Very very stupid question

[Monkehbase]

In the song "Richmond is a hard road to travel, " one of the lyrics is "And the hills he couldn't level as ordered." Is that referring to a literal hill or AP Hill's Division? I know very stupid question but it's bothered me since I first heard the song when I was a kid

 

[James Brenner]

I always assumed the reference was to both A.P. Hill and Daniel H. Hill.

 

[milhistbuff1]

In the song "Richmond is a hard road to travel, " one of the lyrics is "And the hills he couldn't level as ordered." Is that referring to a literal hill or AP Hill's Division? I know very stupid question but it's bothered me since I first heard the song when I was a kid

Reference to the Williamsburg entrenchments and spades and DH Hill was at W'burg, so both. AP Hill was in the Valley I believe.

 

[RedRover]

In the song "Richmond is a hard road to travel, " one of the lyrics is "And the hills he couldn't level as ordered." Is that referring to a literal hill or AP Hill's Division? I know very stupid question but it's bothered me since I first heard the song when I was a kid

It's a great question about an excellent song!

It is indeed referring, jokingly, to "the Hills" (plural) as in the two Confederate Generals A.P. Hill and D.H. Hill... During 1862 a popular jest in the Southern press regarded them as among the impediments to General McClellan, etc. reaching Richmond...

John R. Thompson of Virginia, the one time editor of the "Southern Literary Messenger" wrote the song "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel" and published it in early 1863, and dedicated it to General Burnside in jest. It was based on Dan Emmett's popular 1850s "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel."

Here's Vaughn and Starbuck's version of "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel" on Youtube...

And a Bobby Horton version of Emmett's original "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel"...

 

[Monkehbase]

Thank you completely forgot D.H. Hill was in the Eastern theater i don't know why but I thought he was a commander in the West for the entire war

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I've never heard of this song before.

 

[James Brenner]

There are a couple of versions. The one from the National Geographic society album, Songs of the Civil War (available on YouTube) is good and so is Bobby Horton's rendition which -I think- is also available on the web.