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Immortal Songs of Camp and Field
The more popular, if not more worthy, song of John Brown’s Body seems to have been of Massachusetts origin at the commencement of the Civil War. It was first sung in 1861. When the Massachusetts Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Fletcher Webster, a son of the famous Daniel Webster, were camped on one of the islands in Boston Harbor, some of the soldiers amused themselves by adapting the words, —
“John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,His soul is marching on.Glory, glory hallelujah,His soul is marching on,”to a certain air. Mr. Charles Sprague Hall, who is the author of the lines as finally sung, says that when the soldiers first began to sing it the first verse was the only one known. He wrote the other verses, but did not know where the first one came from.
The way was opened for this song through a campaign song heard from the lips of the Douglas, and the Bell, and the Everett Campaign Clubs, who, in order to spite Governor John A. Andrew, the famous war governor of Massachusetts, sang the following lines as they were marching through the streets of Boston, with their torches in hand, —
“Tell John Andrew,Tell John Andrew,Tell John AndrewJohn Brown’s dead.Salt won’t save him,John Brown’s dead.”These lines are supposed to have been an imitation of the doggerel, —
“Tell Aunt Rhody,Tell Aunt Rhody,Tell Aunt RhodyThe old goose is dead.Salt won’t save him,The old goose is dead.”Great stress having been laid by the opponents of Governor Andrew upon the fact that John Brown was dead, the authors of the song spoken of took good care to assert that, while
“John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,His soul is marching on.”This was the answer of those that sympathized with John Brown, a song which they flung at those who seemed to take delight in the fact that he was dead.
Thane Miller, of Cincinnati, heard the melody, which is perhaps the most popular martial melody in America, in a colored Presbyterian church in Charleston, South Carolina, about 1859, and soon after introduced it at a convention of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Albany, New York, with the words, —
“Say, brothers will you meet us,Say, brothers will you meet us,Say, brothers will you meet us,On Canaan’s happy shore?By the grace of God we’ll meet you,By the grace of God we’ll meet you,By the grace of God we’ll meet you,Where parting is no more.”Professor James E. Greenleaf, organist of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, found the music in the archives of that church, and fitted it to the first stanza of the present song. It has since been claimed that the Millerites, in 1843, used the same tune to a hymn, one verse of which is as follows, —
“We’ll see the angels comingThrough the old churchyards,Shouting through the airGlory, glory hallelujah!”Whatever may have been the origin of the melody, when fitted by Greenleaf to the first stanza of John Brown’s Body, it became so great a favorite with the Glee Club of the Boston Light Infantry that they asked Mr. Hall to write the additional stanzas.
As has been the case with popular tunes in every age, verses have been often added to it to meet the occasion. While the words are not of a classical order, the air is of that popular kind which strikes the heart of the average man. During the Civil War it served to cheer and inspire the Union soldiers in their camps and on the march, and was sung at home at every popular gathering in town or country. It seemed to be just what the soldiers needed at the time, and served its purpose far better than would choicer words or more artistic music. No song during all the war fired the popular heart as did John Brown’s Body. It crossed the sea and became the popular street song in London. The Pall Mall Gazette of October 14, 1865, said: “The street boys of London have decided in favor of John Brown’s Body, against My Maryland, and The Bonnie Blue Flag. The somewhat lugubrious refrain has excited their admiration to a wonderful degree, and threatens to extinguish that hard-worked, exquisite effort of modern minstrelsy, Slap Bang.”
After the original song had gained world-wide notoriety, the following words were written by Henry Howard Brownell, who died at Hartford, Connecticut, October 31, 1872, aged fifty-two. Mr. Brownell entitled his poem, “Words that can be sung to the Hallelujah Chorus,” and says: “If people will sing about Old John Brown, there is no reason why they shouldn’t have words with a little meaning and rhythm in them.”
