Music. Music: An Overview GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 243

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1 Music: An Overview n Music MUSIC: AN OVERVIEW Kerry L. Pimblott WAR MUSIC Stephen Rockenbach SLAVE, ABOLITIONIST, AND CIVIL RIGHTS SONGS Jeanne M. Lesinski ARMY BANDS Carol J. Gibson MUSIC: AN OVERVIEW The social upheaval of the Civil War disrupted musical traditions and gave rise to forms that were more readily applicable to wartime realities. In the military Confederate and Union armies employed field and band musicians entrusted with the task of promoting soldier morale, regimenting camp life, and delivering commands on the battlefield. On the home front popular music and civic bands served many of the same functions, with patriotic tunes serving to solidify support for the war and aiding in the recruitment of troops. African American music traditions were also transformed as the power of the southern planter elite eroded. Spirituals, as well as folk and abolitionist songs served as expressions of racial pride and newly acquired freedoms. Moreover, contacts between Northern white soldiers and former slaves facilitated the dissemination of African American music traditions to a broader audience in the postwar era. In 1864 Robert E. Lee ( ) emphasized the centrality of music to successful military operations, stating: I don t believe we can have an army without music. Indeed, musicians were involved in all aspects of soldierly life from the camp to the battlefield and performed a variety of musical and non-musical duties. Military music fell into two main categories: field music and band music. Field musicians included fifers, drummers, and buglers who were responsible for memorizing and transmitting orders essential to the dayto-day functioning of the regiment. Often only twelve or thirteen years old, many field musicians were too young to enlist as troops and were thus classified as noncombatants. Fourteen-year-old Charles W. Bardeen, for example, joined the 1st Massachusetts Infantry drum corps after learning he was too young to enlist as an army regular. Bardeen, like many other field musicians, lacked formal musical training and was relatively unprepared for the realities of war. Celebrated in popular songs like Will S. Hays s 1863 The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, young field musicians were forced to grow up quickly if they were to survive the perils of conflict and camp life. Cover of Grand March. Both on the battlefield and in army camps, music was used as a communications device, relaying a variety of instructions to soldiers. The sound of fife, drum, and bugle related tactical commands to soldiers, such as marching speed and orders to charge or retreat. MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The primary responsibility of field musicians was to deliver the regulatory calls that served to structure daily life in the army. From Drummers Call in the morning to Taps at the end of the day, field musicians provided army camps with a rigid and familiar routine. Describing a typical morning with 17th Maine Regiment, Edwin B. Houghton recalled in Francis A. Lord s and Arthur Wise s 1966 edited work Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War the clear notes of the bugle piercing his ears as the first beams of the rising sun [began] to tinge the eastern skies. The sound of the bugle was quickly followed by the noisy rataplan of the drum corps thundering about the camp. At the last tap of the drum, Houghton wrote, every man is supposed to be up and dressed the companies formed, the roll called by the first sergeants, and woe to the absentees! (pp ). Throughout the day, field musicians performed a variety of familiar ensembles to alert GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 243

2 Music: An Overview soldiers to events and important camp duties, and their tunes established the rhythm of military life. On the battlefield, field musicians were charged with the essential duty of relaying important tactical signals, such as instructions to march slower or faster, load and fire, rally to the flag, charge, halt, or retreat. These calls were memorized and performed primarily by the drum corps and buglers, who could relay them from a significant distance. In addition to their musical responsibilities, field musicians also performed a miscellany of non-musical duties. George T. Ulmer of the 8th Maine Infantry described his experiences in Lord s and Wise s Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War working as an anesthetist in a camp hospital at the age of sixteen as an ordeal I never wish to go through again (1966 p. iii). Working as stretcher-bearers and hospital assistants was a common duty of field musicians throughout the Civil War. In addition to an extensive array of field musicians, many regiments also featured a military band. During the initial stages of the war civilian bands from across the country offered their services to individual regiments by enlisting as a group. The renowned American Brass Band from Providence, for example, enlisted with the 1st Regiment Rhode Island Militia in April 1861, whereupon it performed for dress parades and served with the medical corps. Maintaining a military band, however, was costly and as the war continued unabated, the federal government opted to cut music expenditure significantly. On July 29, 1862, the war department passed General Order 91 restricting bands to the brigade level and limiting their size to no more than sixteen musicians. In contrast, the Confederate army continued to permit sixteen-member ensembles to operate within regiments as well as brigades. Despite these cutbacks, it is estimated that more than 400 bands were represented in the ranks of the Union army and 125 in the Confederate army during the course of the war. Military bands were largely brass-and-percussion ensembles. Although considerable variation existed, bands usually