Poetry By Wayside, Freedoms Star, features some poetry that was originally written in the late 1800s by a writer named William McFarland, whose pen name was WAYSIDE. He was a UNION OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES CIVIL WAR. This is Book One of Four books of Poetry By Wayside by Wayside. It was Wayside's dream to have his writings published into a book. He died before he could accomplish this task. This book is a fulfillment of Wayside's dream. It was his wish that these poems would be published into a printed book. This book contains a great deal of scanned images from the original, handwritten manuscript. These images or photos of said pages will thus add to its historic value. The writer had very elegant handwriting. William McFarland was my great, great, great grandfather. By my doing family history I was able to locate my ancestor's writings and I was given these poems to type up and print into a book. William McFarland was also a school teacher and he was also a Union Officer in the Civil War for the United States of America. He was one of my CIVIL WAR ANCESTORS. Some of these poems in this book are of American PATRIOTISM. Some of these poems even are about SOLDIERS and about the CIVIL WAR and remember these were written by a Poet of the North who was in that war himself and he experienced it in person. What you have here is an eye witness account of the Civil War by someone that was actually there and lived through the war and wrote about his feelings. Some poems here in this book, POETRY BY WAYSIDE, FREEDOMS STAR, are of general topics and some are about America patriotism and are inspirational. We have scanned some of the actual, ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT PAGES that are brittle and torn and falling apart and have inserted LOTS of these as images (photos) inside this book of Poetry By Wayside. This will give the reader a real good idea of what the originals look like. The poetry included in this Book One of "Poetry By Wayside" include the following poems: A Gem A Little Gem A Good Name A Good Time All Away Away Boys Away April in 1881 A Sheep's Eye A Soldier Of The Cross Beautiful Home Billy and Irene Commencement Dash Away Boys Edwards Appeal Epha Belle Erny There Fire Freedoms Star Gambols On The Green Golden Hair Independence Day Run The Machine The Bleeding Heart The Deacons Charge The Soldier's Grave Yellow Jack In Memphis 1878 Some actual black and white images are on this book's front and back cover as well as inside this book of selected images from the poems. Remember these were all taken using the ORIGINALS documents! Remember, these poems were never before published in a printed book. These are not reproductions. They are the originals that were written prior to 1887 and just never were put into a book. What you have here in these poems in this book is an eye witness account of the Civil War as he was in it and a few of the poems are about the Civil War. Some of the poems in this book are reflections of what was going on at the time and reflections of Wayside's life. This contains words which were written by a Poet of the North whose pen name was WAYSIDE. Wayside lived in a different time period than what life is like for us now and so the words he wrote and the way he said it is different and yet some of it is still the same. Although the writings may not be a factual account of the events they do reflect some of the attitudes and the occurrences of the day.