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"John Brown’s Body"
[Battle Hymn of the Republic]. American
Songs of Revolutionary Times and the Civil War
Era. 12 180. LaserLight, 1993. CD 414
QuickTime MP3
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In September 1859, on the eve of the Civil War,
Daniel Decatur Emmett was composing "walkarounds"-the grand finales
of minstrel shows-for a troupe called Bryant's Minstrels. Emmett
unwittingly created a Southern anthem when he penned "I Wish I Was
in Dixie's Land." Although the song started out popular with both
Northern and Southern troops, by the second year of the Civil War
the Southern cause had appropriated "Dixie" and it became the unofficial
anthem of the Confederacy, much to the dismay of Emmett, who came
from a family of active abolitionists.
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Autograph manuscript of "Dixie's Land." In book of "walk-rounds," composed by Daniel Decatur Emmett, 1859-1868.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett
Library of American Literature.
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"Dixie" stretched across the war years, accompanying Jefferson
Davis' first inauguration and the siege of Fort Sumter and reappearing
after the Confederate surrender, when Abraham Lincoln, shortly before
his assassination, requested it as one of his favorites.
Because of its Confederate connections, "Dixie" has declined in
popularity, and public performances are rare today. Chief Justice
William Rehnquist was criticized for including it in a sing-along
during a 1999 judicial conference, and the Citadel in Charleston,
South Carolina, bowing to protests by an African-American student
organization, agreed to play the song only at "historically appropriate
events."
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Autograph copy, signed, of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe. February 1904.
From the Clifton Waller Barrett
Library of American Literature.
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Photograph of Julia Ward Howe. Boston, [1900].
Gift of Mrs. William A. Stuart.
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Originally a Southern camp-meeting song, "Say
Brothers, Will You Meet Us on Canaan's Happy Shore?" became
one of the most popular Union ballads when members of the 12th
Massachusetts Infantry in 1861 penned new words, renaming the
song "John Brown's Body." The John Brown who inspired
the lyrics was actually a soldier in the Infantry's second battalion,
but as the song spread through the Union ranks, it became associated
with another, more famous, John Brown-the abolitionist remembered
for his attack on Harper's Ferry.
After hearing the song on a visit to the Army
of the Potomac in 1861, Julia Ward Howe transformed the lyrics
once again, writing stirring patriotic verse. "The Battle
Hymn of the Republic" made its first published appearance
in the February 1862 Atlantic, earning Howe a payment of five
dollars.
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[Hays, William Shakespeare]. The Drummer Boy of Shiloh. Arranged by E. Clarke Ilsley. Augusta, GA: Blackmar, [1863].
Gift of Mrs. Jean R. Pitzer.
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"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" immortalizes drummer boy Jesse Nelson, a "stripling youth" who was shot down at the battle in 1862 after he had tossed aside his drum to join the fight.
Another drummer boy won fame on that same battlefield. Johnny Clem,
who had run away from home at the age of nine to join the 22nd Michigan
Infantry, earned the nickname "Johnny Shiloh," when his drum was
reputedly smashed by cannon fire during the bloody two-day battle.
Unlike Jesse, Johnny Shiloh survived the war.
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John Brown, and "The Union Right or Wrong" Songster. San Francisco: Appleton, 1863.
Purchased with the William O'Neal Fund.
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The Rebel Songster, Containing a Choice Collection of Sentimental, Patriotic and Comic Songs. Richmond: Ayres & Wade, 1864.
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| Homer, Winslow. "The Songs of War." Facsimile of illustration. Harper's Weekly 23 November 1861: 744-745. |
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