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In The Hills of Shiloh Lyrics

(Spoken Intro: You know, everything that's ever been written about the Civil War, they wrote about brother fightin' brother and father fightin' son, and nobody has ever really written a song about the ones that stayed behind, you know, like the women that lost their men. That's what this is about.)

Have you seen Amanda Blaine
In the hills of Shiloh...
Wandering through the morning rain
In the hills of Shiloh?
Have you seen her at her door
Listening for the cannon roar
And a man who went to war
From the hills of Shiloh?
Have you heard her mournful cries
In the hills of Shiloh?
Have you seen her haunted eyes
In the hills of Shiloh?
Have you seen her running down
Searching through the sleepy town
In her yellowed wedding gown
In the hills of Shiloh?

Have you seen her standing there
In the hills of Shiloh?
Wind a'blowing through her hair
In the hills of Shiloh
Listening for the sound of guns...
Listening for the roll of drums...
And a man who never comes
To the hills of Shiloh?

Have you heard Amanda sing
In the hills of Shiloh?
Whispering to her wedding ring
In the hills of Shiloh?
Hear her humming soft and low...
For Amanda doesn't know...
'Twas ended forty years ago
In the hills of Shiloh.
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3 Meanings

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Cover art for In The Hills of Shiloh lyrics by Shel Silverstein

Reaches the depths of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln what a horror.

Song Meaning
Cover art for In The Hills of Shiloh lyrics by Shel Silverstein

Forty years after the War ended would have been 1904. Amanda Blaine would have been probably in her early 60s or so by then,depending on how old she was when her man went away...since she still wore her(yellowed)wedding gown,she was likely recently married and very young,likely no more than 20. Can only imagine how many times real-life stories like these actually played out,on both sides.

*1905,typo.

Cover art for In The Hills of Shiloh lyrics by Shel Silverstein

Just a correction to the lyrics as printed.

The verse that includes the lines ‘have you seen her running down searching through the sleepy town’ should read ‘sleeping town.’ There is a difference between ‘sleepy’ and ‘sleeping’. In the Judy Collins recording it is clear she says ‘sleeping’ not ‘sleepy’.