Video
Music and Storytelling in the Civil War
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
Hello ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to another virtual program from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. This program is being presented as part of our 157th battle anniversary that happened on June 27, 1864. My name is ranger Jake Boling and I'm coming to you from our visitor center. I'm on the, I'm just at the end of the back patio standing in our Memorial Field, it is a wonderful overcast cool summer day, which is not very common in Georgia in June. I'm standing right next to, to my right here is one of my favorite Oak trees and I'm in this beautiful, one of my favorite locations to talk about one of my favorite subjects, and that is music. So music is a very dense topic I mean, but it one of the things that I love about it is that it is one of the most basic elemental things that we can all come together on. We can almost, almost everyone likes music. Albeit, there are millions of different types but that is one of the things that we as humans can, can usually come together on. And that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today. As I mentioned, the subject of music is very dense, especially during the Civil War. So I wanted to really focus on the human side of it and what it meant to different people. And I'll kind of just jump right in. Music during in the 19th century meant, was a huge rallying cry and it meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. One of the more common themes throughout the American Civil War and when it comes to music was what it did among populations of freed and enslaved peoples. Music is a a way to join folks together, a form of resistance, a form of communication, form of jubilations and spiritualness. Frederick Douglass writes, and sums it up very well the music that he grew up listening was "a testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains." Okay, very powerful words and that hints at the power and the beauty of music. Okay, now for the soldiers. For in the life of the military the average soldier probably heard some type of music every day. And music in the military has a long history going back hundreds of years as being fairly utilitarian. The soldiers would, it was used kind of as the alarm clock of the military. It told them when to wake up, told them when when to go to to chow hall, it communicated orders on the battlefield where a man's voice may get lost. Bugle calls could signal and initiate tactics. Drum beats could help organize and keep the men in rhythm and cadence. Okay, but there is so much more to it and the, what/how music was used as a storytelling method and used kind of in the morale of the military is fascinating to me and I hope that maybe you'll find an interest too. I will post along with this some resources that you can look more into and of course, you can always get in touch with us directly through social media or by coming into the park to talk more about these subjects. So music on both sides, both the Union and Confederacy, as I mentioned, there was the utilitarian aspect of military music, but music as a morale booster has something to, for the men to do to pass the time, to think about home, to, you know, communicate and really, you know, kind of cement some legends in some cases. One of my favorite examples is the famous Civil War era song 'Hold the Fort', which was developed out of the Confederate attempt in October of '64 to cut the cut the Union off at Alatoona Pass. The Union is briefly outnumbered by the Confederate soldiers and they frantically signal back, signal with the signal flags, back to Kennesaw Mountain to ask for reinforcements, and Sherman allegedly, as the legend goes, tells them, tells the brave men there to 'hold the fort', he'll be sending help soon. And it's such a powerful song And it was used, once it was developed, it was used as kind of a rallying cry and kind of to remember that, that time period. Okay, we talk about that, that rallying cry and what the emotional use of music was. It was very common and, and as I mentioned the unifying-ness of music, there are many instances of both Union and Confederate soldiers coming together during the Civil War. Coming together to trade. Coming together during battlefield truces. A very notable truce that you'll hear from here about in other programs of ours that happened at Cheatham Hill, a truce to bury the dead where the men would talk as Americans. Okay, music was one of the key elements in that part of the story and throughout the war are numerous examples of both sides coming together through music. Whenever the two sides would have a maybe a shorter geographic separation, if they were both stationed along a river, for example. The Union band may pick up to pass the time and may start playing some northern favorites. And the southern guys would holler over to request songs and and vice versa. In many cases, they would oblige each other. Another, there are other examples of the army bands battling with each other. To play, the southern side might play one of their favorite songs 'Lorena' and across the river, the Union side, hearing that, would attempt to play it even better. And the sides would go back and forth playing versions of each other's songs. The southern side may play a version of 'Yankee Doodle' to kind of jokingly tease the other side. Whereas the Union side might play a version of 'Dixie' just to mess with the southern boys. So it it is, there are numerous examples of music being used in those kind of things, in those examples, in those instances to that kind of bring the guys together.
Now part of this program is going to be actually a performance done by myself and volunteer Lianne Christman. You'll see that after this portion of the program, and we are going to be performing the song 'Lorena'. And the reason we picked 'Lorena', we had to go through a lot of different songs and, number one, it was the one that we could figure out the chords for. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm not a virtuoso so you get what you get. I hope you enjoy it it was a it was a lot of fun for us to play. But seriously, one of the reasons we picked 'Lorena' was because, in our research, it was a song that seemed to come up more and more as a song that was, it was in its essence it's kind of a, a ballad. It's kind of a love song. And I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'm feeling blue, listening to sad music is just is just the right medicine. And it's kind of a it's kind of a weird thing but I think some of us have been there. You listen to sad music, when you're not feeling great, and it kind of helps you get through that. And this was absolutely true of music. And it seems again through our research 'Lorena' was was a favorite of both sides and that kind of, kind of evoked that same emotion. It's a love ballad that talks about the man's love of 'Lorena' and some of the lyrics, here, one of my favorites is towards the end: 'It matters it matters little now Lorena, the past is in the eternal past. Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena, life's tied is ebbing out so fast". And you can imagine the emotion that it would evoke for these men, many far away from home for months and years at a time who have their own version of 'Lorena' back home. And hearing this song would make them think of home, make them think of, conjure up these visions. Maybe a tear streaming from the eye and and all that. Much more willing to get back home and to fight and to live another day to see their 'Lorena'. And again that's one of the reasons we picked what we did. So that, this was a brief snippet and an introspective into a very dense topic, I hope you enjoyed it.
Again, if you'd like more information I'm going to post some of my sources in the comments of this video and hopefully you can pick up pick some of that and get a little more insight into why we pick the programs we do and where we get the information that we have. I hope you enjoy it, please stay tuned in just a second for the musical performance of 'Lorena' by myself and volunteer Lianne Christman. I hope you guys enjoyed this program, as always, thank you for attending and we will see you at the mountain. Bye!
[audio description] This is a performance of the song 'Lorena' words and music originally written by Henry D Webster and Joseph P Webster. Jake Boling and Lianne Christman are the musical performers in this rendition and sit against a white brick backdrop surrounded by plants in an outdoor setting. We hope that you enjoy. Alright, one two, three four, [♪]
[♪] Oh the years creep slowly by, Lorena [♪] The snow is on the grass again [♪] The sun's low down the sky, Lorena [♪] The frost gleams where the flowers have been [♪] But the heart throbs on as warmly now [♪] As when the summer days were nigh [♪] Oh the sun can never dip so low [♪] Or down affections cloudless sky [♪] [banjo solo] [♪] [♪] [guitar solo] [♪] [♪] Well it matters little now, Lorena
[♪] The past is in the eternal past [♪] Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena [♪] Life's tide is ebbing out so fast
(Jake) I liked it! (Lianne) We did it! (Lianne) That was it (Jake) That was it!
Description
[Sun 11:00 am ET] Music can evoke a myriad of emotion. From being a force that connects across boundaries, to an avatar of resistance. In this short program, Ranger Jake Boling discusses the human connection with music during the Civil War, and follows up with a musical performance! *Audio description is embedded in this video.*
Duration
11 minutes, 47 seconds
Credit
NPS/ J. Boiling
Date Created
06/27/2021
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