Beautiful just Beautiful,. WOW , Played in Ken Burns Civil War documentary it was haunting! I truly think hearing it in the civil war documentary touched my soul, to lose 2% of the United States of Americas. population behind enslaving another human being was Ungodly!
When a piece of music is so closely intertwined with a time and a film on that time you know they hit the mark.😢 "For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago…." - William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust
Who won the war? The Union Army, obviously, won the war, in the sense that they were the army left standing and holding their weapons when it was all over. So the soldiers who fought in the Union Army, the generals who directed it, the president who led the country during it, won the war. If we’re not talking just about the series of battles that finished up with the surrender at Appomattox, but talking instead about the struggle to make something higher, and better, out of the country, then the question gets more complicated. The slaves won the war, and they lost the war. Because they won freedom (that is, the removal of slavery), but they did not win freedom as they understood freedom I think what we need to remember, most of all, is that the Civil War is not over until we today have done our part in fighting it as well as understanding what happened when the Civil War generation fought it. William Faulkner said once that history is not “was”, it’s “is”, and what we need to remember about the Civil War is that the Civil War IS in the present as well as in the past. The generation that fought the war, the generation that argued over the definition of the war, the generation that had to pay the price in blood, that had to pay the price in blasted hopes and a lost future, also established a standard that will not mean anything until we have finished the work. You can say there’s no such thing as slavery anymore, we are all citizens, but if we’re all citizens then we have a task to do to make sure that that too is not a joke. If some citizens live in houses and others live on the street, the Civil War is still going on, it’s still to be fought, and regrettably it can still be lost. - Barbara Fields (historian, Columbia University)
My wife and I were civil reenactors. Each year our club would finish the year with the Blue & Gray Ball. This was always the last song played. It was out last dance before cancer took her...
The movie has some enormously entertaining scenes but in the end it's about a really mean guy who alienated himself from his family and friends because he was such a jerk. The tagline on the poster should have been "This guy was really mean".
Prayers & pure love of heart goes to Alex and Mom Karen. My son Jeff Jr was murdered and his case was covered up even though he was an Iraq war veteran. A mother’s heart always hurts as if it was the same day of their loved one’s loss. Mom’s please know your son or daughters love is forever in your hearts, just like the day our beautiful children were born. ❤️
Me and my father are big history buffs. I showed my dad the civil by ken burns and it became our road trip playlist everytime we'd drive across from texas to wherever. This song will play at his funeral. To commemorate the man, the memory, and the times we had together, however few and however much. This tune will hopefully show the respect he deserves
This is one powerfully beautiful and haunting piece of music. The way Mr. Burns used it in his documentary honored and respected the feeling and the weight generated by the song itself. Played behind the reading of Sullivan Ballou's letter... it makes me tear up every time I watch it.
My Very Dear Wife: Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps to-morrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more. Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine, O God be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battle-field for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt. But, my dear wife, when I know, that with my own joys, I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with care and sorrows, when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it, as their only sustenance, to my dear little children, is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country. I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death, and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country and thee. I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in this hazarding the happiness of those I loved, and I could not find one. A pure love of my country, and of the principles I have often advocated before the people, and "the name of honor, that I love more than I fear death," have called upon me, and I have obeyed. Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables, that nothing but Omnipotence can break; and yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield. The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up, and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us. I know I have but few claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me, perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battle-field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears, every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot, I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more. But, O Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth, and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you in the garish day, and the darkest night amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours always, always, and, if the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air cools your throbbing temples, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dear; think I am gone, and wait for me, for we shall meet again. As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care, and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers, I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children. - Sullivan
I’ve recently started going to Civil War reenactments with my dad and brothers. They’ve been doing it a bit longer. But they’ve been wanting me to go as at my age(17) I can pretty accurately portray a soldier of the time period. At my second reenactment here recently, the 160th battle of Brice’s Crossroads(also where an ancestor of mine fought). Un-reconstructed played this song during a performance in the evening. I grew up listening to this tune with my dad and brothers, and standing there that night, I took in the tranquility of the battle field before me. There was just something so calming about it all. Even though we were in a place of such pain and sadness.
I like your comment it must've been a great experience. I've always imagined doing something like that but I'm sure it's so much impactful in person. It's sad but very cool at the same time.
