the digging was through they gathered round
A lonesome dove made the only sound
They said prayers, got to their feet
They left their friends at Dry Run Creek

War'd been over for about a week
Word hadn't gotten to dry run creek
Fought and died right to the end
A battle that shoulda never been

CHORUS

The Federal Soldier

West Virginia broke away after Virginia's secession from the Union. In the border states, depredations were numerous. Ron has this from Sherman Hammons and sister Maggie, whose ancestors migrated from Kentucky to West Virginia at the time of the Civil War.

One morning, one morning, one morning in May
A pretty young soldier, lamenting and saying
"O Molly, my dear Molly, it's from you I must roam
And leave my aging father, my country, and my home

I bid farewell to old Kentucky, no longer can I stay
Hard times and the rebels, they're driving me away
Hard times and the rebels are causing me to roam
I am a Federal soldier far from my home

I will build me a castle on yonders mountains high
Where the wild geese can hear me as they go passing by
Some turtle dove may hear me, and come to me to mourn
I am a Federal soldier, and far from my home

So here's a glass of good old whiskey, and a bottle of port wine
So you can drink to your true love while I will mourn for mine
For to go with General Burnside, his army now to roam
I am a Federal soldier, and far from my home

Final Reward

Walk through the valley with me, young soldier
Let me take the breath from your life
Your mother may lay there, sound asleepin'
At your age you'll never know a wife

They held Atlanta, boys, they tried
But soon she fell by the way
Let's drink to the memory of those who died
For in ashes our Georgia lays

CHORUS
He's gone to his final reward
Seen the savior's sword
Touch the coat of Robert E. Lee
Like it was the garment of the Lord

This country was built on arrogance
And the blood of the fallen men
When brother shot brother those years ago
Let it not happen here again

CHORUS

Well, let us rise up now to become
Greater than we were before
The colors on this here flag
Yes, in that fire been forged

CHORUS

The First Shot

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

Black clouds of war was hovering o'er the Southland like a plague
The North and South, both thought was right, marched proudly for their flag
In President Buchanan's time, his last four months in power
The Union disintegrated, Congress watched its faded flower

Six states from the Union then withdrew, gave loyalty the riot
For guardsmen shelled Fort Sumter, and that was the first shot
Then fears of Carolina folk hoorayed in Southern mind
General Lee and Jackson stook a stand, for a vengeance they would vie

If then they could have only known the sorrow war would bring
The first shot would have not been fired on enemy or friend
So many thousand died in vain, the soldiers do believe
If that first shot had not been fired, peace might have been achieved

The shoulder-to-shoulder tactics used by rifled muskets changed
Too soon to many clumps of dead, to a defensive war arranged
Today we decorate their graves, their honor marks the spot
They lost their lives on the battlefield all because of one first shot

Following This Ghost

In a 2020 FaceBook livestream (link), Eller explained the origins of the song as follows: "I sing a lot about the Civil War and stuff like that. And it seems like any time there's a war or anything like that, somebody gets totally forgotten, and of course, back in those days, whether you were on the North or the South, if you're a woman, you got left behind. Just trying to make things... work out, you know?"

I remember thinking it was over
And that man of mine would soon be coming home
But nowadays you can't depend on nothing
And I never can get drunk in this house all alone
And the falling of the shadows wakes me up when I need you most
And I'm so tired of following this ghost

The picture frame on the fireplace has rusted
And Abraham Lincoln can go to Hell
Well, for all I care this civil war is just murder
And your yellowed face don't hardly ring a bell
And the rumors out of Richmond echo down in the morning post
And I'm so tired of following this ghost
Oh, I'm so tired of following this ghost

My nights all burn up in this heat and turn to steam
But I know they're drinking on that battlefield
And praying every night just makes me mean

I'm not asking much, I'm just saying that I can't stay up
And if this thing is ever done
Don't bother and wake me up to say who won

And the summers are longer every year
And the wind don't blow down the southeast coast
And I'm so tired of following this ghost
Oh, I'm so tired of following this ghost

From Dixie With Love

Instrumental

Furlough

Instrumental

The General

Andrew's Union raiders set out to undermine
The Western Atlantic railroad line
From Georgia to Chattanooga, we'd tear up the track
Cut Southern supply lines, make way for a Union attack

Listen to the train, the General, listen to the train
Listen to the train, The General, listen to the train

Oh, down in North Georgia, in the Spring of '62
All of the passengers and the General's crew
Stumped up for breakfast in Big Shanty town
While eighteen Ohio boys made of with The General Tennessee-bound

We sped to the North destroying as we'd go
But our luck ran out over by Jericho
We pulled up the track, cut telegraph wires
Pursued by Conferate trainmen on the Texas high-flyer

The Texas high-flyer was hot in pursuit
Ran in reverse, closed the gap on our route
Just north of Ringgold we ran out of steam
Got 87 miles to the end of our dream

Captured and hung in Atlanta one day
Oh, we did some damage but Hell was to pay
We didn't change a battle, we didn't change the war
And now they've gone on to their final reward

Listen to the train, the General, listen to the train
Listen to the train, The General, listen to the train

Georgia Moon

CHORUS
Come a high-de-diddle, boys, play on your fiddle
Come a high-de-diddle-dum-doe-de-yay
Play me a tune 'neath the Georgia moon
Then we'll all have a little peach brandy

Now the Yankees came and the cannons roared
And the sky was red as crimson
It was Sherman's turn so Atlanta burned
And the South lost another fine lady

CHORUS

Now I'm a-goin' home to my Georgia land
But I don't walk like I used to
I hope I find her heart's still mine
And a warm hand to hold on to

CHORUS

Well, the house burnt down and the barn did, too
And the little old lady's gone
But we'll have a tune 'neath the Georgia moon
So Heaven can sing along

CHORUS (x2)

Gettysburg Recalled

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

On the evening before the Battle of Gettysburg
It was around about nine that night
The Rebel men gathered and beautiful songs
Were sung to the soldiers' delight

Then singing and gaiety ended
The Federals replied tunes in kind
Dixie and Aura Lee then filled the air
Thoughts of loved ones and home filled their mind

On Rappahannock's banks these two armies
Quietly listened to the words of Home Sweet Home
While a hundred thousand men were regrouping
On the morrow they'll be covered with loam

Cannons and muskets and sabers were used
Hitting hard into General Pickett's lines
Out of fifteen-thousand, eleven only reached the angle's end
Retreating rebels left their dead on the vines

In Gettysburg's armageddon battle
General Lee lost twenty thousand men
The tide suddenly turned with its rattle
General Grant knew the war would soon end

Gettysburg will always be remembered
For this was the turning point of the war
Now today, we're a nation united
There's no hatred remembered anymore

The Giant On the Thunderhead

A bunch of Rebel soldiers were sittin' 'round one night
A-talkin' to some Yankees in a spot way out of sight
They'd stepped across the picket line to have a little chat
A chawin' their tobaccer and swappin' this and that

And while they were a-talkin' they looked a-way up high
And there they saw a man a-walkin' across the moonless sky
He sat down on a pillow upon a thunderhead
He looked down on the soldiers and this is what He said:

CHORUS
You Yankees and you Rebels, shake hands and then caress
Go home and read your Bible and the Gettysburg Address

The boys ran to their bed rolls afraid to talk out loud
About the mighty giant they'd saw upon the cloud
Next day two famous general met near an apple tree
And one of them was U.S. Grant and one was Robert Lee

And when they'd finished talking and everybody knew
The awful war was over, they shouted Hallelu'
And all the people wondered about the thunderhead
Did U.S. Grant and Robert Lee hear what the giant said?

CHORUS

You'll never build a nation in all this bloody mess
Go home and read your Bible and the Gettysburg Address
You've got the grandest country this world has ever known
Your Constitution is the brightest star that's ever shone

CHORUS

Go home and read your Bible and the Gettysburg Address

Git Along Little Yearlings

The Yanks took our corn, the Rebs took our cotton
The bank took our land and the tax got our home
We yoked up our oxen, then loaded our wagons
With a drove of poor yearlings we started to roam

CHORUS
Git along, little yearlings, we're a-going to Texas
Don't stray far away or you can't hear the bell
Git along, little yearlings, we're a-going to Texas
Stay close to the wagons and all will be well

Twas in Alabama we lost our first wagon
We thanked the good Lord we'd lost only one
In ol' Mississippi we fought the Jayhawkers
And in Lou'siana we buried a son

CHORUS

There's bears in the woods, and there's wolves and there's Indians
There's quick sandy holes and there's mountains of stone
Last night a poor yearling strayed too far from camp
And this morning we found just a bundle of bones

CHORUS

Hooray and hurrah, give a big Hallelujah
The journey is ending, we're very near there
Give thanks to the oxen and pray to Jehova
We'll soon be a-resting beneath the Lone Star

CHORUS

God Didn't Choose Sides

“As soon as we reached the water’s edge, we began to sing that grand old hymn ‘There is a Fountain Filled with Blood’ and at once the enemy began to leave their works and hastened to the riverside.” -Reverend Willie Ragland, Chaplain of the 13th Virginia Brigade.

In December 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia came together over the Rapidan River, not in violence, but in song. Though just days before they were locked in bloody conflict, on this cold morning God was praised as they sang together the old hymn, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”, while a Confederate soldier (Goodwin from Company A) was baptized by the Confederate Chaplain. Despite being enemies, the tired and homesick men laid down their weapons to celebrate Jesus, and embrace the truth that God didn’t choose sides.

On a river in Virginia, in the middle of a war
There were Rebels on the south side, and Yankees on the north
The sounds of war fell silent til all that could be heard
Were the songs of faith in Jesus, both sides knew them word for word

CHORUS
God didn't choose sides 'tween the Blue and Gray
He didn't choose sides, in His eyes they were the same
For every man who died, Heaven's arms were open wide
They'd hear "Soldier, welcome home. God didn't choose sides"

Now on both riverbanks together, souls of Blue and Gray were saved
They were baptized in the waters were blood had flowed that day
Some soon would meet in Heaven, where on common, peaceful ground
All husbands, sons, and fathers, finally laid their weapons down

CHORUS

For every man who died, Heaven's arms were open wide
They'd hear "Soldier, welcome home. God didn't choose sides"

Going Across the Mountain

Going across the mountain
Oh, fare you well
Going across the mountain
You can hear my banjo tell

Got my rations on my back
My powder it is dry
I'm a-goin' across the mountain
Chrissie, don't you cry

Going across the mountain
To join the boys in blue
When this war is over
I'll come back to you

Going across the mountain
If I have to crawl
To give old Jeff's men
A little of my rifle ball

Way before it's good daylight
If nothing happens to me
I'll be way down yander
In old Tennessee

I expect you'll miss me when I'm gone
But I'm going through
When this war is over
I'll come back to you

Going across the mountain
Oh, fare you well
Going across the mountain
Oh, fare you well.

