The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-24
AUTHOR OF SOUTHERN SONG
 SLEEPS IN UNMARKED GRAVE
Story of Lieutenant Harrington of Alabama and How He Was Inspired to Write
 t.The HomSpun Dress.

Now, Northern goods are out of datei And. since old Abe's blockade We Southern girls can be content With goods that's Southern made. We send our sweethearts to the war. But girls, ne'er you mind
 Your soldier love will not forget The girl he left behind.
 The Southern lands glorious land, And has glorious cause; Then cheer. three cheers for Southern
 rights
 And for the Southern boys!
 We scorn to wear a bit of silk. A bit of Northern lace,
 But make our homespun dresses up. And wear them with grace. And. now young man. word to you. If you would win the fair,
 Go to the field where honor calls And win your lady there: Remember that our brightest smiles Are for, the true and brave,
 And that our tears are all for those Who fill the soldiers grave.
 As the story was related to me, 1t was on a beautiful morning ia the early fall of the year 1862 that a small group of men were standing in front of country store fin the village of Florence Ky, watching detachment of Confederate General Morgan's cav airy coming down the pike in the dis tance.
 An Incident of Kentucky.
 In that little group about the coun- try store was pr. John Urf Lloyd, the author. As the soldiers filed by the store they were singing The Home spun Dress" Dr. Lloyd liked the song. and in after years he wanted to print 1t in one of his books. He could not remember the words and was unable ed a reward for 1t. It might be well to say just here that the town of Florence, Ky, where Dr. Lloyd first heard the song, has since become familiarly known as String town" being the village referred to in 'Stringtown on the Pike"
 While Morgan's army was in Lexing- ton Ky, the women of that city gave ball one night in honor of Morgan's men. On this occasion, 1t is said, the women appeared in homespun dresses. Lieutenant Harrington, of Alabama, who was member of Morgan's army and who attended the ball, was so deeply affected by the flower of Ken tucky's young womanhood appearing at a ball gowned in homespun dresses. that he wrote the words to the song, '"The Homespun Dress" During the evening the young lieutenant met at the ball Miss Earle, and during those few hours there grew an attachment between the two that was more than friendship.
 | Miss Earle was an accomplished mu- sician, and improvised an air for the young lieutenant's song-poem and played and sang it on the piano during the evening. It is said that all the men of Morgan's command soon learned the words and the air and often sang
 'The Homespun Dress" Lieutenant Harrington gave Miss Earle the original manuscript copy of the words of the song. and it is said that 1t was from her that Mr.Musgrove, | of Carrollton, Ky, secured the words | of the song. as found in the manu- l script written by himself. Lieutenant Harrington was killed in the battle at Perryville, Oct. 8, 1862, onlysa few days after the ball in Lex | ington, Ky, where he wrote the words | to the song. and where he met Miss Earle. Miss Earle died only a few l years ago. She never married. She | kept the manuscript copy of the song, | just as 1t was written by Lieutenant | Harrington. all her lifetime and. it is said. that she prized it most highly. I Authors Grave Unknown. Lieutenant Harrington's grave is un known, but the song words which he composed lived in the heart of a fair Kentucky girl until death called her l away to join her soldier lover in a bet ter and brighter world. The song, although never printed. SC | far as I have been able to learn. has lived for almost half century in the hearts of the few remaining soldiers of the South, and in the hearts of the 1 few women of those trying days who | still live.
 The Homespun Dress" should fill a | place in the nations archives as a pop ular song and as a historical mementc of that great conflict between the States of the Union.
 It would be fitting for Alabama tc erect a monument to the memory oi that brave soldier-poet son of hers whC
 gave his life for the cause he believed
 to be right-Lieutenant Harrington
 who sleeps today. perhaps in another
 State. In a grave unknown and doubt.
 less unmarked, even by a single slat
 bearing the inscription unknown" (Mr. Nelson Is mistaken in his con