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**33rdaladrummer** · 04-22-2010, 09:07 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Good work, Alan.

I'll take a closer look later but some tunes that appear in several manuals that I think you left out (probably because you aren't considering camp duty and they were often part of it) are:

Duke's Q.S. aka King William
Fifer's Delight aka Double Drag
Larry O'Brien aka Quickstep aka American Quickstep
Fifer's Quickstep

Some others that can be added or bumped up:

Miss Brown's Reel aka Governor's Island Q.S.
Roving Sailor
Beaux of Albany aka Beans of Albany aka Albany Beef
Tattoo "Quickstep" in Klinehanse aka Forest of Bondi in Howe's
Cuckoo's Nest drumbeat is in Hart
Who'll Be King but Charlie drumbeat in Hart, tune in ?
Fifer's Delight Drumbeat in Hart, fife tune several places
Roving Sailor Drumbeat in Hart, fife tune somewhere
Jolly Soldier drumbeat in Hart, fife tune in Howe
Bonny Boat drumbeat in Hart, fife tune in Howe
Fifer's QS drumbeat in Hart

I've been working on a similar list, but for newpapers and regimental histories, etc.:

Auld Lang Syne (TRI-WEEKLY ALAMO EXPRESS [San Antonio, TX], March 29, 1861, p. 3, c. 1)
Beaux of Oak Hill (A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment)
Bold Dragoon PREWAR (Recollections of the public career and private life of the late John ... By Emily Henderson)
Bold Soldier Boy (Cullings from the confederacy By Nora Fontaine M. Davidson)
Bold Soldier Boy (History of the Seventeenth regiment, New Hampshire volunteer infantry)
Bonaparte's March ( Glimpses of the nation's struggle: 1st -6th series. by Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Minnesota Commandery - Biography & Autobiography - 1893)
Bonnie Blue Flag (Co. Aytch)
Bonnie Blue Flag (Valley Spirit: July 8, 1863)
Campbells are Coming (Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The First Day)
Campbells are Coming (Drum Taps in Dixie)
Carry Me Back (All for the Union: a history of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Inf by Rhodes)
Devil's Dream (Hubbs, G. Ward. Voices from Company D: Diaries by the Greensboro Guards, Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment)
Dixie (The Illustrated London News, vol.39, no.1111, p.338.)
Dixie (Co. Aytch)
Dixie (Valley Spirit: July 8, 1863)
Drops of Brandy PREWAR (Greenwich hospital: a series of naval sketches, By Old Sailor)
Flowers of Edinburgh(Christian memorials of the War by Horatio Balch Hackett)
Faded Flowers (148th Pa)
Gentle Annie (148th PA)
Garryowen (Drums of the 47th)
Garryowen (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
Girl I Left Behind Me (History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment)
Girl (Philadelphia Press, Aug. 19, 1863)
Girl (Report of the Proceedings of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee at the ...‎ - Page 262 by Society of the Army of the Tennessee - History - 1885)
The Girl I Left Behind Me (148th PA)
Girl (Historic days in Cumberland County, New Jersey, 1855-1865: political and war page 42 by Isaac T. Nichols - History - 1907 - 257 pages )
Girl I Left (Cullings from the confederacy By Nora Fontaine M. Davidson)
Girl I Left Behind Me (Drum Taps in Dixie)
Girl (Southern Historical Society Papers Vol. XXXII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1904, pp. 174-178)
Girl (A History of the Forty-fourth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in the ... - Page 182
by Eugene Arus Nash - United States - 1910 - 484 pag)
Girl (4th Virginia)
Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself PREWAR ( Canterbury in the olden time - Page 34
by John Brent - Canterbury (England) - 1860 - 117 pages )
Granny Will Your Dog (undated article from Lenoir News-Topic, reprinted in Company Front [26th N.C. periodical], Sept. 1994, p. 14)
Hell on Oil Creek (148th PA)
Highland Mary (4th Virginia)
Home Sweet Home ( New Jerusalem Magazine - Page 400 by New Jerusalem Church - 1872)
Home Sweet Home (The United service‎ - Page 428 As fife and drum our "Sweet Home" played.)
Irish Jigs played by Confederate fifers (The Illustrated London News, vol.39, no.1111,p.338.)
an Irish jig or two. (Historic days in Cumberland County, New Jersey, 1855-1865: political and war page 42 by Isaac T. Nichols - History - 1907 - 257 pages )
Irish Volunteer (Philadelphia Press, Aug. 19, 1863)
Jaybird (Drums of the 47th)
Jaybird PREWAR ( General Lane's Brigade in Central Mexico‎ - Page 132
by Albert Gallatin Brackett - Mexican War, 1846-1848 - 1854 - 336 pages)