Goodbye Little Darlin

(written by Chris Whelan & Kevin Winchester [BMI])

Pardon me if I should cry
This could very well be our last goodbye
Try, darling, to understand
That your Johnny's gone to take a Rebel stand

CHORUS
So goodbye little darlin'
You will hear my heart callin'
As I turn and go down 'round the bend
And just you remember
If I cross o'er the river
I will hold you in my arms again

Often shall I think of you
And my longing heart will be forever true
If by chance that I am slain
Please place a laurel wreath o'er my grave

CHORUS (x2)

Goodbye Reb, You'All Come

General Grant and General Lee met beneath the apple tree
"The war is over" "Yes-siree, all of us fighting men are free"

CHORUS
Goodbye reb, y'all come, goodbye reb, y'all come
Goodbye reb, y'all come, we'll have a cake and a bottle of rum

I've got a sweet thing in New York, I've got a sweet thing in New York
I've got a sweet thing in New York, I'm gonna tell her about this war

Well, I've got a wife in New Orleans, I've got a wife in New Orleans
I've got a wife in New Orleans, I want some of her turnip greens

CHORUS

Sister said to bring her, yay! Sister said to bring her, yay!
Sister said to bring her, yay! Her corn cellar ain't got no prey

Bring your sister to Ohio, bring your sister to Ohio
Bring your sister to Ohio, my good brother will be her beau

CHORUS

Ain't a-gonna play war no more, ain't a-gonna play war no more
Ain't a-gonna play war no more, I lost my hat and my pants got tore

I'm so glad this war is done, I'm so glad this war is done
I'm so glad this war is done, let's home and have some fun

CHORUS (x2)

The Grey Ghost

Instrumental

Greycoat Soldiers

Where the cold, clear mountain spring did roll
The green beech tree hung ‘cross the road
Iron rim wagons caught the sun
Back in the year of sixty-one

Now Sherman’s army marched around
In 64, he burned Georgia down
Settings wings to the feet
Of every living soul he’d meet

CHORUS
Graycoat Soldiers have gone
Marching in a ragged war
Young wives and babies cried alone
For fathers, they saw no more

Well, they tore up rails and wrecked the bridge
Down by the hill they call Mission Ridge
Hell it raged for days and nights
An end it seemed was not in sight

Well they loaded up the cannon with nails and chains
A noise that would drive a man insane
Rifles rang sharp and loud
In that battle above the clouds

CHORUS
Graycoat Soldiers have gone
Marching in a ragged war
Young wives and babies cried alone
For fathers, they saw no more

Now they’re all gone to the rocks and the hills
And the green grave yard on the hill
And no one does recall the day
Corporal Johnson rode away
And cast iron markers they stand there
Guarding the battleground with care
Cannons rest all in a row
Prepared to meet some ghostly foe

CHORUS

Harder Than Steel

Have you heard the red hawk's cry
In the morning high on Roan Mountain
When the sun comes up over Carolina hills
The wind sweeps softly through the pines

Have you seen the blue smoke rise
From the chimney down in the valley
Where the big water wheel turns the iron ore to steel
Harder than a heart that's made of stone

CHORUS
The trail winds up past the rocks and the balds of the Roan
And it's leading me back to the old home 'neath the pines
Why did I decide to roam?

I had shared the stream with the wounded
I washed my eyes that were blind from the gunsmoke
And when the fighting was all done and we knew that we had won
We laid our brothers in the ground

Every spring I return to Roan Mountain
Just to search for the heart that was lost there
And I look for the stones that mark long forgotten bones
Harder than the steel that cut them down

CHORUS

Have you heard the red hawk's cry
In the morning high on Roan Mountain
When the sun comes up over Carolina hills
Why did I decide to roam?

Hardtack and Salt Pork

Hardtack and salt pork was standard food issue to soldiers of the Union Army, and because of its ability to remain safe to eat for long periods of time, it was issued in plentiful amounts to troops on the move, marching from one location to another or one battle to another. Soldiers grew to dislike the steady diet of salt pork and hardtack and complained vigorously about it, but because of hunger and the lack of other food, they ate it anyway. From another point of view, Robert Catlett Cave, of the 13th Virginia Infantry, related that upon securing a Union haversack containing hardtack and raw pork from the field following a battle, he scraped the raw pork and spread it on the hardtack. He said, "I found it to be rather tasty." (Hardtack and Raw Pork) The song pokes fun at its constant issue and tells the sad but funny tale of the ordinary soldier's feeling toward it.

Well it's hardtack and salt-pork to eat every day
We dont like it, it's the Army way
I swear I won't take it but do any way
So it's hardtack and salt-pork to again today

One day they gave us beans and cornbread
But the cornbread had weevils that weren't even dead
We were happy to get it -- it sure were a treat
Cause hardtack and salt-pork just ain't hard to beat

Well they sent me to prison but I ran away
Cause dinner was rat soup and rice every day
I went back to my unit without delay
And was happy for hardtack and salt-pork that day

We found some green apples and ate them instead
In just a few hours we wished we were dead
Cause this old dysentery it sure is a fright
We were glad to get hardtack and salt-pork that night

Whenever we wake up, the men always pray
That we won't have hardtack and salt-pork that day
They all ask for biscuits and gravy and steak
But there's only two things that the Army can make

I've ate so much hardtack and salt-pork by now
That when I find water I drink it all down
When this war is over if we loose or win
I will never eat hardtack or salt-pork again

He Had A Long Chain On

At the beginning of the Civil War the men in Arkansas where I [Jimmy Driftwood] live, Searcy and later Stone Counties, said they would not fight against the U.S. Government, neither would they fight against their friends in the South. They were rounded up and captured by the southern army and marched away to Little Rock in chains. I was told there were 100 of them and the odd man just wore a ball and chain whereas the other 99 were chained in three's. The man with the ball and chain got into the thick willows in a creek near my home and got away according to legend. He never was captured nor would he ever let the welded chain be cut off his body. Wherever I have sung this song, there have been differences of opinion as to its meaning. Alan Lomax thinks this is one of the greatest songs he has ever heard and he said, "Let each individual interpret it for himself."

One night as I lay on my pillow
Moonlight as bright as the dawn
I saw a man a-walking
He had a long chain on

I heard his chain a-clanking
It made a mournful sound
Welded around his body
Dragging along the ground

CHORUS
He had a long chain on
He had a long chain on
He had a long chain on

He stood beside my window
He looked at me and he said
"I am so tired and hungry
Give me a bite of your bread"

He didn't look like a robber
He didn't look like a thief
His voice was as soft as the moonlight
His face full of sorrow and grief

CHORUS

I went into my kitchen
Got him a bowl full of meat
A drink and a pan of cold biscuits
That's what I gave him to eat

Though he was tired and hungry
A bright light came over his face
He bowed his head in the moonlight
He said a beautiful grace

CHORUS

I fetched my hammer and chisel
Offered to set him free
He shooked his head and said sadly
"I guess we had best let it be"

When he had finished his supper
He thanked me again and again
Though it's been years since I've seen him
Still hear him draggin' his chain

He Walked All the Way Home

In the grim and final hour of the War between the States
He had enough dying, all the grief that he could take
From the Appamattox Courthouse, where the deed was sadly done
There was no place left for him to go but home

He walked all the way home to Southampton County
To carry all he owned and try to forget
Wearing sadness like a mantle for the friends he lost in vain
He walked all the way home to start his life again

In the end he knew the reasons but so many had been lost
For years to come the fallen would sleep beneath the cross
What he held in angry silence, time could never burn away
It was just the saddest price he'd ever pay

He walked all the way home to Southampton County
To carry all he owned and try to forget
Wearing sadness like a mantle for the friends he lost in vain
He walked all the way home to start his life again

When he stopped to take some water at a little roadside place
A pretty southern widow sadly looked into his face
As they talked a while his blue eyes seemed to ease her broken heart
One day he came back and took her home

He walked all the way home to Southampton County
To carry all he owned and try to forget
Wearing sadness like a mantle for the friends he lost in vain
He walked all the way home to start his life again

He walked all the way home to start his life again

He's Coming To Us Dead

Norm Cohen, in Long Steel Rail: The Railroad In American Folksong, states "There is nothing in the text of this song to link it unequivocally with either the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. The pieces was published in 1899 with words and music credited to Gussie L. Davis... however it was not uncommon for sentimental songs to be published in the 1890s that dealt with the Civil War. (Nor is it out of the question that Davis rewrote an earlier song or poem, as he did in the case of 'In the Baggage Coach Ahead.')"

Text from Songs As Sung by J. E. Mainer and His Mountaineers (1967)

One morning when the office had opened, a man came over here
To the express office, showing signs of grief and fear.
When the clerk approached him, with trembling words to say:
"I'm waiting for my boy sir, he's coming home today."

["]You have made a sad mistake, and you must surely know
This is a telegraph office sir, and not a town depot.
If your boy is coming home, this perfect mother's day
You'll find him with the passengers, at th station over the way.["]

"You do not understand me sir," the old man shook his head
"He's not coming as a passenger, but by express", he said.
"He's coming home to mother," the old man gently said
"He's coming in a casket sir, he's coming to us dead."

Then a whistle pierced the air, the express came in on time
The old man raised in a breathless speech and quickly rushed outside.
Then a long white casket was lowered to the ground
It showed a sign of grief and fear for those who gathered around.

"Do not use him so roughly boys, for that contains our darling Jack
He went away as you boys are, this is the way he's coming back.
He broke his poor old mother's heart, these things come true
And this is the way they all come back when they join the boys in blue."

