Civil War Music: The Rebel Soldier

Many of the soldiers in the North as well as the South were young and unmarried. In this folk song from Southern Appalachia, a Confederate soldier pines for his family and his sweetheart.
 

The lyrics are:

O Polly, O Polly, It’s for your sake alone,
I’ve left my old father, My country and my home.
I’ve left my old mother, To weep and to mourn,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

It’s grape shot and musket, And the cannons lumber loud,
There’s many a mangled body, The blanket for their shroud:
There's many a mangled body, Left on e fields alone,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

I’ll build me a castle on the mountain, On some green mountain high,
Where I can see Polly, As she is passing by:
Where I can see Polly, And help her to mourn,
I am a Rebel soldier, And far from my home.

(Courtesy of Robert Trentham)