Jefferson and Liberty (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
Jefferson and Liberty ( History of the 71st Regiment, N. G., N. Y., American Guard)
Jefferson and Liberty ( History of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861 ...‎ - Page 90 by Ernest Linden Waitt, Massachusetts infantry 19th regt., 1861-1865, Massachusetts infantry - History - 1906 - 456 pages)
Jon Anderson My Joe (A Drum's Story)
Lannigan's Ball (Walt Whitman)
Larry O'Gaff (148th PA)
Larry O'Gaff (History of the Seventeenth regiment,)
Man in the Moon (Philadelphia Press, Aug. 19, 1863)
Marseillaise (The Illustrated London News, vol.39, no.1111, p.338.)
Marseillaise (Valley Spirit: July 8, 1863)
Negro Melodies (The Press. Vol. 8--No. 29. Philadelphia, Friday, September 2, 1864)
Oh Susanna (A Drum's Story)
Old Dan Tucker PREWAR (Historical Sketches of Hudson: Embracing the Settlement of the City, City ... - Page 55
by Stephen B. Miller - Hudson (N.Y.) - 1862 - 120 pages)
Old Dan Tucker (A Drum's Story)
Old Dan Tucker (148th PA)
Picayune Butler's come to Town (In It by H.C. Whitley)
Pop Goes the Weasel (Philadelphia Press. April 11, 1861.)
Pop Goes the Weasel ( Gleanings from 'The Blue', a selection of poetry and prose‎ - Page 116
by Christ's hospital, Blue - 1881)
Rally Round the Flag (148th PA)
Red White and Blue (Historic days in Cumberland County, New Jersey, 1855-1865: political and war page 42 by Isaac T. Nichols - History - 1907 - 257 pages )
Rocky Road to Dublin (Drums of the 47th)
Rory O'Moore (Drum Taps in Dixie)
Rory O'More (Our Country, in Its Relations to the Past, Present and Future: A National ...
by Mrs Lincoln Phelps - 1864 )
Sprig of Shillelah (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
St. Patrick's Day in the Morning (A History of Wilkes-Barr� By Oscar Jewell Harvey)
St. Patrick's Day (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
Village Quickstep (148th PA)
Villikins and his Dinah (Our Country, in Its Relations to the Past by Mrs Lincoln Phelps)
Walk in the Light (Emanuel, An Historical Sketch of the Georgetown Rifle Guards, and as Co. A of the Tenth Regiment So. Ca. Volunteers, in the Army of the Confederate States, n.p., n.d. [1909], page [6] (not paginated).
Walk in the Light (Walker, Rolls and Historical Sketch of the Tenth Regiment, So. Ca. Volunteers, in the Army of the Confederate States (Charleston: Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1881), p. 75.
Wandering Willie PREWAR (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/t...index.htm?id=1)
When the Springtime Comes, Gentle Annie (Drum Taps in Dixie)
White Cockade (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
White Cockade (History of the Fiftieth Regiment of Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteer ...
By William Burnham Stevens, William C. Eustis, Solomon Nelson)
White Cockade (Early days in Arkansas: being for the most part the personal recollections ...
By William F. Pope, Dunbar H. Pope)
White Cockade (Godey's magazine, Volume 28 edited by Louis Antoine Godey, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale January to June 1844)
Who'll Be King but Charlie (The Civil War on the Outer Banks By Fred M. Mallison)
Who'll Be King but Charlie (NY Times 19 Nov 1861)
Wrecker's Daughter (148th PA)
Yankee Doodle (Early days in Arkansas: being for the most part the personal recollections ...
By William F. Pope, Dunbar H. Pope)
Yankee Doodle (History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment)
Yankee Doodle (TRI-WEEKLY ALAMO EXPRESS [San Antonio, TX], March 29, 1861, p. 3, c. 1)
Yankee Doodle (History of the Seventeenth regiment)
Yankee Doodle ( History of the 71st Regiment, N. G., N. Y., American Guard)
Yankee Doodle (Historic days in Cumberland County, New Jersey, 1855-1865: political and war page 42 by Isaac T. Nichols - History - 1907 - 257 pages )
Yankee Doodle ( History of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861 ...‎ - Page 90 by Ernest Linden Waitt, Massachusetts infantry 19th regt., 1861-1865, Massachusetts infantry - History - 1906 - 456 pages)

**Silas** · 04-22-2010, 11:17 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Jim Crow, Alabama Joe, Miss Lucy Long, Dandy Jim from Caroline, Uncle Ned, Angelina Baker, the Old Folks at Home, Jim Along Josie, Coal Black Rose, Gumbo Chaff, Mary Blane, Joe Bowers, Walk Along John, Jim Jawbone and several noted personalities of the day may have something to say about those lists. There was popular music before the war which continued to be sung and adapted during the war.

A nice little wartime songster is Hooley's Opera House Songster : http://www.archive.org/details/hoole...ouse00newyrich (As I write this, the archive.org server is down. It had been up earlier today.) This songster has several Little Mac songs therein. San Francisco was anti-Republican and pro-Democrat even then. Some things just don't seem to change.

Many of the songs found in the 1854 Christie and White Songbook still had traction during the war years : http://books.google.com/books?id=W2Z...page&q&f=false

**Hank Trent** · 04-23-2010, 05:43 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Originally posted by Silas View Post

Jim Crow, Alabama Joe, Miss Lucy Long, Dandy Jim from Caroline, Uncle Ned, Angelina Baker, the Old Folks at Home, Jim Along Josie, Coal Black Rose, Gumbo Chaff, Mary Blane, Joe Bowers, Walk Along John, Jim Jawbone and several noted personalities of the day may have something to say about those lists. There was popular music before the war which continued to be sung and adapted during the war.

I wondered about the list too, then I noticed this heading in the original post:

MOST POPULAR CIVIL WAR FIFE TUNES

Is the list meant to be a compilation of the most popular fife tunes, or a compilation of the most popular tunes, period?

It looks like a reasonable fife list, from what little I know about fife tunes, but I agree that if it's supposed to represent all tunes sung or played on any instrument by soldiers, I just can't picture Hail Columbia or Hail to the Chief being sung more often than, say, Dandy Jim or Lucy Long, except on patriotic occasions.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

**OldKingCrow** · 04-23-2010, 06:50 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Originally posted by Hank Trent View Post

It looks like a reasonable fife list, from what little I know about fife tunes, but I agree that if it's supposed to represent all tunes sung or played on any instrument by soldiers, I just can't picture Hail Columbia or Hail to the Chief being sung more often than, say, Dandy Jim or Lucy Long, except on patriotic occasions.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

The popular tunes, some which you note are virtually unknown to the hobby, and in thier place Irish folk, sea shanties and other martial suites and marches are known by the masses. This, in my estimation, is result of the recorded CD's in the mainstream being the Genesis of the majority of the n'acting musical culture thus propogating new set of "old standards" for many. This was just how it evolved and is not a condemnation.

The banjo was the pre-emminent insturment leading up to, during and post American Civil War. Many of those tunes were written on and for banjer accompaniment and their popularity spread through the published banjo tutors.

Play more banjer.

CJ Rideout
Tampa, Florida

**33rdaladrummer** · 04-23-2010, 07:05 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Yes, the title of thread should probably have originally been Popular Civil War Fife Tunes.

The drum and fife manuals can only tell us so much about what drummers and fifers actually were playing during the war. For example, there are several accounts of Who'll Be King but Charlie being played by fifers, but it is only mentioned in one fife and drum manual from the period. Was it more or less popular than Guilderoy, which, according to Alan's list, was in 4 manuals? We'll never know.

Dixie is only in two manuals from the period, but it was wildly popular with both northern and southern fifers.

Comparing Alan's list of tunes in manuals to my list of tunes mentioned as being played, we can see some tunes standing out like Larry O'Gaff and Beaux of Oak Hill as being very underrepresented today.

We could also compare these lists to the tunes commonly played by reenactors today and see what is overrepresented. The Harriott predates the war, but was it even known by fifers in the 1860s? When did Finnegan's Wake become popular? New Tatter Jack is only in one manual from the period and no earlier sources for it exist. Harum Scarum only exists in one 1805 fife manual. However, if one were to make a top 40 list of reenactor fife tunes then these would all be on it.

We also have to distinguish between "tunes" and "songs". Tunes do not always have lyrics.

During the war, Hail to the Chief was a salute for a general (today it is just for the president) so it was frequently played, and I have found too many accounts of Hail Columbia being played to list.

