Annotation:Three Forks of Hell
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
THREE FORKS OF HELL. American, Reel. A banjo piece from Mill Creek, West Virginia, banjo player Arthur D. Johnson, via folklorist Gerry Milnes. Jim Taylor (1996) says the tune is associated with the Civil War battle of Cheat Mountain, fought in what is now West Virginia in September, 1861. The battle was a rare defeat for General Robert E. Lee, and led to the abandonment of that part of what was then Virginia to the Union forces for the remainder of the war. Source Johnson remarked that bitter feelings remained for years afterward, and that in the area around Cheat Mountain sentiment ran so strong that one risked life and limb by playing this tune publicly.
