HOMESPUN DRESS.–

26. December 2008 by admin.

The accompanying song was taken from a letter of a Southern girl to her lover in Lee’s army, which letter was obtained from a mail captured on Sherman’s march through Northern Alabama. The materials of which the dress alluded to is made are of cotton and wool, and woven on the hand-loom, so commonly seen in the houses at the South. The scrap of a dress, enclosed in the letter as a sample, was of a gray color with a stripe of crimson and green–quite pretty and creditable to the lady who made it.

The lines are not a false indication of the universal sentiment of the women of the South, who by the encouragement they have extended to the soldiers and the sacrifices they have made, have exercised an influence which has proved of the greatest importance to the rebels, and have shown what can be accomplished by united effort on the part of the gentle sex.

HOMESPUN DRESS.

AIR–”Bonny Blue Flag.”

Oh yes! I am a Southern girl, and glory in the name,
And boast it with far greater pride than glittering wealth or fame;
I envy not the Northern girl her robes of beauty rare,
Though diamonds deck her snowy neck and pearls bedeck her hair.

CHORUS–Hurrah! hurrah! for the Sunny South so dear,
Three cheers for the home-spun dress the Southern ladies wear.

This homespun dress is plain, I know, my hat’s palmetto too,
But then it shows what Southern girls for Southern rights will do–
We scorn to wear a dress of silk, a bit of Northern lace,
We make our homespun dresses up and wear them with much grace.
CHORUS–Hurrah! etc.

Now Northern goods are out of date, and since Old Abe’s blockade,
We Southern girls are quite content with goods ourselves have made–
We sent the brave from out our land to battle with the foe,
And we will lend a helping hand–we love the South you know.
CHORUS–Hurrah! etc.

Our land it is a glorious land, and ours a glorious cause,
Then, three cheers for the homespun dress and for the Southern boys;
We sent our sweethearts to the war, but, dear girls, never mind,
The soldier never will forget the girl he left behind.
CHORUS– Hurrah! etc.

A soldier is the lad for me–a brave heart I adore,
And when the Sunny South is free, and fighting is no more,
I then will choose a lover brave from out that glorious band,
The soldier-boy that I love best shall have my heart and hand.
CHORUS–Hurrah! etc.

And now, young men, a word to you, if you would win the fair,
Go to the field where honor calls, and win your ladies there:
Remember that our brightest smiles are for the true and brave,
And that our tears are for the one that fills a soldier’s grave.
CHORUS–Hurrah, etc.

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