Heading South

CHORUS
I'm headed South to North Carolina
This tar on my heels won't slow me down
Four years I've been gone and trying to get back home
To a little girl I left there crying
In our cabin in the Carolina pines

In Virginia we got our parole
And the Colonel said that we could go
He didn't have to tell me twice, I was through with all the fights
So many battles fought even though our cause that was lost

Goodbye to the lonely nights on picket
Goodbye to the moldy hard-tack biscuits
Not more cussin', screamin', cryin', no more watching my friends dyin'
Now I put my dirt feet on that old dusty road

CHORUS

When I kissed her at our cabin door
So many tears I've never seen before
But I remembered every day the last words she had to say
Right here I'll always be, oh, she's thinking back to me

CHORUS (x2)

Heroes

Jackson fell in Chancellorsville, and his own men shot him down
May the 12th in '63, they laid old Jackson down
General Lee lost his right arm when he laid old Jackson down
Yeah, they laid old Stonewall down

JEB Stuart was next in line to fill old Jackson's shoes
To stand up to a Stonewall had to be hard to do
Then May the 10th in '64 they got old JEB Stuart too
Lord, they got old JEB Stuart too

A.P. Hill was next in line before the fight was through
He rode hard at Petersburg to aide his battered troops
Then a Yankee bullet found his heart and A.P. Hill was through
Oh, A.P. Hill was through

Chancellorsville and Yellow Tavern, sacred southern ground
Petersburg, then on to glory, heroes will be found

And when the final armageddon turns this world around
And Jesus comes back to sounds of trumpets through the land
I'll bet that Jackson, Stuart and Hill will be on His right hand
Will be on His right hand

Chancellorsville and Yellow Tavern, sacred southern ground
Petersburg, then on to glory, heroes will be found

Heroes will be found
Heroes will be found

Hold The Line

Been marching on this old road since the break of day
Quick-stepping all the way
This time we'll have the high ground and we'll be here to stay
If they hit us now, well, they'll hell to pay

CHORUS
Hold the line, boys, hold the line
They're forming up to hit us one more time
We can't let 'em break us 'cause it could turn the tide
Close 'em up, we've gotta hold the line

We finished up the trenches across the valley road
Really had that dirt a-flyin'
Then the Colonel says we got 'em, they're in for a hard time
We got good ground if we'll just hold the line

CHORUS

Earlier they hit us with a mighty valiant charge
All we saw was men in blue
Boy, they really pressed us but they broke at fifty yards
But they're coming back and we know just what to do

CHORUS

Boys, hold the line
They're forming up to hit us one more time
We can't let 'em break us 'cause it could turn the tide
Close 'em up, we've gotta hold the line

How Do You Like the Army

Whiskey is good medicine, it helps with great and small
But when you're in the army, headquarters gets it all
They drink it by the barrel, the drink it by the yard
But if a private touches it they put him under guard

CHORUS
Oh, how do you like the army, the rootin'-tootin' army
The high-falutin army where the soldier is a mule
Oh, how do you like the army, the rootin'-tootin' army
The high-falutin army where the big brass buttons rule

The generals eat the chicken til they cackle in their sleep
The colonels and the captains eat all the cows and sheep
When soldiers get so hungry they steal a mangy pig
The biggest dump in Dixie they're sure to have to dig

CHORUS

And when we take a city they put us all on duty
The general and his officers go in to judge the beauty
The generals get the choices, the majors get the pickin's
The captains get the servants and the privates get the dickens

CHORUS

A Hundred Years Ago

In 1861 in it was, a hundred years ago
Our nation went to battle in a war that's shamed us so
Brother against brother, father against son
The Yankee bayonet against the Southern rebel gun

A hundred years ago, a hundred years ago
At Gettysburg the soldiers prayed
The shots were fired, the taps were played
A hundred years ago

Now it was at Fort Sumter that the bloody stage was set
For this great war our nation soon would not forget
Cousin killing cousin, so the story's told
Before the end we were to lose five hundred thousand bold

A hundred years ago, a hundred years ago
General Grant and General Lee
Shaped our nation's destiny
A hundred years ago

Vicksburg, Bull Run, Shiloh, Richmond, Chattanooga, too
Were the many battlegrounds where Greycoats met the Blue
Strewn with wounded Yankees dying in the mud
Wet with tears of anguish and all red with Rebel blood

Our nation suffered so let us now recall
For it must stand united or divided it will fall
If we learn the lesson the war has earned its worth
Our nation here united shall not perish from the earth

A hundred years ago (great God!), a hundred years ago
Our leaders sighed, they fought and died
While widows wept and mothers cried
A hundred years ago

I Know Moon-Rise

I know moon-rise, I know star-rise (Oh, lay this body down)
I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight (Oh, lay this body down)
I walk in the graveyard, I walk through the graveyard (Oh, lay this body down)
I lie in the grave and stretch out my arms (Oh, lay this body down)
I go the judgment in the evening (Oh, lay this body down)
And my soul and your sould will meet in the day (Oh, lay this body down)
I know moon-rise, I know star-rise (Oh, lay this body down)
I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight (Oh, lay this body down)
I walk in the graveyard, I walk through the graveyard (Oh, lay this body down)
I lie in the grave and stretch out my arms (Oh, lay this body down)
I go the judgment in the evening of the day (Oh, lay this body down)
And my soul and your sould will meet in the day (Oh, lay this body down)
I know moon-rise, I know star-rise (Oh, lay this body down)
I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight (Oh, lay this body down)

I'm a Pore Rebel Soldier

My Molly won't love me and she won't tell me why
So I'll jine Price's army and fight til I die
I don't mind the Federals, they jest make me made
But when Molly won't love me, it hurts me so bad

CHORUS
I'm a pore Rebel soldier a long ways from home
The fusses and the Federals won't leave me alone
The fusses and the Federals have caused me to roam
I'm a pore Rebel soldier a long ways from home

My mammy's against me, she says it's a shame
To go with the Rebels if fightin's my game
My brother's ole Sherman and my dad is ole Grant
But I'll stay with Price til they take off my pants

CHORUS

They say it's all over, Price laid down the law
So I'll go back home and have hell with my pa
They may take my country and they may take my gun
But I'll still be Rebel and a true Southern son

I'll hang up my rifle and give up my gin
And hope that my Molly will love me again
I'll build me a cabin on the mountaintop high
I'll be a good rebel til the day that I die

CHORUS

I'm Almost Home

Theodrick “Tod” Carter was the tenth child of Fountain and Mary Carter and grew up in the quiet village of Franklin, Tennessee. In the Spring of 1861, Tod left a promising law career to follow his older brother into the Confederate Army. Tod’s love of adventure led him to thrive in the army, and he quickly became Captain Carter. In 1864, Tod found himself only a few miles from home. Energized by the thought of seeing his family, Carter volunteered to lead the 20th Tennessee Infantry in a charge toward the Union lines entrenched just south of Franklin, shouting “follow me boys, I’m almost home!” Tod was mortally wounded in the battle yards from his doorstep. His father found him, and after three years away from home, he died in his front parlor surrounded by his family.

The tenth child born in the early spring, never wanted for much of anything
Most of his life had things his way, 'til black and white turned Blue and Gray
A volunteer soon deployed, just another sandy haired rebel boy
Tennessee born and bred, his Southern blood he gladly shed

Heard the news from John Bell Hood, the Federal boys were up to no good
Dug in deep on Columbia Pike, won't give it up without a fight
He jumped up on his dapple gray, volunteered to lead the fray
With sabre high and a rebel yell, "c'mon boys, let's give 'em hell"

CHORUS
A thousand miles and a thousand days
Brought him back here to this place
Where once in simpler times he'd roam
"Follow me boys, I'm almost home!"

Huddled in the basement there, the sound of cannons through the air
Never once did it cross their minds, their youngest son on the field they'd find
From this world of sorrow torn, in the very house where he was born
As his father said, "You've done your best," he drifted off and took his rest

CHORUS

I'm Going Home Tonight

Most Civil War soldiers had not been more than a few miles from their homes, prior to joining the army, and then they found themselves perhaps hundreds of miles away. Thus, their thoughts of loved ones, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and often sweethearts frequented their minds and dreams. Somehow thinking these good thoughts of home helped them through the rigors and difficulties of long marches, poor food, housing, and battles of simply being a soldier at war. In the song, "I'm Going Home Tonight," a soldier escapes all death and dying of battle by dreaming of home and loved ones, and looks forward to sleep and his dreams.

I left my home down in Kentucky
To fight in this old civil war
Most every day we fight a battle
Every night, I escape once more

I lay down on the cold hard ground
Tired and weary from our fight
Some of my comrades they didn't make it
But I'm going home tonight

I close my eyes and see sweet Becky
Hold her in my arms so tight
It's been a long time since I've seen her
But I'm going home tonight

Ma and Pa run out to greet me
In their eyes love shines bright
They throw their gentle arms around me
And I'm there at home tonight

There is no death or guns or battle
In this place of peace and light
Tomorrow a bullet might find me
But I'm going home tonight

From my dreams I wake come morn'in
And prepare for one more fight
If I make it through another day
I'll go home again tonight

Jeb's Black Horse Brigade

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

With the Civil War's 1861
Three hundred and thirty four men from Fauquier County
Each riding his own black horse
Enlisted with Jeb's black horse brigade and was off seaking for a fight in war's bounty

Now these horsemen were born to the saddle
And they knew well how to ride a steed
They rode and soon welded together
A great corps of fighting hell and leather lead

Now when McDowell's Union forces
Were badgered into a fight
Jeb Stuart's black horse cavalry
Charged and the Federals broke and ran with fright

Now when Jeb's sabre-riding cowboys
Rode proud behind their black horse banner
Bravely so rattled the Union morale
They couldn't fight in any manner

Fox hunters, planters, and just plain horsemen
Made up this famous black devil brigade
And they had the esprit de corps
And courage of a huge cannon's accolade

The swashbuckling and heroics exploits
Of Stuart's chosen horses and men
Surged forward two full years
Before Yankees even learned horses, or how to stay on them

But in due course of time
As disease and casualties mounted
Their black horses could not be replaced
And the cause for Confederacy discounted

Jeb Stuart's cavalry in Brandy Station's twilight
Bumped into ten thousand horses and Union forces might
The sad news came and General Lee knew
The Federals had learned to ride and fight

General Grant's blues never will forget
Hampton, Jones, Forrest, and Fitzhugh Lee
Equine princes Ashby and Stuart
Before surrender finally stopped the victory.

