1

Michael Mariano
December 04, 2012
MU500 - Koegel

Music of the American Civil War

Throughout history, struggles in society, philosophy, and politics are often
portrayed through art in ways that are distinctive to that period of events. Art in many
ways reflects a general consciousness of the world and is created within a social context
where it could not have existed otherwise. The United States of America was still a
relatively young country by the beginning of the Civil War; when the war began in 1861,
it had only been 85 years since the Declaration of Independence. Lasting only four years,
the Civil War would become the deadliest conflict in American history and a turning
point for the country as it nearly became undone. It is within this context that I explore
the how music manifested itself in American society during such a momentous conflict.
Historians and musicologists have researched the musical trends during the Civil War, as
well as the impact and significance of music during the time. This paper seeks to take a
snapshot of the conditions of the conflict, how they contributed to the creation of a
unique American musical environment, and how music created in this time reflects that.
Music during the war served many functions in both military and civilian life. For
civilians, it was a means of expressing personal feelings over a deadly war and to rally
support for a shared cause. In the military, instruments were used to give commands to
soldiers in the field and also provided entertainment to help lift their spirits in camp. To
facilitate this, a rising music business published great amounts of sheet music and
manufactured new instruments during the war. The circumstances surrounding the Civil
War at this time produced music that could not have manifested itself otherwise with
soldiers, civilians, and business all contributing to an American musical identity with a
legacy that can still be felt to this day.
2
Historical Context
The political situation that fueled America's hunger for music was not a sudden
occurrence. The country, whose existence was based on freedom, faced a great irony
with slavery at its core; an internal conflict that would eventually become a civil war. But
it would also be careless to state only one singular cause for a conflict on the scale of the
American Civil War. There were many factors that contributed to the South's secession
from the Union: the invention of the cotton gin, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and
the Dred Scott Decision, are just a few of the causes that can be found in American
History textbooks. But all of these factors ultimately emerged as a conflict over slavery
and its expansion. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, slavery was an
exclusively southern institution
1
while most of the northern states, who's abolitionists
condemned slavery, had begun to phase it out or abolish slavery altogether.
The economy in the South was reliant upon agricultural production and thus
depended on slavery in order to thrive. The total slave population in North America
reached over 4 million by 1865 and production of cotton alone grew exponentially from
3,000 bales in 1810 to 4.5 million bales in 1860.
2
Since the U.S. Constitution declares
that it is a state's right to determine whether or not it would allow slavery, the North
could only try to prevent its spread to other U.S. controlled territories.
3
With the country's
rapid expansion west, the conflict of whether the future of the nation lay in slavery or
freedom was a question that remained intractable to a peaceful solution.
4
With these
circumstances, an inevitable conflict loomed in the distance that would eventually
become the foundation for a unique period of musical activity in America.

1
Steven E. Woodworth, Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War (Westport CT: Greenwood Press,
2000), 3.
2
Brian Holden Reid, Origins of the American Civil War (Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Limited,
1996), 68-70.
3
Woodworth, Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War, 3.
4
Ray B. Browne, The Civil War and Reconstruction (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), 3.
3
The Republican Party was formed in 1854 with the platform of not allowing
further expansion of slavery and selected Abraham Lincoln as its presidential candidate
for the 1860 election. As a result, the South threatened to secede from the Union if he
were elected.
5
Southern politicians believed that the greatest 'liberty' they could enjoy,
protected by the Constitution, was the freedom to own human beings as property.
6

Restricting slavery would diminish this freedom and be a blow to their state's rights.
Lincoln defeated Democratic candidate Stephen A. Douglas despite receiving less than
half the popular vote and southern states followed through with their threat; on December
20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. Eleven more states in the south
would follow suit by June of 1861 and on April 13, 1861, the Confederacy captured Fort
Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina initiating the Civil War.
Clashes of Loyalty
Aside from slavery, there were many strong sentiments from both the North and
South regarding the Civil War. Loyal to their respective regions, Americans had
emotional bonds to their homes and a strong connection to the birth of their nation only a
generation before. At first, both sides viewed the conflict in the light of the founding
fathers and the Revolution. The North believed that they were fighting to preserve the
honor and prestige of the Union and to uphold the sacrifices and accomplishments of the
Revolutionary War generation.
7
The South however, wanted to protect their rights from
a tyrannical government and saw the conflict as a noble war of independence and its
army of citizen-soldiers as moved by the spirit of 1776.
8
It was not until January 1, 1863
when Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation, that the focus of the war
officially shifted to slavery. The North no longer fought to preserve the Union but to

