While visiting relatives in Virginia and spending a moving day on the battle field of First Manassas (or Bull Run if you prefer) my interest in the Civil War was well and truly sparked. I had heard so much about the film of the war by Ken Burns that when it became available in England (only in late 1999) I bought it on video. Purchasing this CD was the next step. Ken Burns himself suggests that "Music, songs are a kind of glue that holds our history together and binds the present with the past to form out most important memories." This recording does exactly that, it enables the listener to gain an insight into the musical sounds of the war and by doing so to understand at a deeper level the motivations behind it. There is a wide representation of styles from the spiritual to the march from simple acoustic guitar to the lamenting fiddle. For most people who know the Burns film `Ashokan Farewell' quite rightly stands out. The music is beautiful in itself but when it is combined, as it is on this CD, with a letter sent home a week before his death at First Manassas by Major Sullivan Ballou, it becomes quite the most moving piece of music and narrative I have ever heard.