Jenny's Mill

Those bluebells blooming near the waterwheel
It's springtime in Virginia down by Jenny's Mill
Well, the river bottom's calling for this land to be tilled
It's springtime in Virginia down by Jenny's Mill

CHORUS
How many miles to Virginia
When you're north of the Mason-Dixon Line
There ain't enough Yankee bluecoats
To keep me from springtime
Down by Jenny's Mill

Up the death-riddled road down Appomattox way
Lincoln and Lee agreed the killing stops today
Brother against brother, what's the fighting for?
We all died a little in that bloody war

CHORUS

Woah, as I travel back across the blood-stained hills
I see makeshift cemeteries in barren burned-out fields
What used to be a memory now I see is real
Oh, it's eighteen hundred sixy five down by Jenny's Mill

CHORUS

It's eighteen hundred sixy five down by Jenny's Mill

Jesse James

A mild-mannered country boy got a fire in his eyes
When the Yankee soldiers and beat him while his daddy hung and died
Jesee joined Quantrill's men when he turned fifteen
He was born of a preacher man but he grew up hard and mean

CHORUS
Jesse James, you left your name in the rebels hall of fame
Jesse James, you left your name in the rebels hall of fame

He was one-way ticket Rebel soldier and a damn good friend of mine
Fighting for the Union Army wasn't what he had in mind
Jesse joined Quantrill's men and he learned the outlaw ways
The only thing that Jesse feared was his final judgment day

CHORUS

When the war was done, he gave his gun the Yankee soldiers, then
On the way he home they shot him down and the hell broke loose again
He robbed him twelve Yankee banks and seven northern trains
Give 'em hell, Jesse James, give 'em again

CHORUS

The Jingling Hole

(see also: The Jingling Hole from Linda Lay by John Lawless in Bluegrass Today)

There's a place hidden in the Blue Ridge where the shadows meet the trees
And a secret no one talks about but now the mountains keep
For folks there in those mountains, there was no blue or gray
They just wanted to be left alone to live life their own way

CHORUS
As the wind blows at night through the hollows
If you close your eyes and listen with your soul
The mountains may give up the gruesome story
About the Jingling Hole

Outsiders drew them to a fight they didn't care about
They fought a war within a war to keep those strangers out
Hidden in those mountains, a secret cave was found
Where mountain justice could be served from a deep hole in the ground

CHORUS

An iron pipe securely fit across a small abyss
Where captured enemies were forced to hang by fingertips
With spurs attached to leather boots a dance would soon begin
And the cave would hide screams of death that came from deep within

CHORUS

They just wanted to be left alone to live life their own way

John Wilkes Booth (Don't Make Us Beg)

John Wilkes Booth has let me down for the last time
God help us if we can’t pull this rotten tooth
I don’t care it the Civil War starts all over
I’m through waiting for John Wilkes Booth

We need a man like John Brown down in Harper’s Ferry
Dreams jumping out of his head, you can watch ‘em burn
Just a wild-eyed lunatic from Kansas
Somebody to teach ‘em a lesson that’s gonna stay learned

Where is John Wilkes Booth when we need him?
To drop a match in this powder keg?
That son of a bitch is up there in the balcony all alone
C’mon, John Wilkes Booth don’t make us beg

They’re dumping gasoline in the backyard, man I seen ‘em
Draggin’ Herbert Hoover out of that hole
They’re soaping over the windows in the Whitehouse
And they’re sinking all their money into coal

Where is Lee Harvey Oswald?
When we’re shaking and afraid?
We need a shadow in every window along the parade route
To make ‘em wish that they’d never joined that motorcade

Where is John Wilkes Booth when we need him?
C’mon man and shake that broken leg
That son of a bitch is up there in the balcony, man I can see ‘em
John Wilkes Booth don’t make us beg
John Wilkes Booth don’t make us beg
John Wilkes Booth don’t make us beg

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth was a southern man
Son of an actor in Maryland
Bound for fortune on a gas-lit stage
Bound to die at a tender age

Washington to Baltimore
He played the bills and he slept with whores
And he burned inside with a hatred deep
For the man who caused the south to weep

Young Abe Lincoln wasn't young no more
Tired old man when he won the war
And he dreamed at night of his death by the hand
Of the bitter world and a faceless man
And he saw his body in a ghastly dream
Draped in black while his widow screamed
Two silver dollars on his eyelids lay
Abraham Lincoln has died today

And they said there were five and they said there were ten
Some say that there was never more than just one man
Who would smile to see Mr. Lincoln dead
In the name of God and Dixie
In the name of God and Dixie Land

John Wilkes Booth and his band of men
They'd failed before, but would not again
And Good Friday dawned with a fickle sun
Then Booth declared the day had come

And the word was passed and the guns were brought
Down to Mary Sarrat's boarding house
Sealed in a note, Booth named just four
But would the gallows would swing with many more

And they said there were five and they said there were ten
Some say that there was never more than just one man
Who would smile to see Mr. Lincoln dead
In the name of God and Dixie
In the name of God and Dixie Land
John Wilkes Booth went to his grave
With a bullet in his neck and a broken leg
A patriot and his fantasy
Of redemption, grace, and bravery

And those who were hanged and those who spent
Their lives behind a jailer's fence
Only Booth could have proved them free
Of the taint of the conspiracy

For they said there were five and they said there were ten
Some say that there was never more than just one man
Who would smile to see Mr. Lincoln dead
In the name of God and Dixie
In the name of God and Dixie Land
In the name of God and Dixie
In the name of God and Dixie Land

Johnny Boy's Bones

Well I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times they are not forgotten
Look away, look away, look away
Dixieland

Oh, musket and cannon have torn his gray coat
Don't he look fine and handsome
Don't he look at his most
For he fought in the foxholes and at this I will boast
Don't they look fine and handsome
My poor Johnny Boy's Bones

CHORUS
Well, who will bring back my Johnny Boy's Bones
To lay beneath the trees of his Tennessee home
A box, a box made of sturdy white oak
With his arms folded up and his blue eyes all closed

Well he died for his country
And he died for his kin
And he died killing men
A most honorable sin
But them mean boys in blue
They done turned him in
When they laid him low
With a laugh and a grin

CHORUS (x3)

Johnny Reb

What a way to see the country, to get a pension and a half
Ain't no Federal gonna tell me where my gov'ment's gonna be at
Well, I was born in Mississippi, marched all the way through Tennessee
I learned to kill in north Virginia, keeping Yazoo City Yankee free

CHORUS
Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb, don't hold your head so high
Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb, keep your rifle by your side
Johnny Reb, Johnny Reb, don't make your momma cry
'Cause it's hot as hell in Gettysburg early in July

I ain't nothing but a cracker working river delta dirt
Only thing between beans and bacon was how hard I could work
The Thirteenth Mississippi gave almost forty cents a day
Now I gotta live until December or I don't collect my pay

CHORUS (keep your Bible by your side)

Smell of peaches sweet in the orchard, smell of powder in the air
Tween the captains barking orders, I hear the muffle sound of prayer
They say there's glory on Little Roundtop -- I've had all the glory I can stand
I seen the devil in Rappahannock -- I'm meetin' god in Dixieland

CHORUS (x2; first time, Bible, second time, rifle)

Johnson Island Prison

From the mountains outside Gettysburg, they marched us north and west
Yankee guns at our backs, and not much food or rest
I'm a prisoner of the Union, after two years in the war
At Johnson Island Prison Camp, just off Erie shore

CHORUS
Johnson Island, cold and damp
Dark Erie waters surround this Yankee camp
The bitter wind and blinding snow chill me to the bone
But in my soul a fire is burning for my Dixie home

In dreams of dear old Georgia, I smell the new-cut hay
Blazing sun bakes your brain and burns your back all day
I never saw a snowflake in that dear old Southern sky
But now the gray Ohio coast is covered solemn white

CHORUS

Been reading from the Good Book, I saw in black and white
St. Peter walked on water with Jesus late one night
Old Peter started sinking till he trusted in the Lord
My faith is in this frozen lake and I'm heading for the shore

Johnson Island, watch me run
Back home to Dixie, and that good old Southern sun
I'm staying in the Southland, but if I ever go
You'll never see this Georgia boy, any place it snows

Julie

Julie, oh Julie
Won't you run?
'Cause I see down yonder, the soldiers have come
Julie, oh Julie
Can't you see?
Them devils have come to take you far from me

Mistress, oh mistress
I won't run
'Cause I see down yonder, the soldiers have come
Mistress, oh mistress
I do see
And I'll stay right here 'til they come for me
Julie, oh Julie
You won't go
Leave this house and all you know
Julie, oh Julie
Don't leave here
Leave us, who love you, and all you hold dear

Mistress, oh mistress
I will go
Leave this house and all I know
Mistress, oh mistress
I will leave here
With what family I've got left, they're all I hold dear

Julie, oh Julie
Won't you lie?
If they find that trunk of gold by my side
Julie, oh Julie
You tell them men
That that trunk of gold is yours, my friend

Mistress, oh mistress
I won't lie
If they find that trunk of gold by your side
Mistress, oh mistress
That trunk of gold
Is what you got when my children you sold
Mistress, oh mistress
Don't you cry
The price of stayin' here is too high
Mistress, oh mistress
I wish you well
But in leavin' here, I'm leavin' hell

Just Before the Battle Mother

Just before the battle mother
I was drinking mountain dew
When I heard the sound of gunfire
To the rear I quickly flew
Where the stragglers were all gathered
Thinking of their home and wives
Twas not the Rebs we feared dear mother
But our own dear precious lives

CHORUS
Farewell, mother, you may never
Count my name among the slain
For if I only could skedaddle
Dear mother I'll come home again

Kennesaw Line

This song was originally written by Floridian Don Oja-Dunaway in the 1970s and first recorded by country singer Gamble Rogers. It's now most widely remembered for Claire Lynch's two versions, one with Front Porch String Band and the other as a solo project. Oja-Dunaway apparently released an entire Civil War concept album circa 1989 called Kennesaw, but I've been unable to find much more about this.

