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.
