“The demonstrations of the colored people on witnessing the review were at times frantic for joy beyond all description…”
Category: Songs & Stories
Picayune Butler’s Come to Town (Rice, 1858)
“And when he made his appearance you should have heard the reception he got. I thought the roof would fall off…”: Picayune Butler takes New York & Tokyo by storm.
Star-Spangled Banner (Key, 1814)
What’s the connection between the US National Anthem, militant slave uprisings, and the burning of the White House?
I’m Off for Nicaragua (Rice, 1858)
Phil Rice gives us this striking vision of slavery carried south in the service of the Filibuster president, General William Walker:
Battle Cry of Freedom: “If we’d had your songs…”
Account given by anonymous captured Confederate officer…
Vacant Chair (Root & Washburn, 1861)
George Root’s setting of Henry S. Washburn’s popular poem …
Music in General Stuart’s Camp
Here’s a striking passage about music and war in General Stuart’s Confederate camp, 1862, from John Esten Cooke’s Wearing of the Grey… III. Behold the scene now, reader, as I looked at it, on that evening of December in 1861. We are in a bleak room, with no furniture but a desk, a chair, and a camp…
Battle Cry of Freedom (Root, 1862)
“And at the fourth verse a thousand voices were joining in the chorus…”
The Hardtacks 