consisted of two E-flat cornets, two B-flat cornets two alto horns, two tenor horns, one baritone horn, one bass horn, and a percussion section of one snare drum, a bass drum, and cymbals. Woodwind instruments were relatively rare, though some piccolos and clarinets were represented. Band repertoires were equally diverse, consisting of marches, patriotic melodies, popular songs, traditional dances, and hymns. Though considerable crossover existed in the repertoires of Confederate and Union forces, both sides developed their own patriotic songs with which to rally the troops and overawe the enemy. Northern favorites included Yankee Doodle and Battle Hymn of the Republic while Southerners preferred Dixie and La Marseillaise. In some cases, opposing military bands dueled as a prelude to battle. Colonel George A. Bruce of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteers recalled in Lord s and Wise s Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War his band playing the Star-Spangled Banner only to be countered by a Confederate band playing Bonnie Blue Flag and My Maryland. The musical duel climaxed when Confederate forces fired on Northern troops after hearing the introductory bars of Old John Brown (p. 396). On the battlefield military bands were used to inspire and motivate soldiers. According to Francis H. Buffum of the 14th Regiment of the New Hampshire Volunteers, in Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War, the presence of a band during military operations tends to promote morale, strengthening the discipline and elevating the sentiment of the soldiers (pp ). The use of patriotic songs was an obvious strategy for raising troop s morale, but certainly not the only one. In her study of sixty popular Civil War songs, historian Lenora Cuccia contends in the 2004 edited work Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era that lyrical representations of women as wives and mothers also served as powerful inspiration for soldiers going into battle. Popular songs such as The Yellow Rose of Texas invoked a sense of patriotism infused with dominant understandings of manliness. Back at camp, military bands entertained soldiers and provided music for special occasions. It was at these special camp performances that accomplished bands often experimented with newer and more challenging operatic or classical pieces. In April 1862, a solider with the 24th Massachusetts Regiment wrote a letter home in which he testified to the importance of these special camp performances to soldiers morale. I don t know what we should have done without our band, he wrote, as Bell I. Wiley recounted in The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Every night about sun down [Patrick] Gilmore gives us a splendid concert, playing selections from the operas and some very pretty marches, quicksteps, waltzes and the like, most of which are composed by himself or by Zohler, a member of his band (p. 158). In this way military bands brought excitement to the often dull and monotonous days of camp life and offered soldiers an important reprieve from the horrors of war. Military bands were also tremendously popular on the home front. In cities and towns across the country the performances of military or civic bands served many of the same functions as they did for soldiers: fostering patriotism and offering vital relief from the tragedies of war. Bands in cities across the nation led parades and performed concerts. In New York s Central Park, celebrated bandmaster Henry Dodsworth held military band concerts that regularly attracted audiences of more than 20,000 people. In Washington, DC, military bands serenaded the president with patriotic favorites from the lawn of the executive mansion. Moreover, contemporary composers set about immortalizing significant battles and war heroes in the popular sheet music of the era. Songs such as P. Rivinac s General Bragg s Grand March (1861) emphasized the heroism of military leaders while others, such as Walter Kittredge s Tenting on the Old Camp Ground (1864) focused on the daily lives of soldiers. 244 GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

3 Music: An Overview Cover of Beauregard s March. Inspired by feelings of patriotism, musicians penned military marches for both Union and Confederate troops. MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images As European Americans on both sides of the Mason- Dixon Line utilized music to express nationalist fervor and provide solace for wartime horrors, African Americans in the southern states continued to engage in their own distinctive music traditions. In the context of enslavement, music had functioned as an important vehicle for African American community building and the preservation of folk culture. Musical festivities provided people of African descent with a rare opportunity to join together and participate in an activity devoid of white supervision. Through the singing of spirituals and work songs, African Americans asserted their humanity and collective desire for freedom. In the social upheaval of the Civil War Northern whites came into direct contact with African American music traditions, often for the first time. While African American music and dance styles had long been the subject of parody by minstrel show performers, it was not until the Civil War and the concomitant movement of Northern soldiers and teachers into Southern states that a large percentage of Northern whites experienced music produced and performed by people of African descent. Through the performance of spirituals, abolitionist songs, and folk songs, African Americans challenged the authenticity of the minstrel show and the dehumanizing racial stereotypes it perpetuated. Wartime accounts of African American music and dance revealed the ongoing influence of West African cultural traditions. In her diary, Charlotte Forten, an African American schoolteacher from Salem, Massachusetts working in the Sea Islands, described how local children would form a ring, and move around in a kind of shuffling dance, singing all the time According to Forten s account, reproduced as Life on the Sea Islands in the 1997 compilation Work of Teachers in America: A Social History through Stories, several of the children would stand apart, and sing very energetically, clapping their hands, stamping their feet, and rocking their bodies to and fro while others shouted in time (p. 129). Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a white colonel of an African American regiment in South Carolina, also provided accounts of a ring dance being performed. In Army Life in a Black Regiment [1962], Higginson described how a circle forms, winding monotonously round some one in the center; some heel and toe tumultuously, others merely tremble and stagger on, others stoop and rise, others whirl, others caper sideways, all keep steadily circling like dervishes while the spectators applaud special strokes of skill (pp ). Historian Sterling Stuckey has contended that this practice, widely recognized as the ring shout, has roots in West Africa and that its continuation represents the ongoing importance of West African retentions in African American culture. As the power of the southern planter class eroded African Americans also composed and performed songs that addressed the material realities of a seemingly new world. Spirituals and abolitionist songs were particularly popular genres with which former slaves expressed their newly acquired freedoms. While traveling with troops in 1864, Boston journalist and historian Charles Carlton Coffin observed that African Americans who had fled local plantations celebrated their emancipation with songs of praise. A middle-aged woman asked Coffin: Will it disturb you if we have a little singing? You see we feel so happy to-day that we would like to praise the Lord (pp ). On Helena Island, South Carolina, Charlotte Forten recalled how former slaves sang the abolitionist song John Brown passionately as they drove through the pines and palmettos. Oh, it was good to sing that song in the very heart of Rebeldom! Forten declared (p. 128). Singing spirituals and abolitionist songs was a dangerous, yet empowering act for African Americans in the southern states during the war. While abolitionist songs were liberating for many former slaves, Northern white military leaders used the same genre as a tool for policing African American regiments. Historian Keith P. Wilson contends that white officers used music to impress their own social values on their men. Many of the abolitionist songs played for African American GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 245

4 War Music regiments were written by white composers and contained lyrics that emphasized the moral and economic responsibilities of emancipation. In this sense abolitionist songs were often reflective of the deeper concerns of Northern whites about a postwar interracial democracy. Despite these efforts African American soldiers also brought their own musical and expressive traditions to bear on army life. Spirituals played a particularly important role in providing solace and inspiration for African American soldiers. In contrast to the patriotic songs of their white counterparts, spirituals drew on the history of enslavement and the prophetic call for freedom that was central to African American life and culture. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bardeen, Charles William. A Little Fifer s War Diary. Syracuse, NY: C.W. Bardeen, Buffum, Francis Henry. A Memorial of the Great Rebellion: Being a History of the Fourteenth Regiment New-Hampshire Volunteers. Boston: Franklin Press: Rand, Avery, and Company, Bruce, George Anson. The Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Catton, Bruce. A Stillness at Appomattox. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Corneluis, Steven H. Music of the Civil War Era. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Cuccia, Lenora. They Weren t All Like Lorena: Musical Portraits of Women in the Civil War Era. In Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era, ed. Bruce C. Kelley and Mark A. Snell. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Epstein, Dena J. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Forton, Charlotte L. Life on the Sea Islands. In Work of Teachers in America: A Social History through Stories, ed. Rosetta Marantz Cohen and Samuel Scheer. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hays, Will S. The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, Musica International. Available from musicanet.org/. Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Army Life in a Black Regiment [1900]. Boston: Beacon Press, Lord, Francis A., and Arthur Wise. Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil War.NewYork:ThomasYoseloff,1966. Olson, Kenneth E., Music and Musket: Bands and Bandsmen of the American Civil War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Wiley, Bell I. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union [c. 1952]. New York: Doubleday, Wilson, Keith P., Campfires of Freedom: The Camp Life of Black Soldiers during the Civil War. Kent, OH: Kent State University, Kerry L. Pimblott WAR MUSIC During the American Civil War, soldiers and civilians alike wrote and sang songs that captured the experience of war. The lyrics of these songs ranged from accounts of famous battles to sentimental thoughts of family and home. The Union and Confederacy each had specific songs that celebrated their cause and praised their troops. Particularly in the North, some songs were political in nature, either supporting or criticizing President Abraham Lincoln. Many of the same melodies were popular in both the North and the South, resulting in numerous variants with different lyrics. These words and melodies helped to build morale, fight the doldrums of military life, and unite people. In the end, this music