Archive for June, 2009
Ashokan Farewell
The Ashokan Farewell music served as the theme for The Civil War by Ken Burns. It is hauntingly unforgettable. The song is heard 25 times during the miniseries and is the background music for the reading of the Sullivan Ballou letter. Ashokan Farewell was a perfect match for the story and scenes of The Civil War miniseries.
Belle Boyd Civil War Spy
Young, attractive Belle Boyd was a Confederate spy. Belle was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (Martinsburg is now part of West Virginia) and was only seventeen when the Civil War started. She had a knack for listening in on the conversations of Union officers who patronized her father’s Front Royal hotel. Her familiarity with the countryside of the Shenandoah Valley provided the Confederates with valuable information in the spring of 1862.