In Honor of The Upcoming Holiday, this post has been updated.
THESE ARE THE WORDS HE SPEAKS:
It was July in Virginia. The scent of the dogwood and the laurel
lay heavy on the land. While the burgeoning fruit of the peach and
the apple marked the full sway of summer. For 7 fateful days
the trees, the flowers, yes, the very ground itself had shuttered
under the roar of cannons., the bark of howitzers and the
crackling of a legion of rifles.
Now all was silent. Sledge hammer blows of Robert E Lee and
Stonewall Jackson had mauled the army of the Potomac and yet
that army was not destroyed. 7000 men had fallen in that
dreadful week. And the savagery of the conflict was grimly
evident in the river of wounded that wound through the green
hills.
Now a new sound drifted in the soft evening sky; for
Colonel Dan Butterfield, a courageous and able soldier was also
a man of music. To honor his fallen comrades he had composed
a simple and heart-rending melody. On July 2 in the year of 1862
it's strains floated over the graves that scarred the dark Virginia
earth.
It has been more than a 100 years since that song was born but
those notes have never died away. Every night of the year
throughout the world, fighting men of America from the North
and the South, the East and the West close their eyes and sleep
to it's call. And in each of their hearts there glows a fierce surge
of pride.
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[* There is no moderation at this point. I trust us all to be adults.]