formed a lasting record of what people considered the most pressing aspects of life during the war. Soldiers and the Army Music was a common form of entertainment during the Civil War era, and musicians were in abundance in both civilian and military life. A corporal in the 44th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia commented that each company has its excellent choir of singers, but Company F affords instrumental as well as vocal music. He added that the Cobb brothers, who are excellent violinists, delight a numerous auditory nightly assembled about their bunks (Haines 1863, p. 11). Eventually the men of the 44th organized a regimental choir and obtained some instruments so that they could start a band. Besides offering comforting diversion, military bands could have tactical importance as well. For example, Confederate bands played during the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia, at the end of the war, in order to mask the sounds of troops and equipment being moved out of the Confederate capital. Wartime songs could inspire soldiers, and help them deal with the perils and hardships of military life. In his 1866 regimental history of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry, W. H. Tunnard recalled how during a rainstorm, the Louisianians marched cheerfully forward, shouting forth with stentorian voices the chorus of the Bonny Blue Flag and other patriotic songs (p. 124). A wartime rallying song gave one Union soldier a similar, yet more crucial, burst of stamina. The soldier lost an arm to a Rebel cannon ball, yet he sang the chorus of Battle Cry of Freedom as the surgeon tended to his ghastly wound. Soon, other patients joined in the chorus: We will rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom (Denison 1864, p. 319). Published Music Public demand for music was so high during the war that publishers in the North printed lyrics and music in many different forms, including songbooks (also called songsters) written specifically for the war effort. George F. Root, an author of numerous Union songs, published a songbook titled The Bugle Call in Root explained that his 246 GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

5 War Music book was designed for loyal people, whether around the campfire or the hearth-stone, in order to arouse every true heart to a greater love of the Union, and a sterner determination to protect it to the last (p. 1). Another book, Songs and Ballads of Freedom, was available from a New York publisher in 1863 for fifteen cents and included both sentimental tunes and patriotic songs. Several of the songs conjured up visions of the home front and loved ones, including Who Will Care for Mother Now, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, and When This Cruel War is Over. Soldiers enjoyed writing their own lyrics to existing songs, such as Stephen Foster s Hard Times Come Again No More, which some Federals reworked as Hard Crackers Come Again No More in honor of the almost inedible rations the Union Army issued its troops. Southerners appreciated songs that praised secession and the Confederacy, but music had the added challenge of creating a feeling of Confederate nationalism. It is no small irony that the best-known Southern anthem, Dixie, was written before the war by a Northerner, Daniel Decatur Emmett. Before the war, most of the South s sheet music came from Northern publishers, but there was an increase in Southern-produced sheet music and songbooks until paper shortages at the end of the war limited publishing. Confederate songsters were generally marketed to soldiers, but there is evidence that publishers intended to sell these books and sheet music to the public as well. One example of a Southern songbook is The Jack Morgan Songster (1864), which a captain in the Confederate army compiled. The book s title and first song paid homage to General John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate cavalry raider from Kentucky. Not all of the selections were so militant; the songster also included a Confederate version of When This Cruel War is Over that was similar to the Northern favorite, but mentioned Southern boys and the Southern banner in the final verse. Northern Political Music In the North, popular songs addressed the political nature of the conflict, particularly the debates concerning Lincoln s leadership, the war, and emancipation. The Republican Party produced such songbooks as The President Lincoln Campaign Songster and The Republican Songster for the 1864 election. Besides songs extolling Lincoln s presidency, these songsters included lyrics that criticized Copperheads, as Northern Democrats who opposed emancipation and demanded an immediate end to the war were called. Lincoln s detractors had their own tunes, including the ones published in Copperhead Minstrel, an 1863 songbook compiled by Andrew Dickson White, the future co-founder of Cornell University. These antiwar Democrats blamed Lincoln for the war s hardships and loss of life. A Copperhead version of We are Coming, Father Abraham, addressed to Lincoln, SONGSTERS To keep the public and the troops entertained and inspired, publishers in both the Union and the Confederacy brought out what they called songsters that is, booklets of song lyrics. Musical notation was rarely included, however, as the songs were sung to familiar tunes. Examples of songsters include War Songs of the South (1862), The Beauregard Songster (1864), and Songs & Ballads of Freedom: A Choice Collection, Inspired by the Incidents and Scenes of the Present War (1864) (Schultz 2004, p. 136). Soldiers of both camps also wrote their own lyrics to existing songs, and if they were lucky could make some money for their talent. The Boston Daily Advertiser ran this advertisement in 1864: George F. Root of Chicago offers $10 each for five Union campaign songs to these tunes, Old Shady, Uncle Ned, Out of the Wilderness, John Brown, and America, or God Save the Queen (September 14, 1864, col. C). Writing about war songs of the South in the Charleston Courier, Tri- Weekly, an unnamed critic called the songs the spontaneous outburst of popular feeling. They show the sentiments of the people, and give the lie to the assertion of our enemy, that this revolution is the work of politicians and party leaders alone (May 31, 1862). JEANNE M. LESINSKI BIBLIOGRAPHY Schultz, Kirsten M. The Production and Consumption of Confederate Songsters. In Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era, ed. Bruce C. Kelley and Mark A. Snell. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, War Songs of the South. Charleston Courier, Tri-Weekly, May 31, 1862, col. C. declared, Your dark and wicked doings a god of mercy sees, and the wail of homeless children is heard on every breeze (White 1863, p. 14). A songbook bearing the nickname ( Little Mac ) of the 1864 Democratic candidate, former General George McClellan, used music to criticize Lincoln s leadership and policies, including the president s emancipation policy (The Little Mac Campaign Songster, 1864). Songs of Freedom Some songs supported emancipation, such as the compositions of songwriter Henry C. Work, whose songs Kingdom Coming and Babylon Is Falling championed freeing and enlisting Southern slaves as a suitable retaliation for Southern disloyalty. African Americans wrote and sang songs to express their feelings about the war and emancipation. Versions of John Brown s Body were very popular, including the song of the 1st Arkansas Colored Regiment, which stated, We are fightin for de Union, We are fightin for de law (Cornelius 2004, p. 29). Further, hymns and GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 247

6 Slave, Abolitionist, and Civil Rights Songs spirituals used religious imagery to celebrate and promote the cause of emancipation. Even the Union rallying song, Battle Cry of Freedom, included a reference to emancipation in the line although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave (Cornelius 2004, p. 47). Regardless of what their sentiments were, soldiers and civilians alike relied on music to help them shoulder the burdens of war. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abel, E. Lawrence. Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, Cornelius, Steven H. Music of the Civil War Era. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Denison, Charles Wheeler. The Tanner-Boy and How He Became Lieutenant-General. Boston: Roberts Brothers, Haines, Zenas T. Letters from the Forty-Fourth Regiment M.V.M.: A Record of the Experience of a Nine Months Regiment in the Department of North Carolina in Boston:HeraldJobOffice,1863. The Little Mac Campaign Songster. New York: T.R. Dawley, Olson, Kenneth E. Music and Musket: Bands and Bandsmen of the American Civil War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Root, George F., ed. The Bugle Call. Chicago: Root & Cady, Schultz, Kirsten M. The Production and Consumption of Confederate Songsters. In Bugle Resounding: Music and Musician of the Civil War Era, ed. Bruce C. Kelley and Mark A. Snell. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, Tunnard, W. H. A Southern Record: The History of the Third Regiment Louisiana Infantry. Baton Rouge, LA: Author, White, Andrew Dickson. Copperhead Minstrel: A Choice Collection of Democratic Poems and Songs, for the Use of Political Clubs and the Social Circle. New York: Feeks & Bancker, Stephen Rockenbach SLAVE, ABOLITIONIST, AND CIVIL RIGHTS SONGS In an era when literacy was not universal indeed, slaves were forbidden to learn to read song took on many roles: entertainment, worship, and propaganda. Many colonists, including the enslaved Africans, came to America from cultures in which music played an important role; thus the creation of new forms of music was a natural development. Slave Songs In the African homeland of American slaves, music was thoroughly integrated into the activities of everyday life. Thus it is understandable even if surprising to nineteenthcentury white Americans that the slaves expressed their emotions through music and entertained themselves with songs while doing such repetitive tasks as spinning, weaving, hoeing, picking crops, plowing, or washing clothes. In fact, the repetitive rhythms of the task often entered into the music, while conversely, the music helped maintain the momentum of the task. On the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War, Daniel Robinson Hundley noted in his Social Relations in Our Southern States (1860) that: No matter where they may be or what they may be doing, indeed, whether alone or in crowds, at work or at play, ploughing through the steaming maize in the sultry heat of June, or bared to the waist and with deft hand mowing down the yellow grain, or trudging homeward in the dusky twilight after the day s work is done always and everywhere they [the Negroes] are singing (Hundley 1860, pp ). In addition to the activities Hundley enumerates, such events as corn shucking, threshing parties, slave frolics, and religious services also lent themselves to singing. The slaves sang a variety of songs, ranging from hymns to folksongs and improvised pieces. Though songs could be created individually, most often they were created through communal improvisation. Slave singing used African rhythms, tonalities, and vocal embellishments. Rhythms were often syncopated and set against each other in complicated patterns. The scale on which the music was based might be pentatonic (that is, it used only five notes) or employ microtones (intervals between the standard Western pitches). The vocal embellishments might include yodeling, pitch-bending, and melismata (singing several notes to one syllable of text). In addition, grunts, yells, cries, and moans were common. Writing in the June 13, 1874, edition of Inter Ocean, an anonymous commentator remarked, [f]or forty years or more plantation songs have been extraordinarily