On September 3, 1871, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer—once the Union Army’s youngest brigadier general at just twenty‑three—arrived in Elizabethtown, Kentucky with the newly formed Seventh Cavalry. The regiment had spent five hard years fighting on the plains and came here for a rare period of rest.
Most people know Custer for his Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. Few realize he spent time in this part of Kentucky.
After reading the book and seeing the film Son of the Morning Star, I was inspired to write a song about the man behind the legend.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Son of the Morning Star
To some he was legend to others a fool
Long on ambition and short on a fuse.
The ladies adored him and called him by name
George Armstrong Custer you must be insane
Son of the Morning Star
when destine calls you know death can't be far
Son of the Morning Star
In you're thrust for adventure you went
just a little to far
The black hills surround you with death cold embrace
you've seen it before and you spit in its face
But it hear fate has chosen to make your last stand
You'll fight to the finish if it take you're last man.
Son of the Morning Star
when destine calls you know death can't be far
Son of the Morning Star
In you're thrust for adventure you went
just a little to far
Many seasons have come, many seasons have gone
since you laid down your life but your ghost lingers on
Without facing death it just couldn’t move on.
Ground Zero
Ah flash in the sky, the heat burns my eyes
as the wind rushes by my head is on fire
Put my hands to my face but there’s no
hiding place at ground zero
Ah flick of his wrist his hand’s firmly fixed on
the weapons of war, want know peace anymore
No need to aim cause there’s no way to miss at
Ground Zero
Call all your warriors assemble your clan.
Ascend like a cloud to cover the land
In search of great treasure, the fat of the land
You fall on the mountains you die in the sand
As a new day eclipses the misery resist,
through the mist and the haze you hear not a whisper
Still the cockroach remains cause there was hell
to pay at ground zero
Call all your warriors assemble your clan.
Ascend like a cloud to cover the land
In search of great treasure, the fat of the land
You fall on the mountains you die in the sand
(I wrote this over 40 years ago while mowing grass from my grandmother Elva Highbaugh. I remember it just coming to me line upon line).
My Way Home
I left home at an early age though my Momma pleaded and begged me to stay
I said Momma don’t you know I’m a worldly man.
So I took the devil by the hand and he led me across
his promise land
And I regret that day as sure as there’s a God above.
I wish I knew my way home
I wish I knew my way home
I kicked around from town to town and the boy I was
just can’t be found
And the man I am ant the man I wanna be
I set and listen to the fore winds blow
they whisper my name, call me home
down a road I lost some many years ago.
I wish I knew my way home
I wish I knew my way home
It’s been years since I’ve been home and my gray haired
Daddy’s done past on
And my Momma, I know still prays for me
If I had the money, had my way I’d pack my bags and leave today
Lord if I only knew my way home.
I wish I knew my way home
I wish I knew my way home
I wish I was in the land of cotton Papa settin on the porch and Momma was a rockin
my blue’s away, oh back home.
Lord, Lord. I wish I was in the land of cotton Papa setting on the porch and Momma was a rockin
my blue’s away, oh back home.
(This was inspired by my brother).
So let it be written
There was a man, a man from Galilee.
He healed the sick, raised the dead,
caused the blind to see.
And He walked upon the water, calmed the angry sea,
So they nailed he to a wooden cross
at a place called Calvary.
And the people gather round him,
mock and cursed his name
Saying if you be the Son of God,
come down from that tree.
Still his heart was full of love and
He showed them sympathy
Saying Father please forgive them
for they know not that it me.
And though they tried,
it didn’t end there.
They saw Him die, but he rose again.
Called King of the Jews,
His Kingdoms yet to come
So let it be written, so let it be done.
As the darkness grew around them,
the ground began to shake
And the people who were dead in Christ,
they began to wake
With a soldier at His feet Christ drew ah last breath
As He closed his eyes the soldier sighed,
truly He was heaven sent.
And though they tried, it didn’t end there.
They saw Him die, but he rose again.
Called King of the Jews, His Kingdoms yet to come
So let it be written, so let it be done.
(Like a lot of my songs, this came in the middle of the night).
Sweet Southern Sky
When the moon rise’s high
In the Sweet Southern Sky
There with the star’s all around
Cricket echo’s their sounds
In the sweet southern sky
When the dew softly falls
The grass can’t soak up it all
There neath the old dogwood tree
My guitar and me
And that sweet southern sky
Bye, bye please don’t you cry
When I die lay my body neath that
Sweet Southern Sky
Bye, bye please don’t you cry
When I die lay my body neath that
Sweet Southern Sky
Now the sun fills the sky
The peace of the night bird subsides
As the sounds of a new day arrives
The air comes alive
In the Sweet Southern Sky
Bye, bye please don’t you cry
When I die lay my body neath that
Sweet Southern Sky
Bye, bye please don’t you cry
When I die lay my body neath that
(Written 7/7/91)
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