5
Woodworth, Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War, 3-4.
6
Reid, Origins of the Civil War, 42.
7
Browne, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 5.
8
A Just Cause: Voices of the American Civil War (San Marino: Huntington Library, 2012)
4
shake the very foundations of Southern society by freeing the slaves while the South
used the proclamation as fuel for renewed determination to fight on.
9
It would be these
emotional sentiments that would propel music to prominence during the war. Regional
pride made love for country and patriotism more prominent and music would be used to
portray these feelings.
The cultural divide between the North and South can even be traced to their
beginnings. The New England colonies in the north were derived from English Puritans
hoping to build a new society free from the evils and corruption of the Old World as well
as the control of the Roman Catholic church.
The culture that places a high moral value on work that heeds the memory,
somewhere at its beginnings, of a large number of idealists hoping to create a
good society, is not a likely candidate for significant use of slavery, and such was
the case in the northern United States. No colony or state there had significant
numbers of slaves, and many never had any at all.
10


Additionally, the North did not have an ideal climate or soil to produce crops at the same
scale as the South and relied more so on industrial production by ambitious capitalists
and immigrant workers in factories. The South on the other hand, found its location to be
naturally supportive of the of slavery. While the earliest northern colonies had been
founded with the vision of creating a good society, the first southern colonies had been all
about getting rich...Thus, if slaves were good for profits, the more slavery the better.
11

Through the years, the South would growingly depend on slavery to continue its
prosperity. If it were taken away, their pursuit of free enterprise would be severely
compromised and their way of life threatened. These inherent differences further
exemplify the rift between Northern and Southern identity. The conflict was not just
political but also a battle between two different ways of life established by the colonists,


9
Woodhworth, Cultures in Conflict: The American Civil War, 12-13.
10
Ibid, 25.
11
Ibid, 27.
5
Antebellum Music
Musical awareness was not an overnight phenomena at the start of the Civil War.
Varieties of folk songs were orally passed down through generations and have long been
a part of American heritage. Also, antebellum America saw an influx of immigrants and
among them were many musicians. The European aristocracy, no longer the patrons of
music they had been in the old days, left the musicians with no choice but to try their luck
in the New World.
12
Music was a part of life with these musicians who brought with
them a rich heritage of court orchestras.
13
The first grand opera performance, of
Rossini's The Barber of Seville, was in New York in 1825. Afterwards, opera would
become exceedingly popular with performances coast to coast.
14
But the stage was not
limited to art music as popular theater of the day was inexpensive enough that most
everyone could afford it and broad enough in content that most everyone...could enjoy
it.
15
In 1838, Lowell Mason, considered the founder of the public school music
system,
16
began his quest to promote the funding of vocal music education. Print media
and music publishing began to rise with cheaper paper and the development of steam-
driven pressers.
17
With this, came a growing interest in popular music as Barbara A. Zuck
states that the development of media technology...and the increasingly transitory living
patterns of most Americans
18
helped fuel this. American-born composers such as
Anthony Phillip Heinrich, William Henry Fry, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk were
already active while John Sullivan Dwight became editor of his Journal of Music in
1854. By 1861, the United States had become a fertile ground for musical development.

12
John Tasker Howard and George Kent Bellows, A Short History of Music in America (New York:
Thomas Y. Cromwell Company, 1967), 72.
13
Ibid, 122.
14
Bruce C. Kelley, Old Times There Are Not Forgotten: An Overview of Music of the Civil War Era in
Bugle Resounding: Music and Musicians of the Civil War, ed. Bruce C. Kelley and Mark A. Snell
(Colombia MO: University of Missouri Press, 2004), 11.
15
Steven H. Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era (Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004),
16.
16
Howard and Bellows, A Short History of Music in America, 92.
17
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 7.
18
Barbara A. Zuck, A History of Musical Americanism (Ann Arbor MI: UMI Research Press, 1980), 15.
6
Whether it was folk, popular, or art, most Americans had an awareness of music and
eventually the Civil War would become a catalyst to propel it to the forefront of the
public's attention.
Music Publishing
Publishing was a growing business prior to the war, but before technological
advances, printing sheet music was costly. Music with complicated notation or works
with more than the two or three pages a popular song demanded necessarily cost more,
chiefly because of the effort required to produce them.
19
But the business of printing
music steadily gained momentum in the antebellum years as sales increased from $2.5
million in 1820 to just below $20 million at the start of the war
20
and sheet music
publication increased steadily from 600 pieces in the late 1820's...to about 5,000 annually
in the early 1850's.
21
The beginning of the war would stimulate music publishing as
composers would set the unfolding events to music. As the music became an integral part
of the war, the demand for sheet music also reached an unprecedented high as more than
10,000 songs were published during the conflict.
22
Already in the midst of a growing
business, publishers found themselves in position to capitalize off this new demand and
were more than happy to oblige the public. The development of technology and an
increasing supply of music type made printing easier and allowed a great availability of
sheet music during the Civil War.
In a time when a large number of Americans were poorly educated, most of those
in the population were not trained musicians. Since notated sheet music was only popular
with people who had formal training, the most common way music spread was by word

19
Russell Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988),
47.
20
Ibid, 225.
21
Richard Crawford, America's Musical Life (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001), 232.
22
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 225.
7
of mouth and most Americans...were more likely to learn songs by simple imitation.
23

In order to sell music to the masses who did not read music, the publishing industry
distributed lyrics through song sheets and songsters. Unlike sheet music, which
contained the full musical score, song sheets were single printed sheets with lyrics but no
musical notation, except perhaps, the name of the tune to which the lyrics were to be
sung.
24
A songster, or songbook, contained up to a hundred different songs and was
inexpensively bound. Like a song sheet, the songs would only have lyrics and indicated
the tune to which the song was to be sung.
25
Inexpensive and easy to understand, song
sheets and songsters provided greater accessibility for soldiers and the general population
who lacked a formal music education. People already knew tunes by word of mouth and
having a variety of lyrics depicting current events allowed them to have a closer
connection to the war.
After secession, the South would require new songs to symbolize their new
nation. With no more legal ties or copyright laws, there was a larger profit margin for
southern companies who wanted to publish music. But the conflict would also bring to
the South many challenges as valuable resources became scarce. Paper was rationed due
to shortages since nearly all of the paper mills in America were located in the North.
26

The lack of metal contributed to a shortage of engraving plates and printing type
27
and
ink was so scarce that each printer mixed his own.
28
This, along with increasing
inflation during the war years made producing sheet music in the South costly. An even
greater hindrance was the occupation of many southern cities where a majority of the
battles were. New Orleans based companies such as E. Johns & Co., publishers of I

23
Browne, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 119
24
Ibid., 119.
25
Ibid., 120.
26
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 225.
27
David B. Thompson, Southern Piano Music During the Civil War in Bugle Resounding: Music and
Musicians of the Civil War Era (Colombia MO: University of Missouri Press, 2004), 107.
28
Frank W. Hoogerwerf, Confederate Sheet-Music Imprints (Brooklyn NY: Institute for Studies in
American Music, 1984), XV.
8
Wish I Was In Dixie's Land, and Blackmar & Bros., publishers of Bonnie Blue Flag,
were forced to shut down or relocate after the city was taken by the Union Army on April
28, 1862. Nevertheless, Confederate music publishers who would go on to issue almost
1,000 copyrighted pieces during the war
29
and music dramatically outproduced all other
forms of literature [in the South], with the sole exception of newspapers.
30
The
hardships that these publishing companies faced did not diminish the love for music by
southerners and the occupations and lack of supplies would not prevent its spread and
dissemination. As David B. Thompson stated: despite [all of the] adversities, the amount
of...music actually produced in the South is rather amazing, a credit to the determination
of Southern musicians.
31

Publishers in the North had greater advantages compared with their southern
counterparts. Northern entrepreneurs enjoyed the blessings of unrestricted materials
paper, ink, metal for type and platesand access to maximum distribution.
32
The North,
after all, had more developed industry. Also northern publishers, like Root & Cady of
Chicago, had the benefit of having staff composers. Only three days after the attack on
Fort Sumter in April 1861, Root & Cady published the song The First Gun Is Fired!
May God Protect The Right followed by five more war songs by the end of the next
month.
33
But this access to materials and songwriters also came with its costs as the war
progressed. Shortages of manpower after thousands of men were drafted into the military,
raised labor costs. Also, the price of paper increased 300 percent; prompting music
publishers, who used heavy sheet paper with engraved art before the war, to resort to
lower-quality paper and ink except for best-selling items.
34
But even with the reduced