popular in all quarters.... They are valuable as an expression of the character and life of the race which has played such a conspicuous part in the history of our nation (p. 6). Abolitionist Songs In the early 1840s abolitionist songs joined temperance tunes as staples of American repertoires. The November 16, 1843, issue of the Emancipator and Free American, for example, advertised a Liberty and Anti-Slavery Song Book, and contained an anonymous letter to the editor telling of an abolitionist meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts, that ended after singing an antislavery song (p. 67). The most popular songwriter of the antebellum period, Stephen Foster, portrayed African Americans in a positive light in his works. This treatment contrasted with the racist caricatures of slaves found in minstrel shows, which were popular entertainments performed by whites who darkened their faces with burnt cork. For example, although the lyrics to Foster s Oh! Susanna seem nonsensical at first, they in fact subtly criticize slavery: 248 GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

7 Slave, Abolitionist, and Civil Rights Songs The campaign song for the first antislavery party, the Liberty Party, was written in 1844 by a white vocal group, the Hutchinson Family Singers. Their combination of harmonized folk music and personal convictions was potent. They performed often and widely throughout the Northern states, though sometimes they were forced to cancel performances because of the likelihood of violence. Recalling a time when the twin offenses of singing antislavery songs and admitting colored people to hear them had caused the Hutchinsons to be driven from a hall, an article in the April 22, 1877, St. Louis Globe- Democrat described the family s career: [They] had drawn enormous houses wherever they appeared, but being of pronounced antislavery sentiment, and having always introduced this sentiment into their songs, they had frequently met, even in the very heart of New England, with disapprobation (p. 11). In 1864 the Hutchinson Family Singers put their talents to work for Lincoln, publishing Lincoln and Liberty in Hutchinson s Republican Songster. After the Civil War, however, the group largely lost its following and fell apart due to personal conflicts. Stephen Foster ( ). Considered by many the most beloved songwriter prior to the Civil War, Stephen Foster offered a humanizing look at the life of a slave in his popular works, including Oh! Susanna and Old Kentucky Home. The Library of Congress. I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee I se gwine to Lou siana My true lub for to see It rain d all night de day I left, De wedder it was dry; The sun so hot I froze to def Susanna don t you cry. Oh! Susanna, do not cry for me; I come from Alabama, Wid my Banjo on my knee. The banjo and dialect indicate that the singer is an African American but slaves would not have been allowed to travel freely and certainly not simply to see a loved one. Foster thus encouraged listeners to think differently about slaves to consider them human beings and thus elicited sympathy for the abolitionist cause (Kelley and Snell 2004, pp. 42, 44). Commenting on several Foster tunes, the former slave and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass wrote, Old Kentucky Home and Uncle Ned can make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root and flourish (Douglass 1950 [1855], pp ). Political Songs Songs became an important part of the political landscape beginning with the 1840 presidential race between the challenger, William Henry Harrison, and the incumbent, President Martin Van Buren. In addition to individual songs, writers composed entire songsters booklets of songs written to popular tunes (some by Stephen Foster). During the 1864 presidential election, songsters were published for both President Lincoln and his challenger, George B. McClellan: Lincoln s was the Republican Songster for the Campaign of 1864; McClellan s The Little Mac Campaign Songster. The former included such titles as Abe Lincoln Knows the Ropes, Forward for Lincoln and the Union, Lincoln, Freedom, Victory, and Rally Boys for Uncle Abe. On the other hand, McClellan s songster contained more anti-lincoln songs than it did pro-mcclellan ones. The anti-lincoln songs included such titles as Do I Love Abe or Not? Abraham Lover of My Smell, Lincoln Written Down an Ass, and Abe s Brother of Negro Descent. Pro-McClellan songs, which drew on the challenger s storied career as a Civil War general, included the wrapped-in-the-flag number Hurrah for McClellan : Come, brothers, and unite with us, Come, join us one and all. United we must conquer, But divided we shall fall; Our Union flag we re raising For McClellan tried and true, Who ll uphold it and revere it Tis the Red, White and Blue. Then hurrah, for McClellan Hurrah for McClellan, Hurrah for McClellan, And the Red, White and Blue. GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 249

8 Army Bands (The Little Mac Campaign Songster, 1864, p. 9) In contrast, Uncle Abe, from the Lincoln songster, is more down to earth in its patriotism: Uncle Abe, Uncle Abe! Here we are again! We ve got a platform now, we think that will not bend or strain. Beat the drum, unfurl the flag, Freedom is for all. And so we fling it to the breeze as in the ranks we fall. Ho Uncle Abe! Listen, Uncle Abe, and see! We sing for you, work for you, Hurrah for Liberty! (Republican Songster, 1864, p. 41) Whatever their style or political leaning, campaign songs were here to stay. Slave, abolitionist, and political songs were, of course, only a part of the body of music that enriched American culture during the Civil War era. Operas and orchestral works by classical European composers as well as American music composed for brass bands or piano, and the ethnic tunes and songs of immigrants, all blended to create a rich musical landscape. BIBLIOGRAPHY Douglass, Frederick. The Anti-Slavery Movement: Lecture Delivered before the Rochester [New York] Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, January In The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, ed. Philip S. Foner. New York: International Publishers, Emancipator and Free American, November 16, 1843, p Epstein, Dena J. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Music in American Life Series. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, Foster, Stephen. Susanna. Louisville, KY: W. C. Peters, Gac, Scott. Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Reform. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Hundley, Daniel Robinson. Social Relations in Our Southern States. New York: Henry B. Price, Keck, George Russell, and Sherrill V. Martin. Feel the Spirit: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Music. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies 119. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Kelley, Bruce C., and Mark A. Snell, eds. Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War Era. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, The Little Mac Campaign Songster. New York: T. R. Dawley, McNeil, Keith, and Rusty McNeil, eds. Civil War Songbook: With Historical Commentary. Riverside, CA: WEM Records, Plantation Melodies. Inter Ocean (Chicago), June 13, 1874, p. 6. Republican Songster for the Campaign of Cincinnati, OH: T. R. Hawley, St. Louis (MO) Globe-Democrat, April 22, 1877, p. 11. Silverman, Jerry. Songs and Stories of the Civil War. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, Songs of the Blacks. The Boston Liberator, September 9, 1859, n.p. Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History, 2nd ed. New York: Norton, White, Shane, and Graham White. The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech. Boston:BeaconPress,2005. ARMY BANDS Jeanne M. Lesinski From the regimental field bands (fife and drum corps) of colonial America to the U.S. army bands of the early twenty-first century, music has always been a vital part of American military tradition (Cornelius 2004, p. xiii). The Civil War, often called the singing war, epitomized the centrality of music to military life. In America s Musical Life: A History (2001), the music historian Richard Crawford stated that music was used for morale building (or esprit de corps), camp duties (which included signaling), public ceremonies, and recreation (pp ). It was the duty of military musicians to facilitate these tasks. Functions of Army Musicians There were two types of army musicians: field musicians and bandsmen. Field musicians were often young boys who served as drummers, fifers, and buglers. They sounded camp calls and, in battle, relayed commands through musical signals, allowing officers to communicate quickly with their soldiers over great distances. After 1863 the U.S. Army permitted boys twelve years and older to enlist as field musicians, even though most could not read music. The recollections of Augustus Meyer, who joined the army in 1854 when he was twelve, describe the life of a young field musician in training at the School of Practice for U.S.A. Field Musicians at Governor s Island, New York. Meyer, who enlisted as a fifer, described the living quarters of field musicians, or music boys, as sparse, and the meals as meager (Meyer 1914, pp. 1 4). He also recounted learning the various signals that controlled the lives of every soldier. For example, he wrote, I was awakened... at daylight by a drummer beating the first call for Reveille, followed by a corporal shouting to Get up! You lazy fellows. Soon after dressing, a drummer sounded the beat for Assembly, calling for the soldiers to gather outside for roll call. Drums also signaled soldiers to report for sick 250 GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

9 Army Bands call, guard duty, and at night, Taps signaled when soldiers should go to sleep (Meyer 1914, pp. 4 5). The duties of military musicians detailed to bands were different from those of the music boys. Army bands played at parades, funerals, and executions, and also gave concerts for high-ranking civilian and military officials. Often during the war, both the U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and the Confederate president Jefferson Davis were serenaded by army brass bands. The bands most important function was performing for the troops, and in diaries and letters to their families and friends, Union and Confederate soldiers expressed gratitude and pride in the army service bands. On one occasion, a Union soldier from the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment remarked in 1862 that I don t know what we should have done without our band. It is acknowledged by everyone to be the best in the division (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). It was customary at the time for army commanders to recruit accomplished musicians and bandleaders to serve in volunteer civilian bands or the regular army. The renowned bandleader Patrick Gilmore ( ), who is credited with writing the popular Civil War era song When Johnny Comes Marching Home, enlisted with his band of formally trained musicians (Patrick Gilmore s Band); they were attached to the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry in September The trooper from the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts related: Every night about sundown Gilmore gives us a splendid concert, playing selections from the operas and some very pretty marches, quicksteps, waltzes and the like (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). Many other musicians joined the war effort as well, and by the end of 1861 the U.S. Army had more than 28,000 musicians and 618 bands (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). The Army of the Confederate States of America also had bands, but the scarcity of brass instruments and musicians in the South kept their numbers small. Bands in Battle Military bands accompanied