“Old John Brown lies a-mouldering in the grave,Old John Brown lies slumbering in his grave —But John Brown’s soul is marching with the brave,His soul is marching on.Glory, glory hallelujah!Glory, glory hallelujah!Glory, glory hallelujah!His soul is marching on.“He has gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,He is sworn as a private in the ranks of the Lord —He shall stand at Armageddon, with his brave old sword,When Heaven is marching on.“He shall file in front where the lines of battle form —He shall face the front where the squares of battle form —Time with the column and charge with the storm,Where men are marching on.“Ah, foul tyrants! do you hear him where he comes?Ah, black traitors! do you know him as he comes?In thunder of the cannon and roll of the drums,As we go marching on.“Men may die, and moulder in the dust —Men may die, and arise again from dust,Shoulder to shoulder, in the ranks of the just,When Heaven is marching on.”But Mr. Brownell has shared the same fate with Miss Proctor, and his song and hers are only curiosities to-day, which show how arbitrary the popular will is when once the heart or the imagination is really captured. Mr. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., writing to Mr. James T. Fields, the famous Boston litterateur, said: “It would have been past belief had we been told that the almost undistinguishable name of John Brown should be whispered among four millions of slaves, and sung wherever the English language is spoken, and incorporated into an anthem to whose solemn cadences men should march to battle by the tens of thousands.”
DIXIE
I wish I was in de land ob cotton,Old times dar am not forgotten,Look away! Look away! Look away!In Dixie Land where I was born in,Early on a frosty mornin’,Look away! Look away! Look away!Den I wish I was in Dixie,Hooray! Hooray!In Dixie Land, I’ll take my stand,To lib and die in Dixie,Away! Away!Away down south in Dixie.Old Missus marry “Will-de-weaber,”Willium was a gay deceaber;Look away! Look away! Look away!But when he put his arm around ’er,He smiled as fierce as a forty pounder,Look away! Look away! Look away!His face was as sharp as a butcher’s cleaber,But dat did not seem to greab ’er;Look away! Look away! Look away!Old Missus acted de foolish part,And died for a man dat broke her heart.Look away! Look away! Look away!Now here’s a health to de next old Missus,And all de gals dat want to kiss us;Look away! Look away! Look away!But if you want to drive ’way sorrow,Come and hear dis song tomorrow,Look away! Look away! Look away!Dar’s buckwheat cakes an’ Injen batter,Makes you fat or a little fatter;Look away! Look away! Look away!Den hoe it down and scratch your grabble,To Dixie’s Land I’m bound to trabble,Look away! Look away! Look away!– Dan Emmett.Dan Emmett, who wrote the original Dixie, which has been paraphrased and changed and adapted nearly as frequently as Yankee Doodle was born at Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1815. He came from a family all of whose members had a local reputation, still traditional in that part of the country, as musicians. In his own case this talent, if given a fair chance for development, would have amounted to genius. He began life as a printer, but soon abandoned his trade to join the band of musicians connected with a circus company. He was not long in discovering that he could compose songs of the kind in use by clowns; one of the most popular of these was Old Dan Tucker. Its success was so great that Emmett followed it with many others. They were all negro melodies, and many of them won great popularity. Finally he took to negro impersonations, singing his own songs in the ring, while he accompanied himself on the banjo. He made a specialty of old men, and he declares with pride that when he had blackened his face, and donned his wig of kinky white hair, he was “the best old negro that ever lived.” He became such a favorite with the patrons of the circus in the South and West, that at last – partly by chance, and partly through intention – he became a full-fledged actor. This was in 1842, at the old Chatham Theater in New York City, when with two companions he gave a mixed performance, made up largely of songs and dances typical of slave life and character. The little troupe was billed as “The Virginia Minstrels,” and their popularity with the public was instantaneous.
This was the beginning of negro minstrelsy, which was destined to have such a wide popularity in America. From New York the pioneer company went to Boston, and later on sailed for England, leaving the newly-discovered field to the host of imitators who were rapidly dividing their success with them. Emmett had great success in the British Isles, and remained abroad for several years. When he returned to New York, he joined the Dan Bryant Minstrel Company, which then held sway in Bryant’s Theater on lower Broadway, which was at that time one of the most popular resorts in New York City. Emmett was engaged to write songs and walk-arounds and take part in the nightly performances. It was while he was with Bryant that Dixie was composed.