I am but a simple man, I've got no command of the written word
I can only try and tell you the things I′ve seen and heard
Listen to the picture forever etched on my mind
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta

Oh, the sun rose high above us that morning on a clear and cloudless day
A peckerwood tapped on the tree that would soon be shot away
Well, the heat blistered down through the leaves on the trees, the air seemed hot enough to catch fire
The heavens seemed to be made of brass as the sun rose higher and higher

Everything got real still and quiet, my old mess mate, Walter Hood
Said, "I believe them boys down there they're up to something, you know it ain′t no thing good"
Well the storm broke and swept down on us, rumbled through the hills
Walter sighed and dropped his rifle, he said something to me about whippoorwills

"Sammy, can't you hear 'em singing, singing for you and me
And all the Maury Grays carry me back to Tennessee
God bless the First and the Twenty-seventh, The Grand Rock City Guard
Nobody every told me, oh, that dying would be so hard"

"Sammy, I think I′ve been hurted real bad, ain′t this a hell of a day
Best go and leave me be now, I think I need some time to pray
Well, you know how bad I been wanting to go home, I couldn't see rightly how
Oh, Colonel Field ain′t gonna have a choice this time, I think I'm gonna get my furlough now"

Oh, don′t you tell me that you can't you hear 'em singing for you and me
Oh, and all the Maury Grays, oh, carry me back to Tennessee
Tennessee

I told you all I′m a simple man, I've got no command of the written word
I can only try and tell you the things that I′ve seen and heard
Listen to the picture forever etched upon my mind
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line

Well I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away, Dixie Land

The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line
The day that hell broke loose just north of Marietta all along the Kennesaw line

The Lady In Gray

“With so much heartache and loneliness in its past, it is no wonder that Camp Chase cemetery has witnessed a long history of strange occurrences.” – Dr. Von Zuko, author

In Columbus, Ohio, Camp Chase served as a Confederate prison camp where the lives of over 2000 soldiers were ended by disease and malnutrition from the notoriously poor conditions. The majority of these men were buried in the prison cemetery. According to legend, the spirit of a young woman in a gray traveling dress haunts the cemetery, pausing to cry over the grave of the Unknown Soldier and marker number 223, belonging to Benjamin F. Allen of the 50th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, Company D. To this day, the mournful weeping of the Lady in Gray can be heard at night behind the locked iron cemetery gates, and fresh flowers mysteriously appear on the tombstone of her lost love, Benjamin.

In one dark prison in a small Ohio town
Two thousand Rebs were laid to rest in Yankee ground
With their children, wives and mother's miles away
No one would weep or bring fresh flowers to their graves

Until one lonely grieving girl in Tennessee
Who missed the man whose bride she'd never be
Journeyed north to mourn him in her dress of gray
And be close to where her only true love lay

CHORUS
And the Lady in Gray still mournfully cries
At stone 233 where her Benjamin lies
With flowers and tears she grieves to this day
For the soldier who loved the Lady in Gray

She lived close to that graveyard 'til she died
Spending many hours there at Benjamin's side
And for two thousand lonely soldiers lying there
She never failed to weep or bow her head in prayer

Now fragrant flowers often suddenly appear
On unmarked stones when there is nobody there
And on moonlit nights on stone 233
A ghostly figure dressed in gray can still be seen

CHORUS
For the soldier who loved the Lady in Gray

Last Day at Gettysburg

The gray smoke from the battle
Rollin' over the hill
The fires, the dead, the dying
Are in my memory ever still

Oh, can't you hear
Hear that angel band
Singing, "Come home, soldier
To the Promised Land."

Longstreet, he stole away and cried
When Lee gave him the orders to attack
In his mind's eye he could see
That most of his boys would not be back

Oh, can't you hear
Hear that angel band
Singing, "Come home, soldier
To the Promised Land."

Willy Johnson and me
Rebel soldiers both from Tennessee
Willy, he's lyin' by my side
Spoke these words to me, and then he died

Oh, can't you hear
Hear that angel band
Singing, "Come home, soldier,
To the Promised Land."

Last Day At Vicksburg

“Vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until the key is in our pocket,” – President Abraham Lincoln

“Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South’s two halves together.” – Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Judging from the above quotes, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis both knew the extreme importance of the city of Vicksburg. The Siege of Vicksburg lasted from May 18th to July 4th. Union General Grant and his Army of Tennessee attacked the fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi held by Lt. General John Pemberton and the Army of Vicksburg. The surrender of the city on July 4, 1863 gave the Union complete control of the Mississippi River, and, combined with General Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, is considered a turning point in the war. Private Andrew Jackson Andrews was a proud member of the 31st Alabama Infantry. He survived many days of starvation and fighting. He was hospitalized before July 4th and was not on the battlefield the day of the surrender. He passed away on July 9, 1863 in an army hospital from some sort of infection. The family never knew whether he was shot or not. His wife Sarah was given his straight razor, case and strop, items that have been passed down through the family for generations. It’s now in the hands of his great-great grandson, co-writer Terry Foust.

In 1863, on the ninth day of July
In the Mississippi Delta, my great-great grandpa died
Andrew Jackson Andrews stood and faced the call
In the War Between the States where so many men would fall

In Talladega County, in March of '62
The time had come to join the fight against the Union Blue
Alabama's 31st stood eleven hundred strong
An infantry that fought with pride to defend their Southern home

CHORUS
His last day at Vicksburg, he looked battle-worn
His suit of gray was faded, dirty, stained, and torn
He'd never fired a single shot that final July day
His last day at Vicksburg, they carried him away

History tells a story of Vicksburg, under siege
Forty-seven of dying from gunshot and disease
They must of thought they'd walked straight through the gates of hell
Down on the Mississippi, the day that Vicksburg fell

CHORUS

(spoken) On a hot July morning, his young life slipped away
'Cause his pride would not be challenged while he wore his suit of Gray

His last day at Vicksburg, they carried him away

Last Letter Home

I have heard the cannons thundering at night
And I cannot help but wondering why the rebel's cause is right
And the morphine seems to do no good at all
I would run all the way if I would not fall

CHORUS
And I dreamed of a rose in a Spanish garden
And I kissed you as I placed it in your hair
If I'm ever on my feet again, I will
I will run all the way just to meet you there

Joined the Southern cavalry for fun
I have rode a thousand horses, always had a way with a gun
Now I'm among the horseless riders lying still
Swallowed up by the cause on the hero's hill

CHORUS (x2)

The Last Time

Momma made my uniform, sewed a stripe on the shoulder
Poppa wanted my company flag: "Bring it back when it's over"
Jenny came to say goodbye and she said would wait for me
On the stallion I set out leaving Tennessee

CHORUS
"This is the last time you'll see Jenny"
That's what the cottonwoods keep singing to me
"Cause the last time you'll see Jenny
Will be the last time you see Tennessee"

I took her by the hand, it was last September
My Jenny made that day one I'd remember
I promised to return soon after victory
Down the road I waved her by joining Robert E. Lee

CHORUS

I held her close to me as we lay by the river
And now I'm going to see the baby I gived her
Momma made my uniform that I wore so gallantly
"Poppa, I'm sorry your flag's wrapped all around me"

CHORUS

Leaving This Lonesome Land

My calloused hands, they dig the hole
Master's field is full of souls
Cato lying the read oak tree
Heart gave out at sity three

Cato dropped his hoe and fell
Never made it to the evening bell

Never made a break to run
Now I dig his grave in the Asheville sun

The need the fields at the end of day
To bid farewell and sing and pray

We lay him down in a wicker tomb
Mh-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm

Place a stone above his head
On mark for the slave that's dead

Circle the grave and lay the white shells
And Cato leaves this earthly hell

Silent summer evening tolls
For the lost plantation souls

From whip and chains I took flight
I lit out one moonless night

Smell of blood still in the air
Killed him dead, I'll say no prayer

Pattyroller lost my trail
Dig your graves, I ain't for sale

Heading for the Union lines
Who lead me through the lonesome pines

Lee's Command

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

Every hundred years or so, time can count on its hand
Godly and worldly men who lead us and command
Remember rebel Southland's cry and bid for able fame
Called for a man, Robert E. Lee, to keep and call its name

He put his faith and forces, then, and greater deeds to come
In Longstreet, Jackson, and Hood, great ones to mention some
And Traveller, his great white horse, Light Horse Harry reminds
Of revolutionary fame in peace and warring kinds

He drove McClellan out of Richmand, Pope out of Bull Run's hell
Beat Hooker at Chancellorsville, lost Jackson to a southern shell
His ragged and tired army, lacking numbers and supplies
Gave up at Appomattox, surrendered dignity with sighs

Of different and finer metal, cast was he, grandeur herald
Apart and superior to the worthy of the world
Through the hard pages of time his name stands aloft, alone
His Confederacy lost the Civil War but his greatness forever's sown

Lee's March

Instrumental

Legend of the Rebel Soldier

In a dreary Yankee prison where a revel soldier lay
By his side there stood a preacher Ere his soul should pass away
And he faintly whispered: “Parson” as he clutched him by the hand
Oh Parson, tell me quickly, Will my sould pass through the southland?

Will my soul pass through the Southland, through old Virginia grand
Will i see the hills of Georgia and the green fields of Alabam?
Will i see that little churchhouse, where i pledged my heart and hand
Oh Parson, tell me quickly, will my soul pass thorugh the Southland?

Was for loving dear old Dixie, in this dreary cell I lie
Was for loving dear old Dixie, in this northern state i die
Will you see my littl daughter, wil you make her understand
Oh Parson, tell my quickly, will my soul pass through the Southland?

Then the Rebel soldier died.

The Legend Of Jennie Wade

“If there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath. And as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.” -Sullivan Ballou in a letter to his wife.

Jennie Wade lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with her husband and childhood sweetheart Johnston “Jack” Skelly, until Jack left to fight for the Union in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was injured in the Battle of Winchester and taken to a nearby hospital where he ran into a childhood friend fighting for the South, Wesley Culp. He gave Wesley a letter to take to Jennie if he ever was in Gettysburg again, not knowing that two weeks later, Wesley would be there along with the entire Army of Northern Virginia. Before he was able to deliver the message, Wesley was mortally wounded, and his body never identified. Meanwhile, Jennie did her part for the Union baking bread for the soldiers until a stray bullet traveled through the kitchen door and killed her instantly. She never knew the fate of her friend Wesley or her dear Jack. Jennie was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Jennie Wade was in the middle of a town tore all apart
Waiting for a true love who would always have her heart
Jack was wounded in Virginia where a rebel shot him down
His dying wish to send a letter back to her in his hometown

He found comfort in a childhood friend who'd joined the Southern cause
He was ordered on to Gettysburg to hold the Union soldiers off
Promised Jack he’d deliver his last words to Jennie's hand
But on a hill above that little town he died making a stand

Now Jennie Wade still lived with hope in Gettysburg
Waiting for the soldier who was never coming home to her
She never knew her boy in Blue would not come back
Cause Jack's letter lay lost in a fallen Rebel's sack

Though some wore Blue and some wore Gray, each night they were in her prayers
And she kept the bread a-baking so they'd not die hungry there
'Til a stray sharp shooter's blast found her kitchen door
She was gone before she knew what hit her, gone forever more

Now Jennie Wade still haunts the streets of Gettysburg
Waiting for the soldier who was never coming home to her
She'll never know those loving words from her sweet Jack
Cause Jack's letter lay lost in a fallen Rebel's sack