Fife music has much in common with fiddle music, but there are many tunes unique to fifers' repertoire. That is where I think the manuals are most helpful. Duke's Quickstep and Fifer's Delight are perfect examples.

**Silas** · 04-23-2010, 10:19 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Aaaaaarg. I missed the true subject line for this thread because it was buried in the text. Hate it when I miss things like that. I'm sorry to have been such a nuisance.

I could change the subject line which commenced this thread if Mr. Lloyd requests, but I would be inclinded to leave it be for the present. You never know where a thread like this will go.

I do share Mr. Chappell's complaint about the overplaying of some tunes which causes the nonplaying of others. Lists like these may get musicians to take a look at some of the underplayed and nonplayed tunes. I am a fan of Liberty Hall as the group is expanding the repertoire. It might have something to do with hearing fife and drum playing minstrel. Naaaah.

**Alan Lloyd** · 04-23-2010, 04:29 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Tunes

Silas

Please change the Thread header to Popular Civil War Fife Tunes.

I mistakenly left out the word "Fife" I did not mean to say that this list represents the most popular songs or tunes in general.

Thanks

**Bagman** · 04-26-2010, 10:03 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

In addition to the Fiddle and perhaps banjo roots of many of these popular fife tunes. Others have their origins, and live on today, in the world of Highland Bagpipe music. During the ACW, there was a great interest in the celtic and Scottish revival of the Victorian era. Several of these fife tunes were regimental fife and bagpipe tunes in the highland regiments of the British Army. Many were popular and frequently played during the Crimean War. They remain common and popular to this day.

This is all the more interesting as the Piping and Drumming community is vastly greater today than the field music and fife and drum community. The music lives on to this day, in a parallell universe, and perhaps a bit closer to its ethnic roots than its appropriation by nineteenth century fifers

From Alan's list, I've culled out a number of titles from the 'groove-yard' of once common, but now largley forgotten, Fife tunes that are still heard and played in the piping community. Several of these are piping mainstays:
Kinloch
Bonny Doon
Over the Water to Charlie
Monymusk
Speed the Plough
Go the the Devil and Shake Yourself
Garry Owen
Annie Laurie
Irish Washerwoman
My Lodgings on the Cold Cold Ground,
Bonnie Dundee
My love is but a Lassie Yet
Liverpool Hornpipe

Though not on Alan's or Will's list, one could include ' Bonnie Dundee'

Jeff Christman
Liberty Hall Fifes & Drums

**Hardtack Herring** · 04-26-2010, 04:26 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Jeff,

You are correct. These were all popular FIFE tunes in The War Between the States. I have not heard of Annie Laurie though.

One thing is for certain. While serving in either army North or South, these tunes were heard by soldiers to the tune of Fife and Drums, some to the fiddle and some to the banjo, maybe even the harmonica but NEVER EVER to the bagpipe! I could not help myself.

Mr. Christman is not only a musician of many instruments but a scholar of history as well. We are lucky to have a man of so many talents in our group.

Mr. Christman is not only a drummer in The Liberty Hall Drum Corps but also a Piper in Tidewater Pipes and Drums.

**Silas** · 04-26-2010, 07:58 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Paul, I am disappointed that you knowingly and willing associate with pipers.

**Bagman** · 04-27-2010, 06:12 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Paul........

You're killing me buddy.....

I was making an observation that many of these most popular fife tunes and songs had their origins in the traditional pipe music of the 'Auld Sod'; and many, though obscure to us today, live on in that musical idiom. Thus, I was attempting to broaden the derivation of some of these tunes from the 'banjer' (?), to other traditional sources. I know that you know that I was not suggesting that these most popular fife tunes were played and heard during the ACW on an anything other than fifes and drums, fiddles, pianos..( in peoples homes) and the 'banjer'....whatever that is.

As for "Annie Laurie", I'm surprised you've not heard it. I bet you have actually, and just can't place it. I read somewhere ....don't ask me where...that it was the single most popular air in Britain coming off the Crimean War. No doubt, due to its sentimentality, and pleasing melody, it enjoyed great popularity here as well.

"....and for dear auld Annie Laurie, I'd lay me doon and dee...."

Kind of chokes me up just humming it over in my head .

As readers of this thread all probably know, with the exception of the often - recounted, and historically documented, mass slaughter of 15 pipers in the Peach Orchard on the 2d day at Gettysburg, bagpipes and the Civil War are like oil and water...they don't mix. Now, as we approach the 150th, an event portraying the 1861 raising and mustering in of the Cameron Hlndrs in New York City, might be another story for another time....

