Category:Songs of the American Civil War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This category is for songs and music associated with the American Civil War.
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See the main articles Music of the American Civil War and Music history of the United States during the Civil War era
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Music of the American Civil War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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During the American Civil War, music played a prominent role on both sides of the conflict: Union and Confederate. On the American Civil War battlefield, different instruments including bugles, drums, and fifes were played to issue marching orders or sometimes simply to boost the morale of one's fellow soldiers. Singing was also employed as a recreational activity, but as a release from the inevitable tensions that come with fighting in a war, particularly a war in which the issue of freedom of a race is to be decided In camp, music was a diversion away from the bloodshed, helping the soldiers deal with homesickness and boredom. Soldiers of both sides often engaged in recreation with musical instruments, and when the opposing armies were near each other, sometimes the bands from both sides of the conflict played against each other on the night before a battle.
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Each side had its particular favorite tunes, while some music was enjoyed by Northerners and Southerners alike, as exemplified by United States President Abraham Lincoln's love of Dixie, the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy. To this day, many of the songs are sung when a patriotic piece is required. The war's music also inspired music artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Elvis Presley.
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Regulations
In May 1861 the United States War Department officially approved that every regiment of infantry and artillery could have a brass band with 24 members, while a cavalry regiment could have one of sixteen members. The Confederate army would also have brass bands. This was followed by a Union army regulation of July 1861 requiring every infantry, artillery, or cavalry company to have two musicians and for there to be a twenty-four man band for every regiment.[1] The July 1861 requirement was ignored as the war dragged on, as riflemen were more needed than musicians. In July 1862 the brass bands of the Union were disassembled by the adjutant general, although the soldiers that comprised them were sometimes reenlisted and assigned to musician roles. A survey in October 1861 found that 75% of Union regiments had a band.[2] By December 1861 the Union army had 28,000 musicians in 618 bands; a ratio of one soldier out of 41 who served the army was a musician, and the Confederate army was believed to have a similar ratio.[3]
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Musicians were often given special privileges. Union general Phillip Sheridan gave his cavalry bands the best horses and special uniforms, believing "Music has done its share, and more than its share, in winning this war".[4]
Musicians on the battlefield were drummers and buglers, with an occasional fifer. Buglers had to learn forty-nine separate calls just for infantry, with more needed for cavalry. These ranged from battle commands to calls for meal time.[5] Some of these required musicians were drummer boys not even in their teens, which allowed an adult man to instead be a foot soldier. The most notable of these underaged musicians was John Clem, also known as "Johnny Shiloh". Union drummers wore white straps to support their drums. The drum and band majors wore baldrics to indicate their status; after the war, this style would be emulated in civilian bands. Drummers would march to the right of a marching column. Similar to buglers, drummers had to learn 39 different beats: fourteen for general use, and 24 for marching cadence. However, buglers were given greater importance than drummers.[6]
On the battlefield
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Whole songs were sometimes played during battles. The survivors of the disastrous Pickett's Charge returned under the tune Nearer My God to Thee.[7] At the Battle of Five Forks, Union musicians under orders from Sheridan played Nelly Bly while being shot at on the front lines.[8] Samuel P. Heintzelman, the commander of the III Corps, saw many of his musicians standing at the back lines at the Battle of Williamsburg, and ordered them to play anything.[9] Their music rallied the Union forces, forcing the Confederate to withdraw. It was said that music was the equivalent of "a thousand men" on one's side. Robert E. Lee himself said, "I don't think we could have an army without music."[10]
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Often, musicians were ordered to leave the battlefront and assist the surgeons. One notable time was the 20th Maine's musicians at Little Round Top. As the rest of the regiment were driving back wave after wave of Confederates, the musicians of the regiment were not just performing amputations, but doing it in a very quick manner.[11][12]
