Yellow Rose.

This is coolbert:

A few years ago now on PBS they had the five part series, "The Civil War".

About the American Civil War.

This excellent documentary consisted of five two hour episodes.

And the musical score accompanying the documentary was good too.

So good that the producers of the series made an additional two hour documentary just about the music of the Civil War.

And one of the songs that was sung in the documentary, by Hoyt Axton and a back up group, was the "Yellow Rose of Texas".

And strangely enough, the last stanza of the song as sung by Hoyt was unfamiliar to me.

This is one of the most famous folk songs of American history.

Mitch Miller used to have his choral group sing this song all the time in the 1950's so the lyrics of the song as normally presented are at least somewhat known to me..

This anomaly of course stimulated my interest and caused a web search to be done, and of course, my intuition about this was correct.

This additional stanza is an added stanza not in the original lyrics of the song.

Was added much later.

And for a reason.

And the lyrics of the added stanza does carry great weight. Something that would not be appreciated but by a few.

To see the original lyrics to the "Yellow Rose of Texas", the Mitch Miller lyrics, and the lyrics added later and included in the rendition by Hoyt Axton, click here. Click here to visit another web site that has the lyrics as generally recognized. Has audio if your sound system is working.

Changes made included:

"More than 25 years later, the lyrics were changed. "Soldier" replaced "darky." And the first line of the chorus was also changed to read, "She's the sweetest little flower...."

The stanza added in 1864 is the one I have in question:

"And now I'm going southward, for my heart is full of woe,
I'm going back to Georgia, to see my Uncle Joe.
You may talk about your Beauregard, and sing of Bobbie Lee,
But the gallant Hood of Texas played hell in Tennessee."

The song is now a lament to be sure. And there is a good reason why.

"In 1864, General John B. Hood's retreating Confederate Army was shattered in defeat. As his men moved southward in dismay, many thought the war may be over and a fourth stanza was added:"

And what is being talked about here?

The aftermath of the Battle of Franklin.

This was one of the most bloody days of the American Civil War.

General John Bell Hood had felt his Army was not following his lead fully and decided to stiffen their resolve [some say punish them].

Following the retreating Union army of Schofield, Hood sent his men into reckless and unwarranted charges at the Battle of Franklin against that retreating Union army that had turned and strongly entrenched itself.

The result was 7,000 Confederate casualties in one day!! This was a staggering loss for an army that consisted of 30,000 men [Hood's force].

This too was the only occasion in the American Civil War where the Confederate army left the battlefield in disarray and rout.

Franklin, while being little known or appreciated, is in the same league as Gettysburg, Fredricksburg, Cold Harbor. Charges across open ground at dug in defending troops that resulted in stupendous losses for no gain!! Such was Franklin. Read a web site about Franklin by clicking here. Franklin had a dramatic impact upon the entire course of the war in the deep south:

"This horrific battering of Hood's army at Franklin and its final disintegration two weeks later after the Battle of Nashville essentially ended the war in the western theater."

One can easily see why this last stanza was added to "The Yellow Rose". The meaning has been lost with time. But to those present at Franklin, it was not!

"But the gallant Hood of Texas played hell in Tennessee"

coolbert.