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Behind the song:
This is a photograph of Edwin Francis Jemison, a Confederate soldier. He’s young. This song is based on him. The details of this song are true – the places, etc – but of course I have no way of knowing how the people involved actually felt.
LYRICS:
Mrs Jemison’s baby
Was just sixteen years old
When he left Jackson Parish
To watch the war unfold
Her husband signed a paper
And they watched him march away
She’d give her soul and all she owns
To take back that day
How she begged and pleaded “He is not yet a man”
But he had to serve the cause,
He had to take a stand.
So her husband signed the paper
And her heart filled with rage. Now all she has is a photograph
Tear stained and worn with age.
CHORUS:
Did he call for Mother?
Amid the pleas and prayers.
Oh did he call for Mother?
That somehow she would find him there.
A hill outside of Richmond is where he finely fell
Her husband signed a paper
So her boy could march through Hell.
Oh to be sure
She holds no one else to blame
For the loss of her loving son
Eddie was his name
Edwin Francis Jemison
Was sixteen years of age
When a name
Signed in blood
Gave his life away
Her husband built a monument
Out near Milledgeville
But every time he signs his name
She thinks of who he’s killed
CHORUS:
Did he call for Mother?
Amid the pleas and prayers.
Oh did he call for Mother?
That somehow she would find him there.
Oh did he cry for Mother?
That somehow
She’d find
Him there.
