The Loyalist by Dave Nachmanoff

 "The Loyalist" is actually about Adam Bower, the ancestor of Nachmanoff's wife Jennifer, who is also a musician. Although it was not the bloodiest of conflicts, the American War of Independence began in 1775 and did not conclude until the Treaty Of Paris eight years later. Many of those Colonists who supported George III rather than George Washington paid a terrible price. Bower fled persecution as early as 1764, and was granted 300 acres of land in South Carolina by the Crown, but when the British were forced out of Charlestown he had to move his family again, finally arriving in Nova Scotia in 1783. The song has his ghost wandering abroad and wondering how he was painted out of history so quickly, even though his name can be found all over town from the shop signs to the graveyard. (thanks, Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2)