“Legend of the Rebel Soldier” is a Civil War ballad credited to the bluegrass musician Charlie Moore. It was introduced on record by the Country Gentlemen, the Washington, D.C., band, who included it on a 1972 album.
The song’s tune and structure are drawn from the Irish ballad “Kevin Barry,” about a young Irish republican hanged in 1920 — a borrowing that gives the song its mournful, hymn-like cadence. The lyric tells of a dying Confederate prisoner in a Northern prison camp, who asks a visiting preacher whether his soul will be free to drift home through the Southland, and begs that word be carried to his daughter.
That sentimental, deathbed framing gave the song a strong emotional pull, and it became a lasting part of the bluegrass repertoire.