Emmett is still living and resides at Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he hopes to end his days. The old man is a picturesque figure on the streets. In his prime he was one of the mid-century dandies of New York City, but now, with calm indifference to the conventional, he usually carries a long staff and wears his coat fastened in at the waist by a bit of rope. His home is a little cottage on the edge of town, where he lives entirely alone. On almost any warm afternoon he can be found seated before his door reading, but he is ready enough to talk with the chance visitor whose curiosity to meet the composer of one of the National Songs of America, has brought him thither. A newspaper man who recently went to talk with the old minstrel found him seated in the shade by his house with a book open before him. As he went up the path, he said, for he had some doubt in his own mind, —
“Are you Dan Emmett, who wrote Dixie?”
“Well, I have heard of the fellow; sit down,” and Emmett motioned to the steps.
“Won’t you tell me how the song was written?”
“Like most everything else I ever did,” said Emmett, “it was written because it had to be done. One Saturday night, in 1859, as I was leaving Bryant’s Theater, where I was playing, Bryant called after me, ‘I want a walk-’round for Monday, Dan.’
“The next day it rained and I stayed indoors. At first when I went at the song I couldn’t get anything. But a line, kept repeating itself in my mind, and I finally took it for my start. The rest wasn’t long in coming. And that’s the story of how Dixie was written.
‘I wish I was in Dixie,’“It made a hit at once, and before the end of the week everybody in New York was whistling it. Then the South took it up and claimed it for its own. I sold the copyright for five hundred dollars, which was all I ever made from it. I’ll show you my first copy.”
He went into the house and returned in a moment with a yellow, worn-looking manuscript in his hand.
“That’s Dixie,” he said, holding it up for inspection. “I am going to give it to some historical society in the South, one of these days, for though I was born here in Ohio, I count myself a Southerner, as my father was a Virginian.”
Dixie Land was without question the most famous of all the Southern war songs. But it was the tune, as in the case of Yankee Doodle, and not the words that gave it its great power to fire the heart. It is claimed that Emmett appropriated the tune from an old negro air, which is quite probable.
The only poem set to the famous air of Dixie which has any literary merit is one that was written by General Albert Pike. Some one has said that it is worthy of notice that the finest Puritan lyric we have was written by an Englishwoman, Mrs. Felicia Hemans, and the most popular Southern war song was written by a Yankee, a native of Massachusetts. Albert Pike was born in Boston, December 29, 1809, but most of his boyhood was spent in Newburyport. He became a teacher, but in 1831 visited what was then the wild region of the Southwest with a party of trappers. He afterward edited a paper at Little Rock, and studied law. He served in the Mexican War with distinction, and on the breaking out of the Rebellion enlisted, on the Confederate side, a force of Cherokee Indians, whom he led at the battle of Pea Ridge. After the war he edited the Memphis Appeal till 1868, when he settled in Washington as a lawyer. He has written a number of fine poems, and retired from the profession of law in 1880, to devote himself to literature and Freemasonry. Mr. Pike’s version of Dixie is as follows, —
“Southrons, hear your Country call you!Up, lest worse than death befall you!To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!Lo! all the beacon fires are lighted —Let all hearts be now united!To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!Advance the flag of Dixie!Hurrah! Hurrah!For Dixie’s land we take our stand,And live or die for Dixie!To arms! To arms!And conquer peace for Dixie!To arms! To arms!And conquer peace for Dixie!“Hear the Northern thunders mutter!Northern flags in South winds flutter!To arms!Send them back your fierce defiance!Stamp upon the accursed alliance!To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“Fear no danger! Shun no labor!Lift up rifle, pike, and sabre!To arms!Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,Let the odds make each heart bolder!To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“How the South’s great heart rejoices,At your cannons’ ringing voices!To arms!For faith betrayed, and pledges broken,Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken,To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“Strong as lions, swift as eagles,Back to their kennels hunt these beagles!To arms!Cut the unequal bonds asunder!Let them hence each other plunder!To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“Swear upon your country’s altarNever to submit or falter!To arms!Till the spoilers are defeated,Till the Lord’s work is completed.To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“Halt not till our FederationSecures from earth’s powers its station!To arms!Then at peace, and crowned with glory,Hear your children tell the story!To arms!Advance the flag of Dixie!