Something for the weekend. Kentucky Battle Song, sung by Bobby Horton who has waged a one man crusade to bring Civil War music to modern audiences.. The Civil War in border states was often literally a war of brother against brother. Some 100,000 men of the Blue Grass State fought for the Union, while 25,000-40,000 served the Confederacy. Written in 1863, lyrics and music by Charlie L. Ward, the song celebrates the Orphan Brigade and other Kentucky Confederate units who left their homes in Union controlled Kentucky to battle for the South.
I commend you to God; may God watch over you and grant you grace so that you can maintain the good cause of the Kingdom of France.
Joan of Arc
Something for the weekend. Joan of Arc, They Are Calling You. A hit song a hundred and seven years ago in the US. Music by Jack Wells and lyrics by Al Bryan and Willie Weston. Although the Maid of Orleans would not be canonized until 1920, the French had regarded her as a saint since her death. In World War I French soldiers would usually have an image of Joan of Arc on them as they went into battle in a War most of them regarded as a Crusade to save France.
Squadron Leader Adams: Well, at least the rockets won’t happen.
Air Vice Marshal Davis: Of course they’ll happen. But they won’t start tomorrow, or this month or on D-Day, and that’s important.
Squadron Leader Adams: Then what’s it all add up to? All their sacrifice?
Air Vice Marshal Davis: A successful operation.
Squadron Leader Adams: But they’re probably all dead. All 633 Squadron.
Air Vice Marshal Davis: You can’t kill a squadron.
Ending, 633 Squadron (1964)
Something for the weekend. The theme song from 633 Squadron. In my misspent youth I spent endless hours watching old war movies on TV. One of my favorites was the British flick 633 Squadron (1964) which recounted the fictional tale of a British Mosquito bomber squadron and their self sacrificial attempt to take out a well-defended Nazi V2 rocket fuel plant in occupied Norway. The film won praise for its aerial sequences, cutting edge in 1964 and George Lucas has cited the squadron’s attack on the plant as influencing the trench run sequence attack on the Death Star in Star Wars. (more…)
Something for the weekend. An American in Paris (1928). One of the deathless masterpieces completed by George Gershwin in a brief life of 38 years. If there is anything to the concept of alternate realities, I hope in one of them Gershwin lived a very long and productive life.
Something for the weekend: Livery Stable Blues. Recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band on February 26, 1917, it was released in March 1917 by Victor and became a huge hit. It was the first jazz song released on record. The band prior to the end of the year would change their name to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Something for the weekend. The Clancy Brothers singing The Wild Colonial Boy on the Ed Sullivan show. The song is based upon the exploits of bandit Jack Donahue. Born in Dublin in 1804, Donahue, an orphan as well as a pickpocket, was transported to Australia in 1825 after being convicted of intent to commit a felony. After he saw his cell in Syndey, he exclaimed, “A home for life”. Two whippings of 50 lashes could not break his rebellious spirit and he escaped into the bush with two other prisoners. There they formed a gang that became known as “The Strippers” because of their penchant of stripping wealthy men of their money, food and clothes. In 1827 he was captured and sentenced to death. Escaping yet again to the bush, he became part of a gang known as “The Wild Colonial Boys.” On September 1, 1830, his criminal career and life came to an end in a shootout with authorities. Donohue achieved earthly immortality in a play and the song “The Wild Colonial Boy“. Condemned as seditious, the song morphed his name into several variants, the most popular being Jack Duggan.
Something for the weekend. The immortal Tennessee Ernie Ford singing The Why and the Wherefore, a popular marching song for Union troops during the Civil War: (more…)
Something for the weekend. Jim Bridger (1960), one of Johnny Horton’s historically themed songs. Jim Bridger, unlike most of “Mountain Men” contemporaries, lived a very long life from 1804-1881, which is amazing considering some of his exploits. Bridger was a life long illiterate, but always had a large store of common sense and was a very shrewd character. A Zelig among “Mountain Men” he had a knack for being present for most significant events on the frontier until his retirement in the late 1860’s. Physically a big, powerful man, his amiability and good humor probably served him best in his interactions with both Indians and Whites. He was very fond of tall stories, for example talking about finding petrified birds, singing petrified songs. One of his favorite routines was to tell newcomers to the frontier about how once he was being chased by one hundred Cheyenne warriors. He would tell about how they chased him and the tricks he used to attempt to elude them, building the drama of the tale. Finally the war party surrounded him. He would then pause until his listeners would urgently ask what happened next. Poker faced he would respond, “Why they killed me!”.
Something for the weekend. The New York Volunteer sung by Bobby Horton who has waged a one man crusade to bring Civil War music to modern audiences. (more…)
Something for weekend. A favorite marching song of the Union troops in the early months of the Civil War, before the tune became attached to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. That this song was sung in the Civil War that John Brown did so much to ignite, I am sure pleased his grim spirit to no end.
Our history has its share of odd characters, but surely none odder than John Brown. An Old Testament prophet somehow marooned in Nineteenth Century America, John Brown preached the wrath of God against slave holders and considered himself the bloody sword of the Almighty. It is tempting to write off John Brown as a murderous fanatic, and he was certainly that, but he was also something more.
The American political process was simply unable to resolve the question of slavery. Each year the anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces battered at each other with no head way made. Bleeding Kansas was the result of Stephen A. Douglas’ plan to simply let the people of the territory resolve the issue. Where ballots cannot, or will not, resolve a question of the first magnitude in a democracy, ultimately bullets will. A man like Brown, totally dedicated to the anti-slavery cause, was only too willing to see violence resolve an issue that the politicians would not.
Brown attacked a great evil, American slavery, but he was also a murderer, as the five pro-slavery men he had dragged from their houses at night and hacked to death at Pottawotamie in Kansas with home made swords would surely attest. His raid on Harper’s Ferry was a crack-brained expedition that had absolutely no chance of success, and yet his raid helped bring about the huge war that would ultimately end slavery.
After his mad and futile attempt to start a slave insurrection at Harper’s Ferry in 1859, Brown was tried and hung for treason against the state of Virginia. He considered his trial and treatment quite fair and thanked the Court. Brown impressed quite a few Southerners with the courage with which he met his death, including Thomas Jackson, the future Stonewall, who observed his execution.
Brown of course lit the fuse for the Civil War. He convinced many moderate Southerners that there were forces in the North all too ready to incite, in the name of abolition, a race war in the South. The guns fired at Harper’s Ferry were actually the first shots of the Civil War.
Brown, as he stepped forward to the gallows, had a paper and pen thrust into his hand by a woman. Assuming for the last time the role of a prophet, Brown wrote out, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
Abraham Lincoln commented on Brown at his Cooper’s Union speech on February 27, 1860 and took pains to separate the Republican Party from Brown: (more…)
Donald R. McClarey
Paul Zummo
Almost Chosen People 