The Major William L.A. Ellis Collection

War Era Poem

 

Poem "Composed & Penciled By Capt. William L. A. Ellis, Murfreesboro, N.C., May 1864 while listening to some of his men sing 'Willie dear'."

 

This poem was written by Capt. Wm. L.A. Ellis in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, May, 1864.  It was found among his personal papers.

 
 
(Willie Dear – Page 1)

 

 
O. Willie dear a long farewell,
You now must ***** your loving well.
I’ve loved you long, I’ve loved you true.
O. Willie, how can I part with you.
 
 

 

 
O. Willie dear, my heart will break.
All my sorrow here can speak.
When you are gone, a hot *** **** **
O. Willie, how can I part with you.
 
 

 

 
O. Willie dear, my peace is gone.
Of all my joys there’s left but none.
O. tell me dearest, tell me true,
O. Willie, how can I part with you.
 

 

O. Willie dear, I’m dying now,
Death’s cold hand is on by brow,
Then touch the chord and ring the [Kuell],
You've lost your long loved Lina Bell.
(Willie Dear, page 2)

 

 
 O. Willie dear, a long farewell.
I’ll soon be chambered in my cell.
Beneath the sod I’ll wait for you.
O. Willie how can I leave you.

 

 

   ______________________
   Willie.  Reply to Lina Bell.
 

 

O. Lina dear, say not farewell.
The pain it brings no tongue can tell.
But simply say to me goodbye.
I know the time of peace is nigh.
 
 

 

 

O. Lina dear, the end will come.
When from afar your love will mourn,
With glory’s wreath upon his head,
Now amidst the gory dead. 
 
 
(Willie Dear, page 3)
 

 

O. Lina dear, heave not a sigh,
But know the end of war is nigh,
Let joy within your bosom dwell,
I cannot hear you say farewell.
 

 

O. Lina dear, why are you sad!
It causes me to feel a dread.
That when from war I come again.
My joy will all be turned to pain.
 

 

Then Lina dear, be glad for me.
My heart will ever cling to thee.
Then do not say to me farewell.
My own, my darling Lina Bell.
 
 

 

Composed & penciled by Capt. W.L.A.Ellis
Murfreesboro N.C. May 1864 while listening
to some of his men sing “Willie dear”

 

 

 

About the "Willie" persona in the mid 1800's.
 
Many people who study the history of the 1800's are aware of popular names in fiction and music such as Billy Yank, Johnny Reb, Uncle Tom, etc.  Willie was another of these pre-Victorian characters that was often the subject of prose and poetry.
 
Willie's Grave (1857) One of the most popular songs before the Civil War was the lovely ballad "Lorena." Joseph Philbrick Webster, its composer, and Rev. Henry DeLafayette Webster (1824-1896), its author, were not related. One of the very few other pieces by the Websters is the lachrymose "Willie's Grave," composed in the same town as "Lorena"—Madison,
Indiana—and published the same year. The song did not attain the fame of "Lorena," but it did apparently fix the character of Willie in the composer's mind. He wrote at least three other Willie songs: "Willie Lee," "Little Willie's Last Question," and "Poor Willie's All Alone." In the last (1859), Willie is portrayed alone and at night kneeling at his mother's fresh grave: "Oh! Father, take thy little one/ Where dear mama is gone," he prays. His prayer is answered: mama appears as an angel ("something gleaming white") and carries him away. These songs were part of a series that H. M. Higgins issued as
Songs of the Land of Sunset.
 
But Willie was not Webster's exclusive property. Stephen Foster, among others, also wrote a series of sad songs about Willie, beginning in 1851 with "Willie My Brave," in which Willie is a sailor lost at sea, and including "Willie, We Have Missed You" (1854), "Our Willie Dear Is Dying" (1861), "Willie Has Gone to the War" (1863), and final "Willie's Gone to Heaven" (1863). Willie seems to have achieved the status of a national mythic figure like G. I. Joe and Kilroy in the 1940s. "Willie's Grave" is a meditation about his burial called up by the sight of his grave.

 

©2006  Museum of Colquitt County History, Moultrie, Georgia 31776