LORENA-1857-Performed by Tom Roush 

You don't have to be American to appreciate the fact that this is one of the most beautiful, heartfelt love songs ever written. How much of the junk that passes for music nowadays will continue to move and inspire people after 150 years as this has? Thank you for posting this.

Thanks to RDR 2 for bringing me here :P Update: Rest In Peace, Tom.

I love this song and so did BOTH SIDES of the Civil War. This version is my favorite. I love the photos too...this song reminded soldiers of their sweethearts back home. Such a wonderful rendition.

You will never hear beautiful music like this ever again from today's Generation.....Shame

This is one of my favorites. The musical accompaniment adds so much. It's a classic and one I play over and over again. Again, Thank you!

"Scarlett felt her heart beat faster as the sweet melancholy of the waltz came to her..."

Though I am not American I truly love the sentiment of the Lorena. Such sentiment should be eternal and would not be forgotten though “years creep slowly by”, just like the narrator’s eternal love for Lorena RIP Tom

One of the best versions of this song Ive ever heard . Thanks much !!!

I went to DC and my first stop from the airport was Arlington Cemetery where I played Tom's song for the souls of our soldiers.

Beautiful rendition Tom, your channel is gateway into the past and shares the beauty of American music. Thank you for not letting these classics be forgotten, may you rest in peace.

This was sung by the marching Confederate Soldiers as they evacuated Atlanta.

feels nice to have a song named after you

Well done a haunting song, pure Americana.

Heard that song in Red Dead Redemtion 2 love it.

Gonna song this on my next protest suppression, great song, and I haven’t seen my gf in Germany in about six years, I’m going back soon tho.

A beautiful and timeless song, one that will live for generations! So much modern "music" is just loud, grating noise, with no beauty or cadence to it. And the modern lyrics - if you want to call them that - are just gutter language. This is a haunting song that will be remembered and enjoyed long after modern rock has been tossed in the trash heap where it belongs!

Loved "Lorena" ever since I heard the arrangement in John Ford`s "The Searchers".

My dad named me after this song, but it was from The Civil War NOT WW2! In 1997, the string quartet from the movie "Titanic" hit me. My whole life, my dad sang this to me, but the movie featured it as a string instrumental. Even though my name is spelled with 2 "N's" and not one. I was glad I figured it out. However, my dad died before I discovered this. It's now known as the most sentimental song from the Civil War. And, it's just So beautiful! ❤️ 🇺🇸 🎻

Forgot about this one until I heard Karen singing it on RDR2. Dude my dad used to chill with was a civil war reinactor and sang this often.

Hi Tom. I love your songs. I happened upon you while looking up this song, which was mentioned on a Civil War documentary. They said Lorena had been a favorite of both the Union & Confederates. They spoke of another song being too sad, bringing down morale, but not this one. I'm looking into your other work now, and like it ! I've subscribed. Thank you for sharing your talent with all of us ! God Bless !

I play this track so often. Beautifully sentimental, wonderful voice

Some of these women were real beauties ! See Ella Blocksom Johnson on the internet. Find a Grave has her story as does Wikipedia. Ella was the inspiration for "Lorena ". A true story of lost love. To those unfamiliar with this song; it was popular with both sides in the Civil War. Some commanders forbade their troops to sing it in that it might affect morale . It made the men homesick for their sweethearts and wives. I think that Ella would be a great character for a woman to portray at a local historical society museum. Here in Marion, Ohio , we have Night at the Museum where local people dress in period garb and do first person presentations of local and national historical persons.

The simple and unadulterated beauty of our ancestors, as beautiful of people as today, with much less, but much more heart and soul then I think we have these days as they quickly slip through our fingers!

Reading S & D Reflector......last packet on the Muskingum.....

The lady at 2'34'' is soprano Jenny Lind, known as the Swedish Nightingale.

Red Dead Redemption 2 brought me here. Rest In Peace Arthur Morgan ❤❤ the best characters ever

This is awesome..never heard of it before but it’s definitely worth a listen!

This an Sweet Evilina make me realize how preciously short our lives are. During our short time and stay on the rock, I hpe we learn to love each other, as people did so many tens of decades ago. maybe 16 decades have fne by, and our simplicity isnt as simple anymore! Pity!

My oldest Daughter is named Lorena after my great aunt(who was a character, intelligent and lived to be 94). My Lorena was born in Memphis in 1975.

Anyone else tear up listening to this song?

I can't help thinking that some of those viewing these women are looking unbeknownst to them ;at their gg grandmas or grand aunts.

my name is Lorena. i just found out about this song (i'm not American)

This is an old antebellum song popular during the civil war.

this is a very beautiful song and I agree the crap they call music I can't even think it should be. this is real music. it does inspire and continues to inspire to this day. that's true music.

If the CD's were DVD's with the pictures, I would certainly buy them. The pictures with the music send me back in time.

American heritage of music.

A very lovely song Sir :)

This song was so melancholy that the generals on both sides forbade it being sung because it prompted large scale desertions!!!

I never knew this song existed until I saw the movie The Beguiled. This scene came up where they're singing at the piano and I was like, wait wth that's my name?! I had to know what the song was and then found out it was an actual song in the Civil War. I am so glad I finally have another reference to my name. Non-Spanish people always either think of the singer or that bitch from True Blood, lol.

Oh these women and girls are so beautiful. So beautiful. Youngest looks maybe 15 and they look like lovely well mannered women. Love never changes. Imagine looking into their eyes from a photo.

One of the best. My great grandfather... Was Drafed into the Union Army. "The snow is on the grass again ..."

Nice old song which has that Antique charm in it. It is very sentimental really and I think those old timers really knew how to express their emotions in songs. Too bad it seems like a lost art.

Lovely song. The good Reverend who penned it was spurned by Ella (Lorena in the song) and married another lady. They lived a good long life together.

God bless us!! the most beautiful song!!

Good morning dear Tom.Thank you for very nice performance.

This is my very favorite song impeccably done by Tom Roush.

I am so sorry for misspelling your name Mr Roush..

"Gone with the wind" took me there

I can just imagine several of my gggreat grandfathers sitting in camp and hearing this song some in camp the night before the Pickett Pettigrew, Trimble charge and thinking of home and family

Thanks for uploading this song again! It was apparently gone from youtube for a couple of years. Luckily I had already downloaded it before it disappeared. This is the best version of all! One hears instantly that you just "get" this song.

Lovely song :) probably the only song with my name

She's BEAUTIFUL. HOLY COW . . . Jesus christ

Tom, please correct me if wrong, but I understand that the song was banned by leaders on both sides because, upon hearing it, soldiers on both sides would lay down their arms and return home.

Prima ,ho letto di questo valzer nel libro Via col vento. Così l' ho cercato! Splendido!

My great great grandpa met his sweetheart whilst serving in the war. They say she caught his “good eye” and that was it. He fought, got captured, got paroled and came home. It’s crazy what love will do to people. Sometimes I think we forget it is the young who fight and have to see and deal with the horrors of war. Makes me sad for all those young men who lost their lives before getting a chance to see the fruits of their love and all those sweethearts who lost their dear ones…

He did this the best. 🕊🥀🙏🎚

gone with the wind : *

1:47

thank goodness i found this again! thought it was taken down for some bizarre reason. Just amazing work!

That's the most beautiful song with my name.

RDR2... essa musica aparece em um dialogo na fogueira

here from reading Gone With the Wind

This song demands to be sung slowly and with sadness.....it is a state of mind and it is war

A beautiful song from a less than beautiful time in Divided America . Thank You For Sharing .

Bro I've been listening to your music for like the past month, I just want to say great work! I love it!

Clark sisters all five here.

my sister pass away two week ago and this remind me her. her name was Lorraine😪

Love the song. Check out John Hartford's cover. That's the first time I ever heard this haunting song.

la escuché en la película de John Wayne "The Searchers"

There's little to no joy in the eyes of these women. What circumscribed lives they must have led.

My name is "Loreena"

So glad this song is back on youtube after having been gone for so long.

I've become a big John Hartford fan and have to say, like your version better. Well sung and played, and very warm feeling to it. Thanks so much for sharing.

Tks, i love it hah ❤️

Ek hou daarvan om die meeste van hulle te fok

Just posted Lorena as I was discussing and agreeing that if Sweet Evalina had been produced a few years earlier, Lorena would have been the second favorite love song of the time. It is a beautiful song too, isn't it, it brings tears of joy to me Thank you sir! Know you have put time on my life by happiness and love of music, as evidenced by your mastery of music

I love the video...the pictures are fascinating and I love the voice singing those words so clearly.

Too bad some good performers like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings don't sing the bridge. Without the bridge, the song is incomplete.

Very pretty

Beautiful! Another sad and poignant Civil War song is 'Don't Cry, Suzanne' by the New Christy Minstrels.

This song is stunnungly performed! I only learned about it this evening, when Jason Walton played it for Grampa Walton because he was missing his wife Esther as she was in a hospital getting well. Bless you for this!!

Love listening to this beautiful music .what talent..

More than 8 years after losing his love he was still pining for her. More than 8 years later he wrote this love song. Easily becoming my favorite romance lost song. The Blues were real 200 years ago.

I used to sing this while playing the organ when I was a girl . This is a beautiful version of this beautiful song .

Excellent

During american civil war this song was listened to and sang along with of soldiers on both side of the conflict.. 80 years later another maiden name was sung and listened to, during a huge conflict when both sides listened to and sang along with "Lilli Marlene,". Both are beautifull songs...

It sounds differant from the 1850s

lovely and sad!

As a matter of fact this song was so sad, it was considerd bad for the morale of the Army Of Northen Virginia an General Robert E. Lee forbid to sing it. This rule was widly ignored.

Thank you for a beautiful video.

I think he really captures this song. It’s a sad sucker. Mercy.

Beautiful sentimental interpretation!

damn this song is sad

Really nice tune and video!!

Loverly ladies

This song hurts

Hello, it’s me

Not trying to upset anyone, but I believe that last pic of the"sisters" were men! Maybe they were scared to fight

Fantastic! 👍

Oh how beautiful those women are