“If the loved ones weep in sadness,Victory soon will bring them gladness.To arms!Exultant pride soon vanish sorrow;Smiles chase tears away tomorrow.To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!Advance the flag of Dixie!Hurrah! Hurrah!For Dixie’s land we take our stand,And live or die for Dixie!To arms! To arms!And conquer peace for Dixie!To arms! To arms!And conquer peace for Dixie!”Since the war Dixie has been as favorite a tune with bands of music throughout the North as has Yankee Doodle. Abraham Lincoln set the example for this. A war correspondent recalls an incident which occurred only a night or two before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. The President had returned from Richmond, and a crowd called with a band to tender congratulations and a serenade. The great man who was so soon to be the victim of the assassin’s bullet appeared in response to calls and thanked his audience for the compliment. Several members of his Cabinet surrounded him, and it was a very interesting and dramatic occasion. Just as he was closing his brief remarks, Mr. Lincoln said: “I see you have a band with you. I should like to hear it play Dixie. I have consulted the Attorney-General, who is here by my side, and he is of the opinion that Dixie belongs to us. Now play it.” The band struck up the old tune, and played it heartily. As the strains of the music rang out upon the air, cheer after cheer went up from the throats of the hundreds of happy men who had called to congratulate Mr. Lincoln upon the return of peace. It was that great soul’s olive branch which he held out to the South.
THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
Yes, we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom,We’ll rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!Down with the traitor, up with the star,While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;And we’ll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true, and brave,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!So we’re springing to the call from the East and from the West,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;And we’ll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love the best,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!– George F. Root.This inspiring rallying song was written by George F. Root, to whom we are indebted for so many songs of camp and field. Mr. Root also composed the music. Perhaps no hymn of battle in America has been sung under so many interesting circumstances as this. It was written in 1861, on President Lincoln’s second call for troops, and was first sung at a popular meeting in Chicago and next at a great mass meeting in Union Square, New York, where those famous singers, the Hutchinson Family, sounded it forth like a trump of jubilee to the ears of thousands of loyal listeners.
It was always a great favorite with the soldiers. Dr. Jesse Bowman Young, of St. Louis, the author of What a Boy Saw in the Army, relates a very affecting and pathetic incident which occurred while a portion of the Army of the Potomac was marching across Maryland. A young officer and his company were in the lead, and just behind them came one of the regimental bands, while ahead of them rode General Humphreys and his staff. As the division marched along, they passed by a country schoolhouse in a little grove at a crossroad. The teacher, hearing the music of the band at a distance, and expecting the arrival of the troops, had dismissed the school to give them a sight of the soldiers. Before the troops came in sight the boys and girls had gathered bunches of wild flowers, platted garlands of leaves, and secured several tiny flags, and as General Humphreys rode up in front of the schoolhouse, a little girl came forth and presented him with a bouquet, which he acknowledged with gracious courtesy. Then the group of assembled pupils began to sing, as they waved their flags and garlands in the air. That song made a tumult in every soldier’s heart. Many strong men wept as they looked on the scene and thought of their own loved ones far away in their Northern homes, and were inspired with newborn courage and patriotism by the sight and the song. This is the chorus which rang forth that day from the country schoolhouse, and which soon afterward echoed through the battle in many a soldier’s ear and heart, miles away, on the bloody field of Gettysburg: —
“The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!Down with the traitor, up with the star,While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,Shouting the battle cry of Freedom!”The first company that passed responded to their captain with a will as he shouted, “Boys, give them three cheers and a tiger!” and the example was imitated by the regiments that followed; so that amid the singing of the children and the cheers of the soldiers, and the beating of the drums, the occasion was made memorable to all concerned.
