When Johnny Comes Marching Home – solo piano (slow version)

For many soldiers in the Civil War – Yankee and Rebel alike – the road from General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox to a life of peace and happiness was a long and hard one, and some never completed that journey. This sombre version of ”When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is meant to illustrate the struggles of Civil War veterans. They returned to their homes in body, but not in spirit, and found that the places they had yearned to be back at for so long had changed irrevocably, just like themselves. Some wounds and injuries were evident, as when veterans wore an empty sleeve where an arm used to be, a patch in front of the eye, or hobbled along on crutches. The invisible wounds revealed themselves in erratic behaviour, excessive drinking, violence, and depression. The war had been waged largely on Southern soil, and when the rebel veterans returned from the battlefields, they found their beloved old Dixie a ravished land. Worst was the trail of destruction left in the wake of Sherman’s army, but poverty and