29
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 17.
30
Christian McWhirter, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (Chapel Hill
NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 16.
31
David B. Thompson, Southern Piano Music During the Civil War in Bugle Resounding, 107.
32
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 225.
33
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 18.
34
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 232-3.
9
quality, publishers did not have a difficult time selling their sheet music. In 1864, Root &
Cady had sold 258,000 pieces of sheet music, 100,000 music books and consumed nearly
one ton of paper per week.
35
The song Battle Cry of Freedom alone sold between
500,000 and 700,000 copies in all forms,
36
including a version written by Louis
Gottschalk. With the benefit of having access to industrial materials, active songwriters,
and increased efficiency of print technology, the North comfortably produced sheet music
at a prodigious rate.
Musical Instruments
Alongside the amplified availability of sheet music in the years before the war,
there was an increased demand and availability of musical instruments. Most noticeable
was with the piano with contributions from companies like Steinway & Sons, Chickering
& Sons, and William Knabe & Co. In 1860, 21,000 pianos were manufactured, and 1 in
every 1,500 people owned one.
37
Meanwhile, the mid-nineteenth century saw the rise
and high point of the brass band [which was] made possible through advancements in
instrument technology and metalworking skills.
38

The piano became an ideal fixture in the American home and became the most
sought after instrument of the period. As singing at home with the family became more
common, companies were making pianos that most middle class families could afford.
In 1863 Chickering & Sons of Boston...produced 42 pianos every week,
employed 500 workmen, and rivaled the best of its European competitors. A
quality piano could be purchased for about $250, but advertisements from the first
two years of the war offered cheaper models for as low as $125 or used ones for
under $100.
39


Brass instruments became prominent figures in military bands thanks to
technological innovations in Europe and manufacturing advances in America. The first

35
Dena J. Epstein, Music Publishing in Chicago Before 1871: The Firm of Root and Cady (Detroit MI:
Information Coordinators, 1969), 44-49.
36
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 234-5.
37
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 16.
38
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 177.
39
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 13-4.
10
keyed brass instrument was created in 1810 in Ireland and piston valves were patented in
Vienna in 1830. By mid-century both were prominent in the U.S. military, but keyed
brass instruments would eventually become obsolete. However, because they were made
by hand, instrument makers could not produce them in large amounts. After 1860, the
need for instruments by the Union army lead to the introduction of interchangeable parts,
known as the American System of manufacturing. Soon, factories would be making as
many as 100 instruments daily and instrument companies found greater financial
rewards.
40

Songs for the People
With the condition of the music industry at the start of the war, it can be seen how
music became more available to the population. But why people wanted music can be
explained by examining how it was used during the Civil War.
Music was one of the most effective ways of expressing opinions and emotions
during the Civil War. Setting a message to music made it more memorable and
often more convincing. This was especially so during the 1860's because, even for
Americans who were illiterate or barely literate, hearing or memorizing a song
was much easier than reading a newspaper or understanding an eloquent speech.
41


Another important use of music during the Civil War was to allow groups of people share
their ideas. The complexities of a national conflict was hard to put into words and music
would serve not only as a way to understand these complexities, but also as a way to cope
with the harsh realities that came with it. Furthermore, music would provide a way for
northerners and southerners to sustain their respective group identities.
42

Music had been used as a cultural tool before the Civil War, but this time around,
ideology dominated the rhetoric of the North and South. To spread ideas, music was used
in outdoor meetings. These rallies would have local politicians giving speeches and
would feature music with all attendees participating. Singing together, the crowd became

40
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 179-80.
41
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 12.
42
Deane L. Root, Music and Community in the Civil War Era in Bugle Resounding, 38.
11
unified in expression and ideology. This made songs with a strong patriotic sentiment,
such as The Star Spangled Banner, become even more powerful. Additionally,
controversial ideas became more acceptable and easier to understand for listeners.
Singing a song would not warrant punishment but it would still be effective in conveying
a message of support or even protest. One example is how southerners under Union
occupation would publicly sing Confederate songs in defiance of northern soldiers. The
heightened emotional state of the war created a need for songs that helped Americans to
understand their personal feelings with the conflict, express these feelings, and
communicate them to others.
43

Sentimental music is a genre which, with a sense of separation, emphasized a
focus on home and family. Sentimental music had four categorical topics: home,
sweethearts, mothers, and death. Home songs depicted the desire to escape the war and
return to the family while sweetheart songs let soldiers remember the girls they left
behind. Home Sweet Home and The Girl I Left Behind Me are two examples of
these categories. Mother songs, such as Rock Me to Sleep, Mother and Just Before
Battle, Mother, were primarily sung by women and often portrayed soldiers coping with
the hardships of war by thinking of their mothers. These songs helped to comfort
civilians by portraying soldiers as fulfilling the duty of protecting their family and
country.
44

Death songs were often complimented by mother songs and would describe fatal
scenes on the battlefield and often would center on the soldier's final words of devotion to
his country and family. Who Will Care for Mother Now and Lay me Down and Save
the Flag portrayed selfless soldiers being patriotic while faced with death. But songs like
All Quiet on the Potomac Tonight and The Vacant Chair presented the war with a

43
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 12-15.
44
Ibid., 23-25.
12
more bleaker view and became popular as the country became wary of the war during its
final years.
45

But the most popular genre of music during the Civil War was patriotic music.
This genres pinnacle was in the first year of the war since the more horrific battles had
yet to be fought and Americans were quick to express support for their respective region.
Civilians were often in close contact with the military so patriotic songs would be heard
everywhere from urban areas to armed camps with regimental bands. In the North, John
Brown's Body (later known as Battle Hymn of the Republic) would become the
national hymn of the Union and The Battle Cry of Freedom was a close second in
popularity. Dixie, on the other hand, has become nearly synonymous with the South,
and Bonnie Blue Flag was written to commemorate the secession of Mississippi. These
songs served to reflect the nation's emotional and ideological responses to the war and
even helped to reshape attitudes and beliefs.
46

Four Selected Songs
The Battle Cry of Freedom was written by George F. Root and premiered at a
war rally in Chicago on July 24, 1862. Born in Massachusetts in 1820, Root had always
aspired to be a musician and as a young adult, he helped Lowell Mason in promoting
music education in the Boston public school system. After a teaching stint in New York
in and musical studies in Europe, he organized the New York Musical Normal Institute in
1853. Five years later, however, Root joined his brother in Chicago where who had
opened a music store in partnership with publishing company Root & Cady.
47
When the
war had begun, he decided to apply his talents to song writing. Battle Cry of Freedom

45
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 25-27.
46
Ibid., 22-3.
47
Howard and Bellows, A Short History of Music in America, 134-35.
13
was so popular by the end of the war that it was on the lips of millions of Americans
from New York to California.
48

Source material for songs often came from current events of the war and in the
case of Battle Cry of Freedom, Root was inspired by president Lincoln's call for
300,000 volunteers on July 2, 1862. The song features a simple verse-chorus structure
with antecedent-consequent phrasing for the melody (see fig.1). Harmonically, the first
half of the verse has a chord progression of I - vi - V7/vi - IV - I - V, with the second half
ending on the I. In the entire first half of the chorus, the harmony remains on I before
using the same progression. The secondary dominant, V7/vi, may seem out of place for
not resolving back to vi; by resolving to IV instead, it acts as a deceptive cadence from
the relative minor. With exception to the first half of the chorus, the line shouting the
battle cry of freedom always ends the phrase. Even if one were to find it difficult to
memorize the lyrics, they could always participate with these words. Rhythmically, the
melody maintains a rhythmic drive of eighth notes and dotted eighth + sixteenth notes
that lend itself well to the lyrics and gives the song a march feel with quarter notes and
half notes indicating the beginning and ending of phrases. The word freedom is always
placed at the beginning of a measure with a half note. In fact, there are no other places in
the music where this occurs. This strategic placement on the strongest beat of a measure
emphasizes the song's implication; freedom is what the song is about and more
importantly, what the war was about. The straight-forward organization of the music,
simple harmony, and lyrics facilitated by rhythm allows participants to easily join in and
learn the song.
John Brown's Body was more complicated in origin and in a way, ironic. John
Brown was an abolitionist who led an attack on the government arsenal supply at Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia with the plan of stealing arms and fortifying himself in the southern

48
Irwin Silber, ed. Songs of the Civil War (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), 8-9.
14
mountains to fight slavery with the help of runaway slaves. Brown was injured and
captured in the attack, convicted of treason, and was hanged on December 2, 1859.
The song's creation however was not meant to honor the abolitionist, but actually
started as a joke. Four members of the Second Massachusetts Infantry Battalion formed a
glee club; one of its members a Scottish sergeant named John Brown. Coincidentally
having the same name as the executed abolitionist became a running joke with the
soldiers.
As one member recalled, if Sergeant Brown was ever late for roll, the other men
would make wisecracks, such as Come, old fellow, you ought to be at it if you
are going to help us free the slaves, or This can't be John Brown why John
Brown is dead... along with the remark that his body lies mouldering in the
grave.
49


Eventually, members of the battalion gave new words to the tune Say Brothers Will You
Meet Us on Canann's Happy Shore and the song John Brown's Body was born. The
Twelfth Massachusetts sang the song everywhere it marched and it quickly spread
throughout the North. So much in fact, that in December 1861, soldiers singing inspired
poet and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe to write new lyrics to the tune. She sold her new
lyrics, titled Battle Hymn of the Republic, to The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862
and was printed as sheet music in the following month (see fig. 2). Howe's lyrics did not
catch on until after the war John Brown's Body was unquestionably the national
hymn of the Union but remains the most known version of the song today.
50

The song has many aspects similar to Battle Cry of Freedom in the fact that it
has a simple construction that made it easy to learn. Like Battle Cry, it has a verse
chorus form but has an even simpler harmonic structure I - IV - I - V - I each with
two sets of antecedent and consequence (see fig. 3). The rhythmic figure of dotted eighth

49
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 41.
50
Ibid.,41-50.
15
+ sixteenth note, making it ideal for marching, pervades the song and uses quarter and
half notes to end phrases.
Songs that were popular in the South often reflected a nostalgic sentiment and
used lyrics that defended a cherished homeland. The region symbolized a place where
people living in hectic urban environments like New York or Chicago could
psychologically escape and the songs perpetuated an image of the region as primitive,
exotic, and pastoral.
51
Although this image of the South as portrayed by songs was
mythological, it was still an image [Americans] readily consumed when they purchased
sheet music, which sold by the millions.
52

One popular tune in the South during the Civil War was The Bonnie Blue Flag.
It was written by English vaudevillian Harry Macarthy, who immigrated to the United
States in 1849 and witnessed Mississippi's secession convention on January 9, 1861. In
commemoration, a blue flag with a white star was given to the convention President to
cheers of Hurrah for the bonnie flue flag! According to Christian McWhirter, Macarthy
was inspired by the scene [and] wrote a new song that celebrated the Confederate states
and gave their reasons for seceding.
53
Macarthy set his new lyrics to the tune The Irish
Jaunting Car and it was well received when it premiered in Jackson that year. In the next
few months, New Orleans publisher Blackmar & Bros. printed thousands of copies of the
song and would eventually issue eleven additional editions throughout the course of the
war. After much publicity of the song by Macarthy, the song became a hit with soldiers
and by the summer of 1861, women and local bands were performing the song which
soon rivaled 'Dixie' as the Confederacy's unofficial anthem.
54


51
Karen L. Cox, Dreaming of Dixie; How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture (Chapel
Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 9-10.
52
Ibid., 10.
53
McWhirter, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War, 73.
54
Ibid., 75.
16
The song features a playful melody in the style of an Irish jig in 6/8 time,
indicative of the original tune (see fig. 4). The quarter + eighth note rhythm propels the
song forward with long notes at the cadences and lends itself well to different lyrics. The
form of the song is verse and chorus with simple harmonic construction: the verse uses a
repetition of I - V - I while the chorus injects the subdominant into the progression with I
- V - IV before reverting back to I - V - I. The lyrics serve to the song's ability to rally
those who sang it as the words declare the reasons for the South seceding before naming,
in roll call fashion, each of the southern states who joined together underneath the single
starred flag.
Just as the origin of the Union's John Brown's Body may have been unexpected,
the South's anthem Dixie had a more ironic beginning. The song was written in 1859
by a northerner named Daniel Emmett for minstrel shows at Bryant's Theater in New
York. Emmett was born in Ohio and served as a fifer in the U.S. military before he
eventually became a prominent figure in the minstrel genre. But Minstrelsy was not a
popular genre in the South, so the song did not gain attention until it was included in a
New Orleans burlesque act in 1860. After the South seceded, military bandsmen
discarded their old Union songs and found Dixie to be a good replacement. It would
become the Confederacy's de facto anthem after it was performed at Jefferson Davis
inauguration as president in February of 1861.
The song begins with a stately processional before the melody comes in with a
pickup of two sixteenth notes (see fig. 5). Along with the bass in the accompaniment, this
pickup helps to emphasize the first beat of each measure followed by a division of the
beats with eighth notes in the accompaniment's right hand. This stately nature gives the
music a clear march style; another reason why it was popular with regimental bands.
Most of the lyrics of the original song would be deemed inappropriate for a national
anthem of the Confederacy as it mimics the dialect of a southern black slave. Despite
17
this, the first verse and chorus worked well with Southern sentiments with words like I
wish I was in de land ob cotton [sic] and In Dixie Land I'll take my stand.
Regarding their compositional elements, these songs have several aspects in
common. Their forms are simple using verse-chorus with harmonic progressions
consisting mostly of the primary triads. Also, the rhythms of the music allow a clear
syllabic declaration of words and facilitates the addition of new lyrics. This clarity and
simplicity allows those who to easily understand and remember their messages.
Additionally, this makes the them easier to spread to other people, further broadening the
song's reach and appeal.
Not Just Reveille
Music also served important roles in the military; bugles and drums were used to
give commands on the battlefield and music would provide comfort to injured soldiers
and lift spirits in camp. Because of this, soldiers often viewed their regimental musicians
with high regard. Furthermore, soldiers would use music to escape the horrors of war and
the frustration of being away from home. By the end of the war, the total number of
musicians serving in the military would be estimated to be as high as 53,600.
When it came to instruments that fared well on the battlefield, brass instruments
were a natural choice. Woodwinds and strings did exist in the military but their numbers
would not match that of brass instruments.
55
Made out of wood that is prone to cracking,
strings and woodwinds do not handle well with changes in weather and humidity. Also,
their smaller parts can easily become damaged or lost and if played on a battlefield. Their
natural timbres do not carry well through the air; a violin for example, would not be able
to send a message across a battlefield to soldiers in the midst of gunfire and artillery. But
brass instruments on the other hand, easily project across long distances and handle very
well in different weather conditions.

55
McWhirter, Battle Hymns, 117-18.
18
The role of field musicians was to perform calls to initiate camp duties for
soldiers as well as for field tactics during battle. Taps was written in the summer of
1862 by General Daniel Butterfield and was originally the call used to extinguish lights.
Its familiar use in funerals began when a cannoneer in the Battery A, 2nd Artillery was
killed and the enemy was too close to perform a customary three volley shot over his
grave. Instead, the battery bugler stepped forward and sounded the slow, sweet strains of
'Taps.' Ever since it has served as the soldier's farewell.
56
Other calls such as Retreat,
Forward, and Commence Firing, were used on the battlefield while calls like
Reveille, Sick Call, and Assembly of the Guard were common inside the camp (see
fig. 6). There was even a call to assemble the buglers which would also be the very first
call of the day.
57

Regimental bands were used for parades, marches, and for special occasions.
Brass ensembles consisted of a combination of E-flat soprano, B-flat alto, tenor, baritone,
and bass horns. While the cornet was played by many musicians, the most common
brass instruments in the bands of both sides were saxhorns, an upright valved bugle with
a backward-pointing bell that directed the music to the troops parading behind the
band.
58
Saxhorns were an invention of Belgian instrument maker Adolph Sax and
became popular in America by the 1850's for their consistency in tone wide range (see
fig. 7 and 8). When staffed by competent musicians, bands were a source of
considerable pride.
59
The band's music would encourage the soldiers to stand taller and
march with more snap in their step.
But aside from functional uses in the military, musicians helped the soldiers
emotionally as well. Depictions of army life by historians and soldiers focused on

