About this episode:
In 1969 - 104 years after the fact - Canadian Robbie Robertson wrote a song for his group The Band. It was a first-person narrative relating economic and social distress for a poor white Southerner during the last year of the American Civil War. Robertson’s song was voiced by the band’s lone American, drummer and native Arkansan Levon Helm whose haunting rendition opened with,
“Virgil Kane is the name
And I served on the Danville train
'Till Stoneman's cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
In the winter of '65
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the 10th, Richmond had fell
It's a time I remember, oh so well
The night they drove old Dixie down…”
This is the story of that Federal incursion. This is the story of Stoneman’s Raid.
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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:
Additional Resources:
Full Route of Stoneman's Raid, March-April 1865
Stoneman's Raid in Tennessee, March 14-27
Stoneman's Raid from Boone to Mt. Airy, March 28-April 2
Stoneman's Raid in Virginia, April 3-9
Stoneman's Raid in the Piedmont, April 9-11
Stoneman's Raid approaches Salisbury, April 11-12
Stoneman's Raid on the Catawba, April 13-23
Stoneman's Raid, Final Days
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Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger.
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Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org
Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.
Producer: Dan Irving
