Civil War Battle Ballads

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There is nothing glamorous about war. General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was certainly in a position to know, called it "all hell". Too many of the songs of the American Civil War painted the conflict in melodramatic, somehow romantic terms....as if the brave charges depicted on countless murals were some sort of bloodless, chivalric game played out for the illustrators.

There is nothing romantic in these songs. A nationwide cataclysm that caused the death of some 600,000 men might inspire some to heights of martial marching music and barely restrained jingoism, but not little ol' me.

The Civil War fractured a nation...and in many ways we're still struggling to put the 2 sides back together. There's a reason a current electoral map looks like something taken off the desk of the War Department in 1861.

And on a lighter note (thank God), hopefully a few good tunes are contained herein. And free too....always the best kind. Slàinte....