56
Fairfax Downey, Fife, Drum & Bugle (Fort Collins CO: Old Army, 1971), 111.
57
George Rabbai, Infantry bugle calls of the American Civil War (Pacific MO: Mel Bay Publications,
1998), 17-34.
58
Browne, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 122.
59
Cornelius, Music of the Civil War Era, 188.
19
battlefield experiences, [but] most of the time was spent in camp waiting for something to
happen.
60
With lots of time in-between battles, soldiers faced boredom and the horrors
of war would dampen morale. Not only did musicians relieve the monotony of camp life,
they helped to lift the spirits of the soldiers who were away from home and surrounded
by death.
The New York Herald expressed [that] music is the greatest alleviation of the
soldiers' hardships, and the inspiring notes of our bands have done more towards
keeping up the spirit and ambition of the regiments than any other means that
could have been employed.
61


Musical Legacy

The social and technological elements of the Civil War years eventually
contributed to a national consciousness of music. Advances in technology made
publishing easier and allowed sheet music to be easily disseminated. Improvements in
brass instruments design allowed for them to be produced in massive numbers. The
resulting explosion of regimental bands mirrored that of music publication, tens of
thousands of bandsmen played in Union regiments, and the Confederate army likely
contained more than a hundred bands, with more than two thousand musicians.
62
As
newly published songs became popular with regimental bands, they would further
proliferate as they marched from town to town.
Once civilians heard these songs they would sing them together in public and at
home with the family gathered at the piano. The accessibility of the piano would play a
major part of a golden age in its manufacturing that lasted up until the Great
Depression.
63
By 1866, $15 million was spent on pianos, meaning 25,000 new

60
McWhirter, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War, 126.
61
Ibid., 134.
62
Ibid.,115.
63
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 347.
20
instruments in American homes
64
and so fashionable was music by the 1870's that
many an American house was not considered a home without a piano.
65

In many ways, the musical environment of the Civil War is similar to musical
culture today. Music is distributed in digital and physical forms all over the world and
songs still become popular by word of mouth or, with current technology, social media.
The piano is still a fixture in many American homes that now includes electronic
instruments that can emulate an entire band with the push of a button. Instruments are
also affordable enough today that elementary school children can participate in band
class, introducing music at an early age. Although not as patriotic as it was during the
Civil War, political and regional topics are no stranger to the realm of music today and it
would be difficult to deny that music still has an emotional affect listeners. Furthermore,
music still retains its ability to carry a message and allow those who listen to
communicate the emotions and experiences of life.
The Civil War is a moment in American history that, in many ways, was a perfect
storm for the creation of music. The unique circumstances of the time became a catalyst
that propelled music to the front of the American psyche. Music has become so much a
part of our culture today that it is easy to forget that it is there, but the conditions of the
American Civil War created a musical environment that was distinct in time and yet still
has relevance to the musical world that exists today.

64
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business, 347.
65
Milton Goldin, The Music Merchants (London: The Macmillan Company), 64.
21
Illustrations

Figure 1. Original print of Battle Cry of Freedom,1. From The Civil War Songbook (New York:
Dover Publications, 1977).
22
Figure 1, cont. Battle Cry of Freedom, 2.
23
Figure 1, cont. Battle Cry of Freedom, 3.
24
Figure 1, cont. Battle Cry of Freedom, 4.
25
Figure 2. Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Atlantic Monthly February 1862
26
Figure 3. Battle Hymn of the Republic,1. From The Civil War Songbook (New York: Dover
Publications, 1977).
27
Figure 3, cont. Battle Hymn of the Republic, 2.
28
Figure 3, cont. Battle Hymn of the Republic, 3.
29
Figure 3, cont. Battle Hymn of the Republic, 4.
30
Figure 4. Bonnie Blue Flag,1. From The Civil War Songbook (New York: Dover Publications, 1977).
31
Figure 4, cont. Bonnie Blue Flag, 2.
32
Figure 4, cont. Bonnie Blue Flag, 3.
33
Figure 4, cont. Bonnie Blue Flag, 4.
34
Figure 5. Dixie, 1. From The Civil War Songbook (New York: Dover Publications, 1977).
35
Figure 5, cont. Dixie, 2.
36
Figure 5, cont. Dixie, 3.
37


Figure 5, cont. Dixie, 4.
38

Figure 6. Excerpts from Infantry Bugle Calls of the American Civil War (Pacific: Mel Bay Publications, 1998).
39


Figure 7. Saxhorns in an array of sizes. From Band Music of the Civil War Era
(Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmhome.html).
Figure 8. Band of the 4th Michigan Infantry. From Bands
and Drummer Boys of the Civil War (South Brunswick:
A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1966).
40
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