In camp
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Many soldiers brought musical instruments from home to pass the time at camp. Banjos, fiddles, and guitars were particularly popular. Aside from drums, the instruments Confederates played were either acquired before the war, or imported, due to the lack of brass and the industry to make such instruments.[13][14]
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Musical duels between the two sides were common, as they heard each other as the music traveled across the countryside. The night before the Battle of Stones River, bands from both sides dueled with separate songs, until both sides started playing Home! Sweet Home!, at which time soldiers on both sides started singing together as one.[15] A similar situation occurred in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the winter of 1862–3. On a cold afternoon a Union band started playing Northern patriotic tunes; a Southern band responded by playing Southern patriotic tunes. This back and forth continued into the night, until at the end both sides played Home! Sweet Home! simultaneously, to the cheers of both sides' forces.[16] In a third instance, in the spring of 1863, the opposing armies were on the opposite sides of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, when the different sides played their patriotic tunes, and at taps one side played Home! Sweet Home!, and the other joined in, creating "cheers" from both sides that echoed throughout the hilly countryside.[17]
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Both sides sang Maryland, My Maryland, although the lyrics were slightly different. Another popular song for both was Lorena. When Johnny Comes Marching Home was written in 1863 by Patrick Gilmore, an immigrant from Ireland, and was also enjoyed by both sides.[18][19]
Homefront
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The first song written for the war, The First Gun is Fired, was first published and distributed three days after the Battle of Fort Sumter. George F. Root, who wrote it, is said to have produced the most songs of anyone about the war, over thirty in total.[20] Lincoln once wrote a letter to Root, saying, "You have done more than a hundred generals and a thousand orators".[21]
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The southern states had long lagged behind northern states in producing common literature. With the advent of war, Southern publishers were in demand. These publishers, based largely in five cities (Charleston, South Carolina, Macon, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, Nashville, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana), produced five times the amount of printed music than they did for literature.[22]
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In the Confederate States of America, God Save the South was the official national anthem. However, Dixie was the most popular.[23] United States President Abraham Lincoln said he loved Dixie and wanted to hear it played, saying "as we had captured the rebel army, we had also captured the rebel tune".[24] At an April 9th, 1865 rally, the band director was surprised when Lincoln requested that the band play Dixie. Lincoln said, "That tune is now Federal property...good to show the rebels that, with us in power, they will be free to hear it again".[25] The other prominent tune was The Bonnie Blue Flag, and like Dixie was written in 1861, unlike Union popular tunes which were written throughout the war.[26]
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The United States did not have a national anthem at this time (Star Spangled Banner would not be recognized as such until the twentieth century). Union soldiers frequently sang the Battle Cry of Freedom, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic was considered the north's most popular song.[27]
Different versions
Although certain songs were identified with one particular side of the war, sometimes the other would adapt the song for their use. A Southern revision of the Star Spangled Banner was used, entitled "The Southern Cross". In an example of the different lyrics, where the Banner had "O say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave", the Cross had "'Tis the Cross of the South, which shall ever remain".[28] Another Confederate version of the Star Spangled Banner, called The Flag of Secession, replaced the same verse with "and the flag of secession in triumph doth wave".[29] Even a song from the American Revolutionary War was adapted, as the tune Yankee Doodle was changed to "Dixie Doodle", and started with "Dixie whipped old Yankee Doodle early in the morning".[30] The Union's Battle Cry of Freedom was also altered, with the original lines of "The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah! Down with the traitor, up with the star" being changed to "Our Dixie forever! She's never at a loss! Down with the eagle and up with the cross!"[31]
