Love and Lore of the Civil War

True Story Songs

  1. pause play
    To Clara Barton (4:33) - Letters written to Col. Tufts of the Soldiers Relief Committee reveal the humble supplies donated to Clara Barton for the enormous task of tending thousands of wounded soldiers. click here for song story & lyrics
  2. pause play
    Antietam Luminary (2:24) - 23,000 candles are lit annually in the Antietam Battlefields to honor the soldiers who were wounded, lost, or killed in just one day of conflict. click here for song story & lyrics
  3. pause play
    A Bullet Lives On (4:21) - Spent bullets were plentiful, so soldiers carved them into toys, tools and totems. click here for song story & lyrics
  4. pause play
    Would a Lady Tell a Lie (4:00) - Young Maria Kretzer defied Confederate orders to surrender her family's grand Union Flag when the rebels occupied Sharpsburg after the Battle of South Mountain. click here for song story & lyrics
  5. pause play
    Tolson's Chapel (3:17) - Hillary Watson's tombstone stands in the graveyard of Tolson's Chapel in Sharpsburg, MD. The chapel was built by emancipated slaves and also used as a school house. It was recently restored. click here for song story & lyrics
  6. pause play
    Bushwhackers and Bushongs (2:32) - A young man escaped involuntary conscription. His granddaughter, Adelaide, told the story to me. (Named after her grandmother) click here for song story & lyrics
  7. pause play
    Unlock the Rose (4:09) - A slave punishment collar with iron thorns borne too long would cause severe infection. Archival news articles report that a master was found guilty and fined for this cruelty. click here for song story & lyrics
  8. pause play
    Pass to Cross (2:38) - A slave, Thomas Laws, and a schoolteacher, Rebecca Wright, became General Sheridan's Union spies for a day. click here for song story & lyrics
  9. pause play
    Warrior Spirit and The Keeper of The Bones (7:30) - A battlefield ghost story. click here for song story & lyrics
  10. pause play
    Love Beyond the Grave (3:38) - This Blue and Gray "Romeo and Juliet" love story was inspired by a memorial written by Confederate Henry Kyd Douglas for Annie Washington of Hagerstown, MD. click here for song story & lyrics
  11. pause play
    Breakfast at The Heck's (3:06) - Little sister Sally recalled when her two brothers, fighting on opposite sides, simultaneously arrived at their mother's kitchen in Boonsboro, MD for breakfast after the Battle of South Mountain. click here for song story & lyrics
  12. pause play
    Prince, My Favorite Horse (6:06) - Henry Kyd Douglas wrote this poem when he received news of the death of his childhood horse while he was a prisoner of war in Johnson's Island Union Camp in the winter of 1863. click here for song story & lyrics
  13. pause play
    Relic Post (3:38) - Union Private Samuel Wright's souvenir relic post and Bloody Layne heroics are contrasted with Jacob Miller's trials as a Confederate farmer whose fences and crops were victims of the Battle of Antietam. click here for song story & lyrics
  14. pause play
    Sultana (4:35) - An overloaded steamboat sank while attempting to ferry soldiers home after the war. (Officially the worst maritime disaster in US history) The ship tells the tale. click here for song story & lyrics
  15. pause play
    Mary Vance's Scrapbook (3:23) - A Union soldier sent all of the souvenirs in this song to Miss Vance who preserved them, including a baby's lock of hair given to him by a dying Confederate soldier. click here for song story & lyrics
  16. pause play
    Orphan Train (4:10) - The war created many thousands of orphans who were shipped out west for adoption, often to be treated as slaves. click here for song story & lyrics
  17. pause play
    Beautiful and Blessed (2:35) - The Washington County Home for Orphan and Friendless Children rescued poverty stricken children with an innovative program of care and education. Anna McCarty was their beloved matron. click here for song story & lyrics

All songs © Jennie Avila
Produced by Jennie Avila, Cool Acoustic Music
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Todd Stotler at Echoes Recording Studio, Sharpsburg, MD
Published 2012 by Jennie Avila Music, ASCAP
15 Sycamore St, Hagerstown, MD 21740
Jennie@JennieAvila.com
www.JennieAvila.com
All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable law.