Richard Wentworth Browne relates that a day or two after Lee’s surrender in April, 1865, he visited Richmond, in company with some other Union officers. After a day of sight-seeing, the party adjourned to Mr. Browne’s rooms for dinner. After dinner one of the officers who played well opened the piano, saying, “Boys, we have our old quartette here, let’s have a song.” As the house opposite was occupied by paroled Confederate officers, no patriotic songs were sung. Soon the lady of the house handed Mr. Browne this note: “Compliments of General – and staff. Will the gentlemen kindly allow us to come over and hear them sing?” Consent was readily given and they came. As the General entered the room, the Union officers recognized instantly the face and figure of an officer who had stood very high in the Confederacy. After introductions, and the usual interchange of civilities, the quartette sang for them glees and college songs, until at last the General said, “Excuse me, gentlemen, you sing delightfully, but what we want to hear is your army songs.” Then they gave them the army songs with unction: The Battle Hymn of the Republic; John Brown’s Body; We’re coming, Father Abraham; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching; and so on through the whole catalogue to the Star-Spangled Banner, – to which the Confederate feet beat time as if they had never stepped to any but the music of the Union, – and closed their concert with Root’s inspiring Battle Cry of Freedom.
When the applause had subsided, a tall, fine-looking young fellow in a major’s uniform exclaimed, “Gentlemen, if we’d had your songs we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t have marched or fought with such songs? while we had nothing, absolutely nothing, except a bastard Marseillaise, The Bonny Blue Flag, and Dixie, which were nothing but jigs. Maryland, my Maryland was a splendid song, but the tune, old Lauriger Horatius, was about as inspiring as the Dead March in Saul, while every one of these Yankee songs is full of marching and fighting spirit.”
Then turning to the General he said, “I shall never forget the first time I heard that chorus, ‘Rally round the Flag.’ It was a nasty night during the Seven Days’ fight, and if I remember rightly, it was raining. I was on picket, when just before ‘taps’ some fellow on the other side struck up The Battle Cry of Freedom and others joined in the chorus until it seemed to me that the whole Yankee army was singing. A comrade who was with me sang out, ‘Good heavens, Cap, what are those fellows made of, anyway? Here we’ve licked them six days running, and now, on the eve of the seventh, they’re singing “Rally round the Flag?”’ I am not naturally superstitious, but I tell you that song sounded to me like the knell of doom; my heart went down into my boots; and though I’ve tried to do my duty, it has been an uphill fight with me ever since that night.”
Perhaps the most romantic and inspiring occasion on which The Battle Cry of Freedom was ever sung was at the raising of the flag over Fort Sumter on the 14th of April, 1865, that being the fourth anniversary of the day when Major Anderson had evacuated the fort after his brave defense. A large number of citizens went from New York in excursion steamers, to assist in the celebration. Colonel Stewart L. Woodford, recently the United States minister to Spain, was master of ceremonies. The oration was delivered by the eloquent Henry Ward Beecher, but the supreme moment of interest came when Major-General Anderson, who had added General to the Major in the past four years, after a touching and tender address, received from Sergeant Hart a bag containing the precious old flag which had waved in the breeze through those days of fierce bombardment, the din of which had been heard around the world. The flag had been saved for such a time as this, and now, by order of Abraham Lincoln, it was brought back to wave again over Fort Sumter. It was attached to the halyards, and General Anderson hoisted it to the head of the flagstaff amid loud huzzas. One can imagine the inspiration of the occasion, as William B. Bradbury led the singing of The Battle Cry of Freedom. How the tears ran down the cheeks, and hearts overflowed with thanksgiving as they shouted the chorus underneath the folds of the very flag that had received the first baptism of fire at the beginning of the Rebellion: —
