The year of Eighteen Sixty Five Lincoln, shot and dead The war was all but over Destruction in it's stead Blue and Grey divided A nation great and strong Was there ever a true winner? So much of this was wrong Brothers against brothers Tearing families apart It was a war with different issues At Fort Sumter did it start Slaves were not the forefront When the war became a war It was a war to stop secession Then it became so much more Johnny Reb comes marching home Not the home that he once knew It was now a state of new rebuilding There was no more Grey, just Blue Did it truly make the country Unified under one flag? Or did it become so much more splintered Under a torn and tattered rag? A President was murdered But, the war, continued on The ties that once did bind them Were now just truly gone The beauty of the country Burned on Shermans' seaward trek Left the Southern states demolished And the plantations, just a wreck The slaves were granted freedom Through Emancipation at the end But, in the south, it never happened The landowners had to bend Although the war was over Slaves were free men after all But, with nowhere left to go to It was like a game without a ball Many stayed and cropshared Worked the same land as before Now, they worked the land as freemen Nothing less, and nothing more Brothers still divided Blue and Grey deep in their souls Almost eight score years have passed And the nation is still not whole Grant and Lee at Appomatox Ended the war and sent men on their way But, it took days for the message to be heard and Many more died in those days Three Quarters of a Million Lost their lives, in this young nation One thing never altered The place of a man's station It split apart the country Broke it down, to build anew But, did it really matter Now, with Johnny Reb in Blue?
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