Music passed the time it entertained and comforted it brought back memories of home and family it strengthened the bonds between comrades and helped to forge new ones. Thus, when soldiers North and South marched off to war, they took with them a love of song that transcended the political and philosophical divide between them. Sales of sheet music were immensely profitable for music publishing houses on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Band concerts were popular forms of entertainment and pianos graced the parlors of many homes. In the years preceding the conflict, he points out, singing schools and musical institutes operated in many parts of the country. Bernard calls the War Between the States a musical war. In his 1966 classic Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War, Kenneth A. The New York Herald agreed with Lee when, in 1862, a reporter wrote, 'All history proves that music is as indispensable to warfare as money and money has been called the sinews of war. Lee, who once remarked that without music, there would have been no army. These lines, written by Virginia poet John Reuben Thompson (1823-1873) in ' Music in Camp', echo the sentiments of no less an authority than Confederate General Robert E.

The 93rd New York Infantry drum corps in Bealeton, Virginia, August 1863 (Library of Congress)

Saved Land Browse Interactive Map View active campaignsĪnd fair the form of music shines, That bright, celestial creature, Who still, 'mid war's embattled lines, Gave this one touch of Nature.

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Mount and blade music