Now Jennie Wade still haunts the streets of Gettysburg
Waiting for the soldier who was never coming home to her
She'll never know those loving words from her sweet Jack
Cause Jack's letter lay lost in a fallen Rebel's sack

Lincoln's Funeral Train

On the twenty-first of April
Eighteen and sixty-five
The Three-Thirty-One left Washington
For Lincoln's last train ride

Cannons boomed, the bonfires burned
The evergreens wore grey
Three-Thirty-One, in the morning sun
The hearse, that journey made

See that train comin', boys, rollin' down Main
Draped in black, she won't be back; it's Lincoln's funeral train
With a portrait of a martyred man, shot down by a traitor
Now toll the bell and bid farewell to the Great Emancipator

And on the locomotive front
His picture adorning
In the oil lamps' gleaming yellow light
Rumbling on `til morning

The engine, Nashville Number Fifteen
With her black flags flying
Ran from Cleveland to Springfield
Past the mourners, crying

See that train comin', boys, rollin' down Main
Draped in black, she won't be back; it's Lincoln's funeral train
With a portrait of a martyred man, shot down by a traitor
Now toll the bell and bid farewell to the Great Emancipator

Crowds jammed the streets for a final look
At the great man who had stood
At the country's helm, through the bitter war
That seemed of little good

Felled by the bullet of John Wilkes Booth
As the battle died away
His guiding spirit to reconciled
By absence brought dismay

See that train comin', boys, rollin' down Main
Draped in black, she won't be back; it's Lincoln's funeral train
With a portrait of a martyred man, shot down by a traitor
Now toll the bell and bid farewell to the Great Emancipator
Now toll the bell and bid farewell to the Great Emancipator

Mandy Play Your Mandolin/The Girl I Left Behind Me

CHORUS
Mandy play your mandolin
Oh, for your soldier boy
While I'm still at home
Play it softly all night long
In a short while I'll be gone
Mandy, play for me your song

When I left for Tennessee
With Forrest's cavalry
So many fights I've seen
But in my mind I'd always hear
Above the battle's din
You playing on your mandolin

Every fight, we'd try to win
Woah, we fought through thick and thin
We did our very best
Now a bullet's broken me
No more fightin' will I see
Now I'm back at home

CHORUS

Mandy, please, dry your tears
Don't let me see you cry
I wanna see you smile
Just one more time then I'll be gone
But I won't go alone
I'll always have your song

Mandy, turn the lamp down low
One more song then I must go
Play it soft and slow
For it's the last song that I'll hear
Before my crown I'll win
Mandy, play your mandolin

CHORUS

Massa Run Away

Instrumental

Masters/Dixieland Lady

Master, sit down cause I need you
And I want you to hear me, don't steer me wrong
Cause I was six years when I was sold in Vicksburg
The nightmares were creepin', mammy was weepin' loud

And I was in love but they took her away
And sold her to some cotton man
And put her to work in some Dixieland field
Never to touch me again, oh, no, no

See, I was loving that lady, and she's gone away now
Sold off to some cotton man
And they put her far away in some Dixieland field
Never to touch me again, oh, no, no

So, master, sit down, can't you see I need ya
And I want you to hear me now, don't steer me wrong
Cause I was six years old -- I was only six -- when I was sold in Vicksburg
And the nightmares were creepin', mammy was weepin' loud

That Dixieland lady, name of Shawn
She loves her man with her whole heart
That Dixieland man, then, fiddled on
Put it down to the dawn

Well I lost ten bills on a dead-end hope
And thirty more on a stallion
And the sun fell down on a loosing day
And I lost that night in a gallon

And Preacher Williams on Sunday morn'
His congregations collapsing
Everybody is gone to war
'Cept for him and the Lord

That Dixieland lady, name of Shawn
She loves her man with her whole heart
That Dixieland man, then, fiddled on
And put it down til the dawn
Put it down til the dawn

Miss Anne's Cotillion

Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond tonight

On to Richmond, on to Richmond, is the Yank's battle cry
And I know Richmond would make a fine prize
Cause I've got a furrow and I know where I'll go
To help me forget this old fight
It's Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond tonight

I'm a captain in JEB Stuart's cavalry
And I've shined my boots as well as can be
I've saddled up Reuben, I need to get moving
And leave out while there is still light
For Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond tonight

The belle of the ball will be Annie McBride
And I hope to dance with her close by my side
We'll eat cakes and candy and sip punch and brandy
And speak of the cause which is right
At Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond tonight

We'll step lively to the Bonny Blue Flag
And old Soldier's Joy if the fiddlers don't drag
The room will be swaying while the band is playing
Reels and waltzes and the like
At Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond tonight

Tomorrow it's back in the saddle for me
Hard tack and coffee and fond memories
Of a night down in Richmond where I felt like a rich man
And tasted its special delights
At Miss Anne's cotillion in Richmond one night

Montani Semper Liberi

A lot of men in blue stood and fell
Haunted by that rebel yell
That damned old Civil War is on
Their on their way and it won't be long

Momma stitched my uniform
But no colors do I choose
They'll never take this mountain
The gray, nor the blue

CHORUS
Cause mountaineers are always free
And almost heaven's good enough for me
Upon this land, I'll stake my creed
Mountaineers are always free

In the year of 1863
It was twenty days in June
When God blessed West Virginia
Like a sweet fiddle tune

Some died for the union blue
And some died for the gray
But I'll day on this mountain
For on to hell he'll say

CHORUS

Montani Semper Liberi

A Mother's Prayer

A Civil War folktale shared by Wilma's family from the hills of Webster County, West Virginia tells of an elderly mother whose only son left her alone to join the Confederate Army. Before the war ended, the son was killed and shortly after receiving the news of his death, the broken-hearted mother also died. "A mother's Prayer", written and sung by Wilma, shares the love, loneliness and despair of this elderly mother.

An old gray haired lady lay down to sleep
With thoughts of her only son
So far away in an awful war
His duty to be done

When he was just eight, they'd each made a vow
When his father went away
To care for each other through life here on earth
A pledge they had kept till this day

Theirs was a bond of love so strong
That parting caused great pain
She'd prayed each day for her loving son
That he'd come home again

In her dream he walked up the old home path
As he'd done in his days as a lad
Dear Mother he said, we'll meet again soon
Don't worry or be sad

And holding her hand and kissing her brow
He slowly faded away
On waking she knew she would see him no more
And the sad news came that day

Dear Lord I have no one left on this earth
The heartbroken mother cried
And clutching his picture to her breast
She bowed her head and died

Now Mother and Son are together once more
In a land that's always day
She in a homespun gingham dress
And he in rebel gray

Murderers On the Cumberland Plateau

Murderers On The Cumberland Plateau was written after having read Harry Caudill's book Night Comes To The Cumberlands. We were fascinated by his descriptions of how many family feuds started and the relationship between many of the feuds and the Civil War. The first time we ever sang the song was at the Down Home in Johnson City. After our last act a woman from the audience came up to us and said that her great-grandmother had gone through an experience similar to that of the woman in the song. So the song is real to at least one person. - Robin Williams (Now and Then, Vol. 2, Issue 3 (1985), p. 22

My Black Bird Has Gone

Mr. Driftwood: "My Blackbird is Gone," a Civil War Song that the listener will have to interpret for himself. It might be a white boy or a white girl singing about a black mammy that he might have had. It could be a black boy singing about his sweetheart that's gone. Well, as Alan Lomax says, you have to interpret this song for yourself."

She had the soul of an angel
She had a heart that was true
Her lips were sweet as the hummingbird's mouth
All filled with the sweet honeydew

She taught me how to be humble
She taught me how to pray
I thought I would die when she said goodbye
And they carried my blackbird away

CHORUS
My blackbird is gone
My blackbird is gone
My blackbird is gone away
They came with a chain
They called her sweet name
And they carried my blackbird away

List to the roar of the cannons
Look at the battle array
It's all because of the tears that I shed
When they carried my blackbird away

Angels a-singing in heaven
Hushed their sweet songs when they heard
The cries of my heart
When they tore me apart
From the arms of my pretty blackbird

My blackbird is gone
My blackbird is gone
My blackbird is gone away
They came with a chain
They called her sweet name
And they carried my blackbird away

My blackbird is gone
My blackbird is gone
I'll never forget the sad day
They came with a chain
They called her sweet name
And they carried my blackbird away.

My Brother Paul and Me

I am from Virginia, my brother Paul and me
Paul became a soldier in Virginia's infantry
Soon I will be going north to join the war
A band of soldiers waits for me up in Baltimore

When I arrived in Maryland, the Union line was thin
We took to the higher ground defending Washington
We marched to Antietam in the fall of '62
That's where I saw twelve thousand dead dressed in Union blue

CHORUS
On and on they march us down a never-ending line
To the battlefield and lead us to the fight
I am from Virginia and I'll fight the rebel's cause
But I'll die before I fight my brother Paul

Paul, I hope this letter finds you doing well
I am camped near Gettysburg on Little Roundtop Hill
The battle starts tomorrow, they say it means the war
That we hold all the higher ground, the South will be destroyed

The cannon starts to fire as the rebels form their lines
I can see Virginia's flag marching slowly into sight
But once I feel like running like a coward from the fight
I'd rather face dishonor than to have to take Paul's life

CHORUS

The battle's finally over, somehow I have survived
Without a single round of lead from my rifle being fired
And Paul, I pray from this field today you'll walk away
We'll march back to Virginia, me in blue, you in gray

CHORUS

I am from Virginia, my brother Paul and me

My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains

Now I've been traveling with old Mosby
I've been traveling with old Mosby
Lord, I've been traveling with old Mosby
And I never expect to see you anymore

CHORUS
My home's across the Blue Ridge Mountains
My home's across the Blue Ridge Mountains
My home's across the Blue Ridge Mountains
And I never expect to see you anymore

Now how can I keep from crying
How can I keep from crying
Lord, how can I keep from crying
When I never expect to see them anymore

CHORUS

Now if you see my poor mother
If you see my poor mother
Lord, if you see my poor mother
Tell her I never expect to see her anymore

CHORUS

(My Mammy's Miss America) My Daddy's Uncle Sam

I started out of Jamestown young and fancy free
I went through old Virginia and the hills of Tennessee
I met the French and Indians and we swapped a little lead
They asked about my pedigree and this is what I said

CHORUS
I'm just a good old country boy, that's just what I am
My mammy's Miss America and my daddy's Uncle Sam

I built a hundred campfires beneath that Southern moon
Then I went to old Kentucky with my buddy Daniel Boone
When the settlers crossed the mountains and squatted close to me
I crossed the Mississippi and the mighty Missouri

