These are brief descriptions of some of the songs and tunes played by musicians of the early and mid-nineteenth century. Hopefully in the future I will be able to add the lyrics as well. Many of these descriptions are taken from the liner notes of albums performed by the 2nd South Carolina String Band.

BOATMAN’S DANCE: Attributed to Dan Emmett

Another comic song published in the early 1840’s. it was widely popularized throughout the eastern seaboard by The Virginia Minstrels. The phrase “a big bateau” meant a large, flat bottomed boat used to carry merchandise to market.

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BONNIE BLUE FLAG: Words by Mrs. Annie Chambers-Ketchum; music by Harry McCarthy, 1861

One of the most popular songs of the Confederate States, Bonnie Blue Flag is based upon the Irish tune The Jaunting Car. McCarthy and his sister, performing as a music hall team in New Orleans, used this as the finale to their act. It was sung at Jefferson Davis’ inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama.

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BUFFALO GALS: Words and music by Cool White, 1844

Originally titled Lubly Fan, this song was introduced to American audiences by Cool White and his Serenaders in 1844 and became one of the most famous pre-Civil War minstrel show numbers. The famous Christy Minstrels began to alter the song’s title to agree with the locations of each concert – Charleston Gals, Pittsburg Gals, Louisville Gals and so on. In 1848 the Ethiopian Serenaders played it in a concert in Buffalo, New York, and the rest is musical history.

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CAMPTOWN RACES: Words and music by Stephen Foster, 1850

This nonsense song ranks with Oh! Susanna as one of Foster’s best. Not especially popular in its early days, Camptown Races earned Foster royalties of only $101.25 in its first seven years (representing total sales of 5,000 copies at two cents each).

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CAVALIER’S WALTZ: Anonymous

This traditional waltz was popular during the first half of the nineteenth century.

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CUMBERLAND GAP: Anonymous, c1863

This traditional Appalachian dance melody describes the vicious fighting that took place in the Cumberland Gap region of eastern Tennessee. A strategically important route through the Great Smoky Mountains, the Gap changed hands several times during the war.

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GARRYOWEN:

Garryowen translates from Gaelic as “Owen’s Garden” and is the name of a suburb of Limerick, Ireland. The lyrics immortalize a gang of hooligans who ran riot in the neighborhood. The melody first appeared in print in Edward Light’s Introduction to Playing the Harp-Lute & Apollo-Lyre (London, 1785) as Cory Owen. By the time of the War Between the States the song was well known to both Rebel and Federal musicians and appeared in a number of Civil War songsters.

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GOOBER PEAS: Words and music by P. Nutt, Esq., 1864

Written by two Georgia soldiers imprisoned at Camp Chase, Goober Peas somehow “escaped” and was sung by soldiers in both the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Northern Virginia. This comic song satirizes the limited rations in the Southern armies, which often included “goobers” or peanuts.

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HARD CRACKERS COME AGAIN NO MORE: Anonymous

An anonymous soldier wrote this comic parody to the melody of Stephen Foster’s 1855 Hard Times Come Again No More. Hard crackers, or hard tack, are simple flat biscuits made of flour and water, baked and shipped to the soldiers in the field. the months of rail and horse transportation allowed the crackers to naturally age and harden in their wooden crates. Hard crackers were so petrified that they were called “tooth dulers” or “sheet iron crackers” and were often broken with a rock or the butt of a rifle.

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HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE: Words and music by Stephen Foster, 1855

With the absence of dialect and humor, this tune was not intended as a minstrel piece, but rather as a serious and sentimental parlor song. The melody is based upon a hymn which Foster had heard in his youth while attending a black church in Lawrenceburg, Pennsylvania.

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INVALID CORPS: Words and music by Frank Wilder, 1864

This humorous music hall ballad satirizes those who sought to escape being drafted into the Union Army by failing the medical examination.

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JINE THE CAVALRY: c.1863

Though the composer is unknown, this song is thought to have been a favorite of the dashing cavalry leader Gen. J.E.B. “Jeb” Stuart, who loved good music. Stuart kept on his staff the famous five-string banjo player Sam Sweeney (brother of its inventory, Joel Sweeney) and well-known fiddler “Mullato” Bob. Jine The Cavalry recounts the exploits of Stuart’s troopers during the first three years of the war.

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KINGDOM COMING: Words and music by Henry Clay Work, 1862

This song, the composer’s first about Negro life, was published by George Rost who later recalled his first encounter with Work: “One day early in the war, a quiet and rather solemn looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and them in astonishment. It was ‘Kingdom Coming,’ full of bright good sense and comical situations in its darky dialect, the words fitting the melody almost as patly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sullivan…He needed some musical help that I could give him, and we needed such songs as he could write.” The song was introduced in Chicago by the Christy Minstrels on April 23, 1862.

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LORENA: Words by H.D.L. Webster; music by Joseph Philbrick, 1857

This popular ballad was often sung by homesick soldiers. In spite of its wartime popularity the song was largely forgotten after 1865 until it was mentioned by the twentieth-century writer Margaret Mitchell in her epic novel Gone With The Wind.

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McLEOD’S REEL: Traditional

A traditional 18th century Scottish fiddle tune, McLeod’s Reel was especially popular with the Scottish colonial settlers of the North Carolina-Appalachian Mountain region. By the mid-19th century the growth in popularity of the tune had made it a staple anywhere reels were danced, and it is still commonly performed in modern dance ensembles. It has been called the original Virginia Reel.