Jeff Christman
Liberty Hall Fifes & Drums

**33rdaladrummer** · 04-27-2010, 11:04 AM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Jeff, you are right about many of these tunes originating in Scotland, Ireland, and England, but it would be difficult to prove which instrument made them popular. One could easily argue that all of the tunes from your list are actually fiddle tunes that pipers also happened to play. What about the accordeon and concertina? They helped spread these tunes as well, maybe even moreso than the pipes. I also have to disagree with your claim that American fifers appropriated tunes from Scottish bagpipers because there simply weren't many pipers in America in the 19th century so any influence would have to be indirect. Even if some of these tunes really did originate as pipe tunes in Scotland, they would have spread to American fifers by way of performers of more common instruments.

That being said, I do like to learn what you know about tunes that pipers play because like them or not, pipers help preserve the traditional tunes. They also reinforce the idea that there are many forgotten tunes that were once popular with fifers that could be resurrected in a similar fashion. Pipers are perhaps a better place to look for traditional tunes than modern fifers, because modern fifers tend to artificially resuscitate tunes that are old but may have been obscure or unknown in the 1860s. This artificial picking and choosing of tunes by reenactor fifers has created a very biased repertoire often unrepresentative of the time period being portrayed.

**33rdaladrummer** · 04-27-2010, 03:52 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Here's an example of a tune not found in any 1860s fife manual, but was probably a popular tune during the war with fifers judging by its inclusion in the American Veteran Fifer, several prewar fife manuals and manuscripts, and an 1850s reference:

"In your issue of December 11, I find in the account of the celebration of the Fourth of July, 1856..that Father Ira Willis played the drum and a "man from over the lake," (Elysian) played the fife. I think this was "Uncle" 'Ben Glfford...As a musician, was always fifer and chief musician, and, from morning till night, "Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, Haste to the Wedding, and the Girl I Left Behind Me," (the last of which was a favorite of his) filled the people with patriotic fire."

Child's history of Waseca County, Minnesota By James Erwin Child

Here's a good source for researching prewar sources for tunes:

index.htm - Lokala sm� Takl�ggare som utf�r takarbete!

http://www.colonialdancing.org/Easmes/Index.htm

Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589–1839: An Index INTRODUCTION What This Is This is a series of indexes derived from a data base of musical information compiled from primary sources covering the 250 years of the initial exploration and settlement of the United States. It consists of over 75,000 entries that are […]

If you click on "TEXTS" at the top you can search by tune name. I turned up these fife sources for Come Haste to the Wedding:

Come Hast to the Wedding Willig Fife, 1805
Come Hast to the Weding Johnson, S. MS, 1807
Come Haste to the Wedding Boynton MS, 1799
Come Haste to the Wedding Fifer's Comp, 1805
Come Haste to the Wedding Steele Fife, 1815
Come Haste to the Wedding Williams Fife, 1819

Haste to the Wedding is seldom heard by reenactment fifers, although the Carolina Fifes and Drums recorded it on their most recent CD.

On the other hand, Harum Scarum, which only shows up in the 1805 Fifer's Companion listed above, is played so frequently that one would think it was one of the most popular fife tunes of the 1860s when the evidence shows that it was probably an obscure tune not even well known before or during the war.

***markj*** · 05-19-2010, 09:47 PM

Re: Popular Civil War Fife Tunes

Another possible candidate: Englishman George Ballentine mentions in his Mexican War memoir (p. 92-93 in the 1860 edition) that one Bob Madden sang "Cruiskeen Lawn" for the benefit of his company. "Cruiskeen Lawn" seems to have been fairly well known since it's also mentioned in the 1852 Graham's Magazine article "A True Irish Story." These links should hopefully work for you:

The Mexican War, by an English Soldier

http://books.google.com/books?id=msEm89pxrQsC&pg=PA145&dq=Englishman+Mexican+War&hl=en&ei=RJ70S8f7A8KC8gaitJCxDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEwQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

Graham's Magazine

http://books.google.com/books?id=tKbPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA408&dq=Cruisekeen+Lawn&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Here are lyrics and MIDI files for the tune as well:

Calontir Songs - Cruiskeen Lawn (Cr�isc�n L�n)

http://www.calonsong.org/CalontirSongs/cruiskeenlawn.htm

Check'em out,

Mark Jaeger