Fifteen and Riding - James Marshall Ricketts Civil War Service Told in Song

 

Have you ever tried telling an ancestor's story through music?

After researching the Civil War military and pension records of James Marshall Ricketts, I decided his story would lend itself particularly well to a song.

James served in Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry, enlisting in August 1863. His military record says he was 18 years old. However, census records and his later pension records consistently point to a birth in 1847 or 1848.

That means James was probably only 15 years old when he enlisted.

A Fifteen-Year-Old Cavalryman

James's young age was only part of his Civil War story.

Within months of enlisting, James later said, his horse fell on him near Germantown, Tennessee, crushing and bruising his right leg. His pension records state that he was sent to Overton General Hospital in Memphis.

His military records help corroborate that part of the story. Muster rolls record him as sick in a Memphis hospital, while hospital muster rolls actually place him at Overton General Hospital during the early months of 1864.

James eventually recovered sufficiently to return to his regiment. By the summer of 1864, he was again recorded as present for duty.

Then, on 13 December 1864, he was promoted to corporal.

If his reported birth date of 28 November 1847 is correct, James had turned 17 only a couple of weeks earlier.

He continued serving until he was mustered out at Hempstead, Texas, on 19 September 1865.

Thus, James appears to have spent his entire Civil War service before his eighteenth birthday.

Turning His Story into a Song

After writing about James's military service, I wondered whether his story could also be told through music.

With the help of ChatGPT, I created lyrics based on the events documented in his military and pension records. I titled the song:

Fifteen and Riding

The chorus captures the idea behind the song:

Ride on, young cavalryman
Through the dust and through the rain
With the Seventh Indiana
Down a long and weary trail

I then took those lyrics to Suno and used the style description "Civil War era military ballad" to turn the words into a song.

Of course, the resulting song isn't an authentic piece of Civil War music. It is a modern, AI-created interpretation inspired by James's documented story. But hearing those events expressed through music gave me another way to think about the young man behind the military records.

From Song to Video

Once I had the song, I wanted a simple way to share it.

I used the Fifteen and Riding feature image along with the Suno recording in Canva to create a video. I then uploaded the finished video to YouTube.

Fifteen and Riding — The Civil War Story of James Marshall Ricketts

The video isn't intended to replace the documents or the fuller account of James's military service. Instead, it complements them.

The pension application tells me about the horse accident.

The muster rolls tell me when James was absent, hospitalized, present for duty and promoted.

The census records help reveal that the Army's recorded age of 18 probably wasn't his actual age.

And the song takes those individual pieces of evidence and turns them into a story that can be heard.

Finding New Ways to Share Family History

One of the things I enjoy about genealogy is finding different ways to share what I've learned.

A military service record can become a timeline.

A pension file can become a blog post.

Those same records can inspire lyrics.

And those lyrics can become a song and video.

Fifteen and Riding doesn't add new evidence to the story of James Marshall Ricketts. Instead, it provides another way to share the evidence I've already found—and perhaps helps us imagine just how young this Indiana cavalryman really was when he rode off to war.