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NELLY BLY: Words and music by Stephen Foster, 1850

Stephen Foster’s “dulcem melody” was premiered by the Christy Minstrels to thunderous applause and it became an immediate hit. Firth, Pond & Co. published this sweet song on February 2, 1850, and by September 22, 1851 they were delighted to report of the sheet music sales, “Nelly Bly goes like hot cakes.”

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OH! LUD GALS: Written by Charles “Cool” White c1840

This is one of the many popular comic tunes published in the 1855 Briggs Banjo Instructor. Dan Emmett, the founder of the minstrel tradition, wrote additional lyrics in 1843.

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OH! SUSANNA: Words and music by Stephen Foster, 1847

This song, composed when he was only 20, earned Foster his first payment – $100 cash – and has become one of his most enduring melodies. It was first performed in public by Foster himself at the Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1847. Foster gave the rights to Oh! Susanna to his friend William Peters, who first published the piece in 1848, eventually making over $100,000 on this and one other Foster tune.

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OL’ DAN TUCKER: Written by Dan Emmett, 1830s

First published in 1841, Ol’ Dan Tucker was one of the most consistently popular civilian tunes enjoyed by troops throughout the war and was a favorite with camp bands and field musicians alike.

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RICHMOND IS A HARD ROAD: Words and music by Dan D. Emmett, 1863

This highly complex and satirical song was popular with Northern troops since it criticizes the inept leadership of the Union Army in its efforts to reach Richmond during the first three years of the war. The tune is taken from an earlier (1853) Emmett song, Jordan Is A Hard Road To Travel. The “wooly horse” mentioned in verse three is a reference to Gen. John C. Fremont.

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RING DE BANJO: Words and music by Stephen Foster, 1851

One of Foster’s catchiest minstrel tunes, Ring De Banjo was another of his compositions that was not very popular in his own time, selling fewer than 2,000 copies in six years. Foster wrote this song and at least 14 others, several of which have become classics, during a 12 month period in 1850-51.

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ROSE OF ALABAMA: Words by S.S. Steel, music anonymous, 1846

This song, popular throughout the South and carried West by ‘49ers during the California Gold Rush, tells the story of a young black woman, “Brown Rosie,” who is being courted. (The Yellow Rose Of Texas was also popular at this time.)

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STONEWALL JACKSON’S WAY: Words and music by John W. Palmer, 1863

R.W. Randolph published Stonewall Jackson’s Way in Richmond, Virginia in 1863. The sheet music deliberately misdirected the identity of the composer by stating, “Found on a Confederate Sergeant of the old Stonewall Brigade, taken at Winchester, Va.” This was necessary to shield the songwriter John W. Palmer, from arrest as a Southern sympathizer. The Baltimore native was a war correspondent for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune and assigned to cover the 1862 Maryland Campaign. As Palmer listened to the roar of the guns, he whistled an Oregon logger’s tune and penned “Stonewall’s” ballad.

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SWEET BETSEY FROM PIKE: Anonymous, 1849

A classic of the California Gold Rush, this song describes the adventures of Betsye and Ike, two lovers in route from Pike County, Missouri, to a new life in the California gold fields. The tune is based on the old English melody Vilikins And His Dinah which is itself based on the traditional tune Lord Randall.

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TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND: Words and music by Walter Kiddredge, 1863

Words and music by Walter Kittredge. Written while Kittredge was waiting to be drafted, this song was later introduced and performed by him as a member of the Hutchinson Family. Several months after their first performance, Asa Hutchinson interested Oliver Ditson in publishing Tenting, and shared the royalties with the composer. The song was an instant success.

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THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM: Words and music by George Frederick Root, 1863

The inspiration for this celebrated ballad came from President Lincoln’s May 3, 1861 appeal for 40 more Army regiments and additional Navy seamen. “Immediately,” Root recalled, “a song started in my mind, words and music together…, I thought it out that afternoon and wrote it the next morning.” Battle Cry was introduced by the Lombard Brothers at a war rally in Chicago and shortly thereafter offered by the Hutchinson Family at a war rally in New York’s Union Square. It proved to be a powerful factor in maintaining the morale of the Union Army. Wrote one soldier, “The tune put as much spirit and cheer into the army as a splendid victory.”

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THE VACANT CHAIR (WE SHALL MEET, BUT WE SHALL MISS HIM): Words by Henry S. Washburne; music by George Frederick Root

This highly sentimental ballad refers to the death of Lt. John William Grout of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, who was killed in 1861 at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, Virginia.

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THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS: J.K., 1858

The composer of this successful minstrel song is only identified as “J.K.” Firth, Pond & Co. of New York published the sheet music in 1858 and during the War Between the States the song gained widespread popularity with Southern troops. It was the favorite marching song of General John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia. In 1864 General Hood was promoted to command the Army of Tennessee. After the disastrous battles of Franklin and Nashville, remnants of Hood’s Army limped back to Georgia and to their former commander General “Uncle Joe” Johnston. During this march the soldiers added a verse to the song summing up their recent campaign ordeals.

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WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME: Words and music attributed to Louis Lambert, 1863

There is good reason to believe that this song was written by Patrick Gilmore when he served as band master for the Union Army. Gilmore likely adapted his martial words to an old Irish air favored by soldiers in both camps during the war.

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