January 2, 1865---Songsters

JANUARY 2, 1865:             

Just as the penny novel became a vehicle reflecting wartime morale and goals, so did music. Hundreds of songs, remembered and unremembered today, helped define the Civil War for contemporaries. Aura Lee, Kathleen Mavourneen and Lorena, When This Cruel War Is Over, Home, Sweet Home, and, of course, Dixie were just a few. Cheaply made pocket-sized “songsters” were churned out by the tens of thousands containing an assortment of popular song lyrics for use ‘round the piano at home, and the violin and banjo in camp. Musical notes were usually not included in songsters as the songs were all sung to popular and well-known airs. The early denizens of Tin Pan Alley were kept busy throughout the war celebrating victories and mourning losses. Miles O’Reilly’s Memorial, Miles O’Reilly’s Word, and Good-Bye Jeff were three songs that recalled the occupants of the empty chair. 

Originally strictly a Union innovation, the songster eventually crossed the Potomac and went South. As they developed, songsters became increasingly specific in subject --- there were songsters produced for the Irish Brigades (North and South, with different songs and/or lyrics), songsters produced for the German Brigades in the North (with German language folk and patriotic tunes), songsters with gospel lyrics, abolition songsters, and patriotic songsters for both sides. 

Besides Dixie (in the South) and The Battle Hymn of The Republic (in the North), and The Battle Cry of Freedom (on both sides of the line with different lyrics) forgotten compositions like The Alabama Secession Galop (sic), Beauregard’s Charleston Quickstep, Beauregard’s Manassas Quickstep, The Shiloh Victory Polka, The Captain With His Whiskers, Hooker’s Grand March and Two-Step, I Am Fighting For The Nigger, The Nation Is Weeping, God Save The South, and I Fights Mit Sigel populated the pages of the various songsters.

   

 

Songsters could also be subversive. Disgust with conditions in the army was reflected in song titles such as I’d Like To Change My Name, Grafted Into The Army, How Are You, Greenbacks?, He’s Got His Discharge From The Army, and Give Us Back Our Old Commander. Give Us Back Our Old Commander was used (with slightly changed lyrics) as a campaign song for General Grant when he ran for President in 1868. The author of He’s Got His Discharge From The Army, a man by the name of Winner, was openly criticized for impairing morale in the North; after selling 80,000 copies of his songster, he turned to writing children’s songs in 1864, including Ten Little Indians. Conditions on the home front were addressed in Two Inflation Songs.

Songsters also promoted reconciliation as the war ground on. Dixie For The Union and The Bonnie Blue Flag With The Stripes And Stars appealed to nascent Southern Unionism.   

    

Although few original songsters remain (just like the penny novels they were printed on cheap stock and fell apart quickly), a surprising number of the lyrics have been collected. 

The songsters were the ancestors and the inspirations for later musical compositions such as He’s In The Army Now, God Bless America, and The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B of later generations.