Many of
you may recall a recurring and haunting melody played during several
scenes of Ken Burns' Civil War documentary, including an abridged reading
of Union Major Sullivan Ballou's poignant letter written to his wife just before
he went into a battle that he did not survive. In researching
another matter for our New York Correction History Society's web site, I came
across a Civil War history web site playing that same melody . Its
webmaster generously sent the digital music file to me. I did some research on
it preliminary to adding the sound file to the "Civil War &
Correction" section of our web site. The results of that research became
the basis of a new presentation just posted there: "Civil War Documentary's Haunting Melody Ties to Hart's Cavalry
History." http://www.correctionhistory.org/civilwar/ashokan/ashokan.html
Thomas C. McCarthy, general secretary/webmaster,
New York Correction History Society