troops to battle. The First Regiment of Artillery Band (also known as Chandler s Band of Portland, Maine) was present at the first engagement of the Civil War in April 1861 to witness Major Robert Anderson ( ) surrendering the Fort Sumter garrison to Brigadier General P.G.T Beauregard ( ), commander of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina. Army bands sometimes played at forward positions in the midst of battles. Union and Confederate officers knew the power of music to inspire troops encamped in the field and in combat. To encourage his men to fight on, Union general Philip H. Sheridan ( ) ordered the band to play during the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House, part of the Appomattox Campaign that led to the surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee s Army of Northern Virginia to Union general Ulysses S. Grant in General Sheridan commanded the bandsmen to play the gayest tunes in their books... play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). In another story, Confederate soldiers stationed near Union forces in Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the winter of 1862 to 1863 could hear the Union band playing. A Confederate soldier called from across the Rappahannock River, Now give us some of ours, and the Union band broke into a lively rendition of Dixie, which was written in 1859 by a Northerner, Daniel Decatur Emmett from Ohio, but was adopted widely as a rallying cry for the patriots of the Confederacy and a battle song for her soldiers (Harwell 1950, p. 41). Army bandsmen and field musicians also experienced the terror of battle. John A. Cockerill, a sixteen-year-old regimental musician, wrote: I passed... the corpse of a beautiful boy in gray who lay with his blond curls scattered about his face and his hand folded peacefully across his breast.... His neat little hat lying beside him bore the number of a Georgia regiment.... At the sight of the poor boy s corpse, I burst into a regular boo-hoo (Mintz). The dead Confederate soldier probably had been a drummer or bugler; many of the young boys who enlisted in the Union and Confederate armies were. Death was a constant in the war, and casualties among army field musicians and bandsmen were high. Only ten bandsmen of the original thirty-six members of the One Hundred Twenty-fith Ohio Regimental Band (known as the Tiger Band) survived the war (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). Nevertheless, bravery was high among the field musicians and bandsmen. Thirty-two army musicians have received the Medal of Honor, which is awarded by the U.S. Congress for distinguished action in battle; twenty of them served in the Civil War. According to the award citation for William J. Carson, a Civil War recipient: At a critical stage in the battle [at Chickamauga, Georgia on September 19, 1863] when the 14th Corps lines were wavering and in disorder he on his own initiative bugled to the colors amid the 18th U.S. Infantry who formed by him, and held the enemy. Within a few minutes he repeated his action amid the wavering 2d Ohio Infantry. This bugling deceived the enemy who believed reinforcements had arrived. Thus, they delayed their attack. (U.S. Army Center of Military History) When not engaged in musical functions on the field, army field musicians and bandsmen performed noncombatant duties such as assisting the medical staff. They served as stretcher bearers for the wounded, collected wood for splints, helped set up field hospitals, and assisted surgeons with amputations. Whether performing music in noncombatant areas or in the midst of combat, or assisting injured soldiers at the rear of the battle lines, army musicians served the Union and the Confederacy with distinction. Unfortunately, the expense of maintaining army bands after the Civil War seemed unwarranted as Congress faced the GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 251

10 Dancing Elmira Cornet Band. In addition to using field musicians to relay commands on the battlefield by drum, fife, and bugle, most regiments in the Union army also had a military band to provide entertainment to the troops as well as play at parades, funerals, and other ceremonious events. The Library of Congress. enormous cost of reconstructing the South. The Army Act of 1869 abolished regimental bands. By the early 1900s, however, military officials lobbied successfully to reestablish bands in the regular army, citing the positive impact on the troops (U.S. Army, The Civil War ). BIBLIOGRAPHY Cornelius, Steven H. Music of the Civil War Era. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Crawford, Richard. America s Musical Life: A History. New York: W.W. Norton, Harwell, Richard Barksdale. Confederate Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Library of Congress, Music Division. Presents Music, Theater and Dance. When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again. Patriotic Melodies. Available from Meyer, Augustus. Ten Years in the Ranks: U.S. Army. New York: Stirling Press, Mintz, Steven. Children and the American Civil War. Digital History Web site. Available from U.S. Army. Bands from : Rise of the Brass Band. U.S. Army Bands Web site. Available from U.S. Army. The Civil War. U.S. Army Bands Web site. Available from U.S. Army Center of Military History. Medal of Honor. Available from n Dancing Carol J. Gibson Dance is an expression of feeling, a social communication, and a means of identifying with a group. It releases tension and serves as a means of sexual display. The types of dance that could be most commonly found in Civil War America reflected the ethnic backgrounds of the dancers. Slaves and freed people performed dances with African roots, whereas white Americans adopted forms of European dance. Americans social attitudes toward dancing were those common to the European middle classes. The main 252 GALE LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE: AMERICAN CIVIL WAR