CHORUS

'Twas on the lone prairie when my horse lay down and died
So I gelded a big buffalo and I broke him out to ride
The boys in California, oh, they gave a big hooray
Their voices shook the mountains every time they heard me say

CHORUS

I traveled with Kit Carson from Montan' to Mexico
'Twas me that gave Bill Cody the name of Buffalo
I was standing with my general when he shook with Robert Lee
I'll be right there the next time my country calls for me

CHORUS

I've helped to raise my country from the valley to the sky
I'm not ashamed to live a while and I'm not afraid to die
I've been this wide world over and I stand right here to say
The place I love the best is in the good ol' USA

CHORUS

My Sittin' Window

At my sitting window
I see people walking by
Clouds up in the sky
At the mercy of the wind
At my sitting window
I see a young boy on his bike
I always wave when he rides by
And pops a wheelie now and then
He reminds me of a lad I used to know
So long ago
At my sitting window
I see a couple and a moving van
With some boxes in their hands
Guess that old house finally sold
They act just like two fools I knew back when
Takes me back again

CHORUS (x2)
And no one knows I'm here
And no one knows my name
I lived in this house for years
I hide behind this pane
And this old rocking chair
Somehow became my tomb
And they wonder why it stays cold in this room

At my sitting window
I still see that Union flag
Feel that hot lead in my back
Turn the snow red on the ground
At my sitting window
I guess I'll always stay 18
And Clara's still the girl for me
But I never got to tell her so
And she hummed Dixie as she watched them lay me down
And every evening I still hear those cannons sound
At my sitting window

New Dixie

This energetically crude duet may very well have been improvised on the spot by Norris and Tanner. It possibly represents a very imperfect impression of the serious minstrel standard I'm Going Back To Dixie. The probably line-up on this cut is: Fate Norris - banjo, lead vocal; Gid Tanner -- fiddle, soprano vocal; Arthur Tanner - guitar.

Gwine back to Dixie
Gwine back to Dixie
I'm gwine back to Dixie far away
Going to my home
That I love to roam
For down in Dixie is my home

I am a gypsy
I am a gypsy
I am a live-right gypsy boy
Back to my home
Never to roam
For I know that Dixie is my home

Goin' back to again
Goin' back to again
I'm goin' back to Dixie far away
Gwine to my home
There I long to roam
For down in Dixie is my home

I am a gypsy
I am a gypsy
I am a little gypsy boy
Going to my home
Never to roam
For down in Dixie is my home

Goin' back to again
Goin' back to again
I'm goin' back to Dixie far away
Gwine to my home
Never to roam
For down in Dixie is my home

I am a gypsy
I am a gypsy
I am a little gypsy boy
Going to my home
Never to roam
For down in Dixie is my home

Nights On The Tennessee

I remember when we wed at our home on the Tennessee
Moonlit walks on the river road, holding hands, just you and me
And sure as that old river rolled we thought there'd always be
Nights just like those nights on the Tennessee

War sent me away to Georgia in the fall of '63
Always on our guard, fighting so desperately
But tonight the guns are quiet and the stillness reminds me
Of nights just like those nights on the Tennessee

CHORUS
So I'll think of you and how things used to be
And I'll think about how happy you made me
Around our home before the war, we thought there'd always be
Nights just like those nights on the Tennessee

Oh, and if I get back home and you're still there for me
We'll share nights like those on the Tennessee

CHORUS

Oh, and if I get back home and you're still there for me
Hope there's nights just like those on the Tennessee

Northern Prison Blues

Elmira Prison was in existence for about one year toward the end of the Civil War, yet 2,933 Southern soldiers, of the 12,122 that were imprisoned, died there. Upon their release, an eye witness to the survivors related, "I speak in all reverence when I say that I do not believe such a spectacle was ever seen on earth... On they came, a ghastly tide with skeleton bones, lusterless eyes, brains bereft of but one thought, and hearts purged of but one feeling, the thought of freedom, the love of home." (Elmira Prison web site). The song "Northern Prison Blues" speaks of the prisoner's desire to be free and to go home, the abiding thought that kept them going in the face of dire, dire circumstances, perhaps even living, more than any other influence.

I'm in prison in Elmira where the chilly winds do blow
On the banks of Chemung River and I'm feeling mighty low
I've been here in this prison since eighteen sixty four
Wondering if I'll ever see the dear old South once more

Chorus
I've got the northern prison blues
Wishing I was home and thinking dear of you
Just waiting for this old Civil War to end
So I can once again be free and go back home again

We were fighting down near Richmond when a bullet brought me down
I could not get away so I lay there on the ground
The Yankees finally found me and carried me away
And I've been here in this prison since that awful day

Life here in this prison is a struggle at it's best
Many men have died here their souls have gone to rest
Every day they call the roll there're less of us to count
I'm determined I'll survive and someday I'll get out

Chorus

Not A Word of That Be Said

Raise me in your arms, my brother
Let me see the glorious sun
I am very faint and dying
Is the battle lost or won?

I remember you, my brother
Who sent to me that fatal dart
Brother fighting 'gainst brother
'Tis well, 'tis well that this we part

CHORUS
Write a letter to my mother
Tell her that her boy is dead
That he perished by his brother
Not a word of that be said

Father's fighting for the Union
You may meet him on the field
Could you raise your arm and smite him?
Could you bid your father yield?

He who loved us in our childhood
Taught the infant prayers we said
Brother, take from me this warning
I'll soon be numbered with the dead

CHORUS

Do you ever think of Mother
In our home within the glen
Watching, praying for her children
Would you see that home again?

Brother, I am surely dying
Keep the secret, from this one*
That would kill our angel mother
If she but knew what you have done

CHORUS

* This was probably meant to be either "from this war" or "just this one" (as in the original)

O Captain! My Captain!

O captain, my captain, our fearful trip is done
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring

But heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red
Where on the deck my Captain lies
Fallen cold and dead

O captain, my captain, rise up and hear the bells
Rise up -- for you the flag is flung -- for you the bugle trills
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths -- for you the shores a-crowding
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning

Here captain, dear father
This arm beneath your head
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won

Exult, o shores, and ring, o bells
But I, with mournful tread
Walk the deck my captain lies
Fallen, cold, and dead

Exult, o shores, and ring, o bells
But I, with mournful tread
Walk the deck my captain lies
Fallen, cold, and dead

Oh Florie

My heart it broke in one little bits and I tell you all what for
My sweetheart was a very patriotic girl and she runs me off with the war
I fight for her the battle of the flag as brave as ever I can
But a long time ago she nixes me and runs off with another man

CHORUS:
Oh, Florie (Florie, Florie), what makes you so unkind?
You went with Hans to Germany and left poor Schnapps behind

We marched all day and the rain come down just like old Noah's flood
I sleeps all night with my head on a rock and my feet all stuck in the mud
The nightmare come and I cotch him by the tail; I dreams I sleep with a ghost
Next day I was frozen in the mud just like a barnyard goat

They gives me hardtack bread to eat but likes to broke my jaw
Sometimes I split him with an iron wedge and sometimes with a saw
The beef he was so salty, Lot's wife killed him, I know
And the general says they put him in the brine ten thousand years ago

At last we takes a southern town and hold him for one year
They puts red pepper in the sauerkraut and vinegar in the beer
I meets a lady on the street as pretty as one could be
I tries to kiss her rebel lips and hoch! she spit on me!

Old Elijah

Elijah, oh, and Johnson with Jackson in the war
He served his time in Caroline and the east Virginia shore
And he'd seen enough of that rebel blood to drive any man insane
Somebody'd mentioned Yankee, he'd just spit and cuss the name

They called him Old Elijah from the day that he was born
And he worked the wheel at the grinding mill sacking Carolina corn
And his woman died with a stillborn child and left him there to raise
His only living daughter with a sweet angelic face

CHORUS
And he swore that he would love her
And he swore that he would kill
Any man who threatened danger
To his angel, Sarah Jill

One night as he lay sleeping he heard footsteps in the rain
And he saw a shadow moving in the dim light of a flame
And he swore it was the uniform of the Union man he'd dread
So he fired out in his anger from the window as he said

Your Union killed my brothers when they took their rebel stand
Now I'm gonna spill your Yankee blood here on my Southern land
And when the gun lay silent and all the words were said
He ran to hide his daughter but he found an empty bed

CHORUS

He ran up toward the mill side where he'd seen the shadow go
And he found the lamp still burning and there in the ember glow
Lay a bloody woolen overcoat and a petticoat of lace
And a lifeless body with a sweet angelic face

The preacher and the family sadly bowed their heads to pray
And with solemn words they sought the Lord beside a double grave
Cause they found Elijah laying by her body in the dawn
His finger on the trigger of the pistol he had drawn

CHORUS

Old John Burns

“There’s my bullets, and here’s my powder horn, and I know how to use them.” -John Burns, from a letter by Colonel Callis of the 7th Wisconsin

John Burns, a veteran of the War of 1812, was in his early seventies when he heard gunfire outside his home in the Cumberland Valley. Guessing correctly it was the Union army on its way to Gettysburg; he went out to meet them. With an old flint lock pistol in hand, John Burns sought out the commander of the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers of the Old Iron Brigade and asked to be part of the regiment. Though he was told to stay in the back, Burns refused and joined the front lines. He was shot three times, but even that could not keep Old John Burns down. He tricked rebel soldiers into carrying an innocent old man home to his wife. John Burns was considered a true Union hero. He was visited by President Lincoln when he traveled to Gettysburg in 1863, and when Burns passed away the Iron Brigade decorated his grave in honor of his service.

John L. Burns was older than the hills
And a veteran of the War of 1812
When Lincoln asked for Union volunteers
He'd already served his country well

That brave soul, in 1861
Was the first in line to join the Union cause
But they called him a man too old to serve
They didn't see the fighting man he was

CHORUS
Old John Burns, he was a tough old bird
Born to hold a musket in his hands
Old John Burns, he left them with these words
"You haven't seen the last of this old man"
At Gettysburg in 1863
Old John picked up his musket one more time
When that war came to his Pennsylvania town
He proved his worth there on the battle line

CHORUS

That old rifleman would stand and he would fight
Right beside that brave Iron Brigade
It took three Rebel guns to bring him down
Yet death would have to come some other day

CHORUS
You haven't seen the last of this old man

A Picture Of Three Children

“…upon this picture his eyes, set in death, rested. The last object upon which the dying father looked was the image of his children…” -“Whose Father Was He?” The Philadelphia Inquirer Oct. 19, 1863

In the October 19, 1863 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, an article entitled “Whose Father Was He?” described in detail a picture of three children, all under age ten, that was found clutched in the hand of an unknown soldier killed three months prior in the Battle of Gettysburg. Dr. J. Francis Bourns was determined to find the family. This type of photograph, called an ambrotype, could not be printed in newspapers, so the description was circulated far and wide until it was fatefully read by a woman in Portville, NY. Philinda Humiston recognized the picture of her children Franklin, Alice and Frederick, and knew then that her husband, Amos Humiston, would not be returning home from war.

When that three day battle ended, one man in Blue was found
With no name to tell his story as they laid him in the ground
Just one more unknown soldier, but held tightly to his chest
Was a picture of three children, dressed in their Sunday best

They pried it from his fingers clutched tightly in his grasp
Knowing it was the last thing he'd seen before he passed
The story of that picture traveled farther north each day
Where all the local papers described on their front page

CHORUS
A picture of three children in three little wooden chairs
Two brothers and one sister, sweet faces and dark hair
Three angels to one soldier whose name remains unknown
A picture of three children whose father won't be coming home

In New York, a wife and mother was waiting for some word
From the father of her children, last seen in Gettysburg
When she read about that picture found on a Union man
And knew her husband, Amos, had held tightly in his hand

CHORUS (... whose name was finally known... )

It was a picture of three children, Amos won't be coming home

Poor Rebel Soldier

I’m a poor rebel soldier a long way from home
Ain’t had me no loving since the day I’ve been gone
Can’t find me no woman in this Yankee land
There’s a place in old Dixie I know where I can

Since I left old Georgia a long time ago
We run Grant’s big army in the land where it snows
The cold wind is blowing and freezing the rain
But there’s hot blood still running through these rebel veins

The call of the wild keeps howling to me
From the mountains down yonder in old Tennessee
Got a woman who’s waiting in old Knoxville town
When night falls I’m going to be Tennessee bound

I’m a poor rebel soldier and I’m going home
Cause I don’t call it living when I’m living alone
Come morning they’ll look but me they won’t find
I’m going to be south of that old Dixie line

Powder Dry

Them Shelby boys they stayed down in those old woods
Running for hours as long as they could
Soldier was a game they played long into the night
But little did John know back then it would be his life

Now he's just a calvaryman crossing bloody streams
Filled with Blue and Gray, where death is victory
They'll march on, they'll kill on, no fear in his eyes
Only to see again his sweet wife Angeline

He cried Angeline, I see you my mind
And my dear, I'm on my way
Oh, Angeline, with that baby of mine
On your hip, my kisses on your lips
That's where I'm gonna stay
Well they told us to pray every night and every day
And this is mine
God get me back to Angeline
And keep my powder dry

The last shot was fired, the war it was done
John headed back to the house with his horse and his gun
He felt so tormented with pain in his mind
He knew she could heal him, the love of his life

He reached that old hillside place he called home
Only greeted with ashes and sorrow
And he prayed to the Father, his dear he would not find
A-laying in the doorway, his son and Angeline

And he cried Angeline, now in Heaven you abide
And my dear, I'm on my way
Oh, Angeline, with that baby of mine
On your hip, my kisses on your lips
That's where I'm gonna stay
Well they told us to pray every night and every day
And this is mine
God take me now to Angeline
And keep my powder dry
Oh, keep my powder dry
So I can see the light
Keep my powder dry
So I can see the light

Oh, Angeline, now in Heaven we abide
And my dear, I fell my way
Oh, Angeline with that baby of mine
On your hip, my kisses on your lips
Tis is where I'm gonna stay
Well they told us to pray every night and every day
And this was mine
God get me back to Angeline
And keep my powder dry

Providence Spring

“God smote the hillside and gave them drink” – Inscription at Providence Spring

In November 1863, Confederate Captain Sidney Winder chose the village of Andersonville in Sumter County, Georgia as the location for a new prison for captured Union soldiers. The prison was completed in February of 1864, and by August there were over 33,000 Union soldiers enclosed in an area meant for 10,000 men. The stream that supplied the camp with water soon became polluted by human waste, and deaths from disease and gangrene rose, with up to 90 soldiers dying each day. In desperation, a group of soldiers began to pray for water. Soon, a storm broke out, and thunder roared, and where lightning struck the prison ground, a fountain of pure spring water erupted. Whether it was the prayer or construction of the prison that caused the underground water to well up, no one knows, but that clean water saved the lives of thousands of Union soldiers, and continues to flow to this day.

Life was hell on earth in a deadly Georgia prison
Where the stench of death could break the strongest soldier's will
For those Union men the reaper showed no mercy
For few survived the agony of Andersonville

For thirty thousand men it was standing room only
With no shelter from the burning sun or the pouring rain
One wretched stockade creek, the only source of water
Left union soldiers dying in misery and pain

CHORUS
'Til Providence Spring flowed like magic through that prison
They drank their fill while listening to the rumbling waters sing
In the face of deep despair, hope was finally there
In those pure, healing waters of Providence Spring


One day a storm cloud moved across the walls of that prison
One loud clap of thunder roared and lightning struck the ground
From that spot there flowed a pure and sparkling fountain
That quenched the thirst of many till freedom came around

CHORUS

CHORUS (3rd line: In the face of deep despair, hope was finally there)

In those pure, healing waters of Providence Spring

The Rebel and the Rose

There were many
Came to call on dark-eyed Jenny
Underneath that blood-red lantern in New Orleans
French Quarter, trés gentille
Make a man forget about what he don’t wanna feel
Circumstances
Make her wonder what the chance is
He’ll still have her if he lives to see
How his Alabama rose
Had to close the mouth of poverty

We’re all broken
True love knows
And it reaches out the healing hands of hope
To the body, to the soul
To the rebel and the rose

Abijiah
Stumbled over many miles
Like all the southern boys he was runnin’ scared
Unsure whether he
Should follow the letter she sent toward the first of the year
He reached the city
Determined to leave if pity
Was the only thing he read in her gaze anymore
Would she want a man
Who couldn’t hold her like he had before

We’re all broken
True love knows
And it reaches out the healing hands of hope
To the body, to the soul
To the rebel and the rose

Her arms around him, they stand
Lookin’ on their promised land
And thank the Lord for bringing forth
From barren ground
This crop of cotton and kids
A whole lotta happiness
They thought could never be found

We’re all broken
God only knows
He reaches out the healing hands of hope
To the body, to the soul
To the rebel and the rose

To the body, to the soul
To the rebel and the rose

Rebel Hart

“A liberal reward is offered for information leading to the whereabouts and eventual capture of a Miss Nancy Hart, about 16 years of age, black hair, dark eyes, fair complexion. Considered to be comely in appearance, and known to be a Rebel guide and spy.” – Civil War warrant circulated throughout Western Virginia early in 1862

Nancy Hart grew up on a small farm in the mountain districts of Roane County, Virginia. She was always known as the ‘rebel of the family,’ a moniker that proved apt when Nancy, unlike her Union soldier brothers, joined a band of pro-southern guerrillas known as the Moccasin Rangers in 1861. She could ride and shoot as well as the men, and she used her gender to lure unsuspecting Yankees into revealing information that she could take to Confederate Generals. Once, Nancy was recognized and captured in Summersville, but she seduced her guard and tricked him into giving her his rifle. She killed the guard and escaped, and came back a week later with 200 mounted infantry. Nancy managed to avoid the rope throughout the war, and ended her days in Greenbrier County with her husband Joshua. The south may have lost the war, but it seems the “Rebel Hart” came out a winner.

Born to be a rebel with a rifle in her hands
Nancy Hart could ride and shoot as good as any man
At just 14 her young heart embraced the Southern way
Another family divided between the Blue and Gray

With rangers in Virginia, as a soldier and a spy
A pretty country girl could pass right through those Union lines
She gathered information that brought those Yankees down
Until her reputation was spread for miles around

CHORUS
They called her Rebel Hart, and put a bounty on her head
When she was finally caught, she charmed a guard and shot him dead
Leaping out the window, a small shadow in the dark
Escaping on a stolen horse, that girl called Rebel Hart

She knew it wasn't over; there was more blood to be spilled
As Nancy led her rebel troops straight back to Summersville
She caught her captors by surprise as they wept and moaned
Seems like this time Rebel Hart was taking prisoners of her own

CHORUS

Escaping on a stolen horse, a girl called Rebel Hart

Rebel March

Instrumental

Rebel Raider

Adapted from Lee's Command by Albert J. Russo

John Singleton Mosby broke away from his band
Headed behind enemy lines, took everything in the land
Bravely brought it back, more and more like a ghost
Piled it where the Rebel men needed it bad and needed it most

CHORUS
Sneaked in here, poked in there, a certain in and outer
As Yankee bullets chased around, in stature he grew stouter

With a sly look and a grin as wide as high
Took everything from the North -- left Federals yelling to the sky
Sneaked behind the Yankee camps, took their hay and their horses
Took their guns and ammunition, took them to the southern forces

CHORUS

Ran the gauntlet with his men, sometimes with, sometimes without
Captured a general in his tent, took him south without a shout
A wincing thorn he was in the side of Yankee vent
Never stayed still very long, left trails of trouble wherever he went

Worried was the fidgety North over his every thought and breath
Daring deeds and warring work priced high his death

CHORUS (x3)

Rebel Soldier

I came back from the Civil War, just 22 years old I done killed near 50 men, and now the devil owns my soul
Well, I've always been a Christian man and that's not hard to tell
But with all the killing that I've done, well I'll surely go to hell

CHORUS Well I am a rebel soldier, no, I'm not afraid to fight
For the lives of the innocent and all my southern pride
Well I am a rebel soldier, no I'm not afraid to die
You may hang me in the morning but I'll haunt you in the night

Me and my brothers went to war, I was the oldest of the three
I was the only one who came home to a murdered family
Well, the Yanks had burned my house down with my family inside And my dad got shot tryin to fight em off and they left me there to die

CHORUS

Me and my friends got together to start a guerilla band
To track down them sons of bitches that torched up all our land
We left early in the morning on the 14th of July
And by the 26th of the very same month we put 'em in the by and by

CHORUS

Now I am a wanted outlaw, bounty hunter's on my trail
There's a law man behind every tree, wants to put me in the jail
Well, they cornered me in August of the very same year
And by noon on the next I was hanging by rope with a grin from ear to ear

CHORUS