Shenandoah

A short story by CE Wills

Copyright 2011 by CE Wills

Published by CE Wills on Smashwords.com 2011

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Author's foreword: Recently I was playing music from an old songbook of American folk music. I ran across a song that I had never heard called Shenandoah. The music and lyrics are so beautiful that I fell in love with it. The haunting melody seemed to call to mind a movie I had seen about the civil war but I could not recall it, if this were indeed, the fact. I went to Wikipedia and read about the song. It was probably written in the 1800's as just the one verse and then other verses were added as the years went by, to suit this person or that one. At one time or another it was telling the story of settlers going west, an Indian chief and his daughter or of runaway slaves escaping to the new frontier. I meditated on the song as I played it and this is how I think the original writer came to write it, many long years ago.

Shenandoah

Chapter 1