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The Union also adapted Southern Songs. In a Union variation of Dixie, instead of the line "I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land", it was changed to "Away down South in the land of traitors, Rattlesnakes and alligators, Right away, come away, right away, come away".[32]
Legacy
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The music derived from this war was of greater quantity and variety than from any other war involving America.[33] Songs came from a variety of sources. Battle Hymn of the Republic borrowed its tune from a song sung at Methodist revivals. Dixie was a minstrel song that Daniel Emmett adapted from two Ohio black singers named Snowden.[34] American soldiers would continue to sing Battle Hymn of the Republic in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II.[35]
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The Southern rock style of music has often used the Confederate Battle Flag as a symbol of the musical style. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd was described as a "vivid example of a lingering Confederate mythology in Southern culture".[36]
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A ballad from the war, Aura Lee, would become the basis of the song Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley. Presley also sang An American Trilogy, which was described as "smoothing" out All My Trials, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Dixie of its divisions, although Dixie still dominated the piece.[37]
Music in the Union Army
Music was a vital entity of the Union Armies. The procurement of musical instruments and music instructors for Army bands was one of the first acts of a White commanding officer of a Negro regiment. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th regiment was given a special fund of $500 to purchase musical instruments, uniforms and the instructor. The passion and love of music was brought to the Army from the black soldiers who served. Harvard graduate and abolitionist, Colonel Thomas Higginson, wrote a book, Army Life in a Black Regiment, that contained information about the black soldiers’ influence on music in the army. One excerpt stated: “The everlasting “shout” is always within hearing, with its mixture of piety and polka, and its castanet-like clapping of the hands. Then there are quieter prayermeetings, with pious invocations and slow psalms, “deaconed out” from memory by the leader, two lines at a time, in a sort of wailing chant…” Higginson was amazed that the shout should take place, “not rarely and occasionally, but night after night.” Glee clubs were sometimes formed by black soldiers to give concerts for the community that were not only exceptional, but generated proceeds for the company fund.
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In the Union Army, and under informal circumstances, marching soldiers were occasionally permitted use a “route step.” Marching “route step” is to be allowed to converse or sing with fellow soldiers, not in a uniform step, simply maintaining a forward abreast and not slowing the march.
Music in the Confederate Army
Not much is recorded or known about Negro music in the Confederate Army. Slaves were sometimes used as fifers and drummers. Official records due suggest that some negros may have been given the rank of musician or bugler. Non regularly negro men were guaranteed some payment in an Act enabled by the Congress of the Confederate States of America.
Songs published per year
w. = Words by
m. = Music by
m. = Music by
1861
- The First Gun is Fired, w.m. George F. Root
- The Bonnie Blue Flag, w. Mrs Annie Chamber-Ketchum m. Harry MacCarthy
- I'm Going Home to Dixie, w. Dan Emmett a. C. S. Grafully
- John Brown's Body, w. anonymous m. William Steffe (came to be the unofficial theme song of black soldiers.)
- Maryland, My Maryland, w. James Ryder Randall m. Walter de Mapers (Music "Mini est Propositum" 12th century)
- The Vacant Chair, w. Henry S. Washburne m. George Frederick Root
1862
- Here's Your Mule, - C. D. Benson
- Battle Cry of Freedom, - George F. Root
1863
- All Quiet On The Potomac Tonight, w.m. John Hill Hewitt
- Just Before the Battle, Mother, by George F. Root
- Mother Would Comfort Me, w.m. Charles C. Sawyer
- Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, w.m. Walter Kittredge
- Weeping Sad And Lonely, w. Charles Carroll Sawyer m. Henry Tucker
- When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, by Louis Lambert & Patrick Gilmore
- You Are Going to the Wars, Willie Boy!, w.m. John Hill Hewitt
- The Young Volunteer, w.m. John Hill Hewitt
1864
- Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Boys Are Marching), w.m. George F. Root
1865
- Jeff in Pettycoats, w.m. Henry Tucker
- Marching Through Georgia, w.m. Henry Clay Work
Media
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The Battle Cry Of Freedom The Battle Cry Of Freedom by George Frederick Root Dixie Dixie, traditional Blackface song When Johnny Comes Marching Home When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Patrick Gilmore - Problems listening to the files? See media help.
