No, dis heah ain’t no ortermobeel—
It’s jes my ortermobull.
—AUNT BETSY.
“Lorena,” and How It Came to Be Written
By Susie Gentry
Few songs in the world’s history ever had the hold on men’s hearts that “Lorena” did during the war, and for more than a decade after.
Even now it has the power to make misty the eye and soften the heart—particularly if sung by “The Southern Girl” of the war time period. It is one of my earliest recollections, as sung by my mother to our little, three-cornered family—she, my father and myself. Father had sent it to her “enduring of the War.”
I suppose almost every soldier of the war, Confederate or Federal, who had any sentiment sent his sweetheart a copy of this famous song.
How full of pathos are the several verses: