We’ll Fight for Uncle Sam
We’ll Fight for Uncle Sam
My great great grandfather was one of the Irishman who fought for Uncle Sam. Please note that the greater number of them were volunteers who enlisted to defend their new country.
01/28/12
Category Archives: Civil War Music
The Civil War produced or popularized a number of songs and musical selections, most of which we still play today.
01/28/12
Oh I’m A Good Old Rebel
Oh I’m A Good Old Rebel
12/25/11
Have a Merry Christmas!
Have a Merry Christmas!
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this incredible song on Christmas morning in 1863. Hed had a rough couple of years leading up to it. The Civil War was in full swing, and hed just gotten word that his son was wounded in it. His wife had recently died in a fire. There wasnt any Christmas cheer for him that dayhed given up all hope. That is, until he heard church bells. What he wrote is not one of the more well-known Christmas songs. It wasnt even turned into a song until at least 10 years after it was written, by an English organist named John Baptiste Calker. But it may just be the best Christmas song ever written. This is Sarah McLachlan’s version.
07/27/11
Marching Through Georgia
Marching Through Georgia
This marching song was written by Henry Clay Work in 1865 to commemorate Gen. William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. It was quite popular among Union veterans after the war because of its lively tune. All veterans except one. Sherman came to hate because it was played at every public event where he appeared.
07/27/11
The Battle Cry of Freedom
The Battle Cry of Freedom
The Battle Cry of Freedom was written in 1862 by American composer George F. Root (1825–1895). It was a popular Union patriotic song that was adapted for the Confederate States of America. It was so popular that 14 printing were kept running printing it. It is believed that over 700,000 copies were printed.
06/10/11
John Brown’s Body
John Brown’s Body
John Brown of Kansas was a abolitionist who fought Southern slave holders in “Bleeding Kansas”. He led a small 
force to Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to capture the Federal armory and distribute arms to freed slaves. Within 36 hours a force led by Col. Robert E. Lee overcame Brown’s force and either killed or captured them all. Brown was put on trial for treason, murder and conspiracy. He was convicted and sentenced to hang in Charles Town, Virginia. On the day of his death he wrote “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” John Brown upon his death became an immediate hero to the anti-slavery forces of the North.
During the civil war northern soldiers sang this old song as they marched off to battle. After Julia Ward Howe heard Union troops singing this, *the original (published Dec. 1861 in the Chicago Tribune) version of the song, she wrote her own words to it’s tune. Soon after, her version was published Feb 1862 in the “Atlantic Monthly” as “The 
Battle Hymn Of The Republic”
*William Weston Patton 1861/Gloria Jane 2004 Arrangement, Vocals, Guitar, and added one chorus from another version of the song, changed the words “Shall all be free” to “Were all set free” to fit today.
John Brown’s Body” ©Gloria Jane 2004
06/10/11
The Bonnie Blue Flag
The Bonnie Blue Flag
“The Bonnie Blue Flag”, also known as “We Are a Band of Brothers”, is an 1861 marching song associated with the
Confederate States of America. The words were written by Irish born entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song “The Irish Jaunting Car”. The song’s title refers to the unofficial first Flag of the Confederacy, the “Bonnie Blue Flag, the symbol of secession from the Union, that bears the “single star” of the chorus.
“The Bonnie Blue Flag” holds special significance to the Texas brigade. The song was premiered by lyricist Harry McCarthy during a concert in Jackson, Mississippi, in the spring of 1861 and performed again in September of that same year at the New Orleans Academy of Music for the First Texas Volunteer Infantry regiment mustering in celebration.
06/10/11
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
Noted Bandmaster Patrick Gilmore wrote the lyrics for this tune when his band was attached to the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. The tune is the same as the Irish song “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye” but there is some dispute as to which came first. “Johnny” did not refer to “Johnny Reb” but most likely Gilmore’s future brother-in-law, a Union army officer. The story behind the song is on the Library of Congress website.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000024/default.html
The first page of the song (Louis Lambert was a pseudonym of Gilmore’s) bears a dedication at the top “to the army and the navy of the Union”. This was not a Confederate song.
06/10/11
Dixie
Dixie
An old 1916 recording of Dixie/Dixie’s Land/I Wish I Was in Dixie by Billy Murray and Ada Jones. It was composed in 1859 by Daniel Decatur Emmett. Although strongly associated with the south and the Confederacy, it was reportedly a favorite song of Abraham Lincoln, as he had a military band play it before a large crowd soon after the Civil War ended.
06/10/11