See also
- Music history of the United States during the Civil War era - a view of music of the time period outside of the military
- Abraham Lincoln and Civil War songs
- American Song Sheets - Duke University Libraries Digital Collections - Includes images and text of over 1,500 Civil War song sheets
Notes
- ^ Lanning p.243
- ^ Lanning p.243
- ^ Lanning p.243, Vaughan pp.194,195
- ^ Lanning pp.244
- ^ Amedeo p.127, Miller p.92
- ^ Lanning p.243, Miller p.96
- ^ Lanning p.244
- ^ Lanning p.244
- ^ Lanning p.244
- ^ Lanning pp.243,244
- ^ Music of the Civil War National Park Service.gov
- ^ Turner p.151, Vaughan p.195
- ^ Heidler p.1173, Miller p.190
- ^ Music of the Civil War National Park Service.gov
- ^ Amedeo p.257, Vaughan p.194
- ^ Music of the Civil War National Park Service.gov
- ^ Branham p.131
- ^ Amedeo p.77, 127
- ^ Lanning p.245
- ^ Kelley p.30, Silber p.7
- ^ Branham p.132
- ^ Harwell pp.3,4
- ^ Lanning p.245
- ^ Branham p.130
- ^ Donald p.580
- ^ Silber p.8
- ^ Lanning pp.245
- ^ Harwell pp.64,65
- ^ Branham p.130
- ^ Harwell pp.67
- ^ Silber p.10
- ^ Van Deburg p.109
- ^ Silber p.4
- ^ Heidler pp.191,607
- ^ Ravitch p.257
- ^ Kaufman pp.x,81
- ^ Amedeo p.111, Kaufman p.83
References
- Amedeo, Michael (2007). Civil War: Untold stories of the Blue and the Gray. West Side Publications. ISBN 1412714184.
- Branham, Robert J. (2002). Sweet Freedom's Song: "My Country 'tis of Thee" and Democracy in America. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0195137418.
- Donald, David Herbert (1995). Lincoln. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 068482535X.
- Harwell, Richard B. (1950). Confederate Music. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
- Heidler, David (2002). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 039304758X.
- Kaufman, Will (2006). The Civil War in American Culture. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748619356.
- Kelley, Bruce (2004). "An Overview of Music of the Civil War Era" Bugle Resounding. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0813123755.
- Lanning, Michael (2007). The Civil War 100. Sourcebooks, Inc.. ISBN 140221040x.
- Miller, David (2001). Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment of the Civil War. London: Salamander Books Ltd.. ISBN 1840652578.
- Ravitch, Diane (2000). The American Reader: Words that Moved a Nation. HarperCollins. ISBN 0062737333.
- Silber, Irwin (1995). Songs of the Civil War. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486284387.
- Turner, Thomas Reed (2007). 101 Things You Didn't Know about the Civil War. Adams Media. ISBN 1598693204.
- Van Deburg, William L. (1984). Slavery & Race in American Popular Culture: In American Popular Culture. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299096343.
- Vaughan, Donald (2000). The Everything Civil War Book. Holbrook, Massachusetts: Adams Media Corporation. ISBN 1580623662.
*{{cite book
| last = Southern | first = Eileen | authorlink = Eileen Southern | coauthors = | title = The Music of Black Americans | publisher = W.W. Nortan & Company, Inc | date = 1997 | location = New York, New York | pages = 206-212 | isbn = 0-393-97141-4
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Music history of the United States during the Civil War era
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Music of the American Civil War. (Discuss) |
History of the United States | |
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Military - Postal - Diplomatic - Expansionist - Religious - Industrial - Feminist - Music | |
Music of the United States | |
Colonial era - to the Civil War - During the Civil War - Late 19th century - Early 20th century - 40s and 50s - 60s and 70s - 80s to the present | |
Ethnic music | |
Native American: Arapaho music, Blackfoot music, Inuit music, Iroquois music, Kiowa music, Navajo music, Pueblo music, Seminole music, Sioux music, and Yuman music - English: old-time and Western music - African American - Irish and Scottish - Latin: Tejano and Puerto Rican - Cajun and Creole - Hawaii - Other immigrants | |
United States |
The music history of the United States during the Civil War was an important period in the development of American music. During the Civil War, when soldiers from across the country commingled, the multifarious strands of American music began to crossfertilize each other, a process that was aided by the burgeoning railroad industry and other technological developments that made travel and communication easier. Army units included individuals from across the country, and they rapidly traded tunes, instruments and techniques. The songs that arose from this fusion were "the first American folk music with discernible features that can be considered unique to America" [1]. The war was an impetus for the creation of many songs that became and remained wildly popular; the songs were aroused by "all the varied passions (that the Civil War inspired)" and "echoed and re-echoed" every aspect of the war. John Tasker Howard has claimed that the songs from this era "could be arranged in proper sequence to form an actual history of the conflicts; its events, its principal characters, and the ideals and principles of the opposing sides" [2].
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In addition to, and in conjunction with, popular songs with patriotic fervor, the Civil War era also produced a great body of brass band pieces, from both the North and the South [3], as well as other military musical traditions like the bugle call "Taps".
Media
Problems listening to these files? See media help. |
See also
- Music of the American Civil War - a view of the music on the battlefield
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Music of the American Civil War |
References
- Abel, E. Lawrence (2000). Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861 - 1865 (First Edition ed.). Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0228-6.
- Clarke, Donald (1995). The Rise and Fall of Popular Music. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-11573-3.
- Ewen, David (1957). Panorama of American Popular Music. Prentice Hall.
- "Band Music From the Civil War Era". Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmhome.html. Retrieved June 13, 2005.
- Struble, John Warthen (1995). The History of American Classical Music. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 081602927X.
Notes
- ^ Struble, pg. xvii
- ^ Howard, John Tasker, cited in Ewen, pg. 19 (no specific source given)
- ^ Library of Congress: Band Music from the Civil War Era
- ^ Ewen, pg. 21
- ^ Ewen, pg. 25
- ^ Clarke, pg. 21
- ^ Clarke, pg. 23
Categories: American music history | 19th century in music | Cultural history of the American Civil War
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Category:Music of the American Civil War
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Media in category "Music of the American Civil War"
The following 38 files are in this category, out of 38 total.AllQuietPotomacConfe... 514,514 bytes | AmericanStandard son... 98,089 bytes | Aura Lea excerpt.png 18,045 bytes | AuraLea1861.png 302,019 bytes | AuraLea1864.png 598,059 bytes |
Band of the 10th Vet... 238,246 bytes | Battle Cry of Freedo... 13,883 bytes | Battle Cry of Freedo... 16,616 bytes | Battle Hymn of the R... 147,300 bytes | Bummers-com-and-meet... 100,361 bytes |
DixieDoodleWerlein18... 1,113,300 bytes | DixieWarSongWerlein1... 890,850 bytes | Follow The Drinking ... 2,403,196 bytes | Godsavethesouth.jpeg 47,452 bytes | GooberPeas1866.png 297,837 bytes |
HardTimesComeAgainNo... 328,656 bytes | HeresYourMule1862.png 617,313 bytes | HoldOnAbraham1862.png 450,606 bytes | HowAreYouJohnMorgan1... 323,943 bytes | John Brown's Song - ... 30,576 bytes |
John-brown-song-cs-h... 83,039 bytes | JohnnyMarchingHomeBr... 322,157 bytes | Just Before the Batt... 54,300 bytes | JustBeforeTheBattleM... 36,169 bytes | Marching Through Geo... 26,095 bytes |
SheetMusicWeAreComin... 81,551 bytes | Sherman's March to t... 42,725 bytes | Song of the First of... 285,787 bytes | StarsAndBarsPolkaCov... 880,030 bytes | StonewallJacksonsWay... 402,174 bytes |
Tenting on the Old C... 79,018 bytes | The Battle Cry Of Fr... 1,909,490 bytes | The Battle Hymn of t... 27,621 bytes | The Bonnie Blue Flag... 47,008 bytes | Tramp, Tramp, Tramp ... 63,988 bytes |
TrampTrampTramp1864.png 410,373 bytes | Werlein's Dixie.jpg 60,621 bytes | When Johnny Comes Ma... 25,020 bytes |
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Pages in category "Songs of the American Civil War"
The following 50 pages are in this category, out of 50 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).ABCDFGH | H cont.IJKLM | OPRST
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