Lorena

"Lorena" was one of the most popular songs in the United States immediately prior to and during the Civil War, among soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Its lyrics come from a poem Reverend Henry De Lafayette Webster, a Presbyterian minister in Zanesville, Ohio, wrote in 1856 after family opposition blocked his marriage to nineteen-year-old Ella Blocksom, who sang in his choir. After the relationship ended, he resigned his post and shortly met Joseph Philbrick Webster, who set it to music. The heroine was originally called Bertha, but the composer altered this because he needed a name with three syllables. Lorena is an adaptation of Lenore, from Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven."