St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-06-01

Il IANlOI.
The concerts of war songs which
have been given with such great sue
cess in Boston and other places will
awaken, the Boston Traveller thinks,
IL new interest in the songs of the re-
bellion, many of which have been for
gotten, while others have scarcely ever
been heard of by those of the rising
generation. The war proved IL very
fruitful theme for the pOetaster, and
many tiedgling bard delivered him
self of more or less of patriotic jingle
which it would be quite unbecOming to
rate under the name of poetry. Many
war songs-and some of them are very
good, too-were written for special
purposes: to chronicle some particular
event, or in praise of some individual
regiment and on this account they
never became popular. But such songs
AS "The Battle Cry of FreedOm,"
Kingdom Coming" Marching
Through Georgia." "When johnny
Comes Marching Home, ""John Browns
Body etc, achieved an universally
that made them known from one end
of the land to the other. The song of
the soldier never Sounds so well as
when sung on the field of battle. There
it reaches to a height of sublimity at
tainable nowhere else and perhaps no
| finer volume of sound could be heard
than CrOmwell's roundheads chanting
the ''Old Hundredth" after the battle
of MarstOn Moor, IA legion of French
men singing "The Marseillaise," or one
of our own army corps pouring forth in
unisOn "JOhn Browns Body"
1t is safe to say, that nOtwithstand-
ing the great number of songs which
the war of the rebellion was the means
of bringing out, not one tirst-class Tyr
ic, not one single poem fit to he ranked
with Thomas Campbelfs immortal "G e
Mariners of England" was the result.
Perhaps Mrs. HOwe's "Battle Hymn OF
the Republic" is the most sublime OF
all the songs that were written during
the rebellion, but this falls far short OF
Campbell's song. By the way, who is
responsible for the air "GlOry, Hallelu-
iah ?" Has it father, or did it grow
like Topseyq The air is original with
the words, "John Browns body lies
mouldering in the DUST" but where il
sprung from, who can tell. 1t followed
hard upon another john Brown ditty
which we heard IL crowd of boys ant
half-grOwn men singing while parad-
ing through the streets one night, af-
ter the close of meeting which wa:
held in Faneuil hall to lament over the
execution of John Brown. That ditty
like the famous song of "The Blacl
Snake" consisted of one hundred vers
es, all alike, and this was its burden
Tell John Andrew,
| Tell John ndrew,
Tell John Andrew
| John Browns dead.
From this sprung the now famou
song which is perhaps the most pOpu
lar of all the army songs, and of tn
many versions that have been made
the best is from the pen of DR.. w. j
WetmOre
See they come, see they come, from the mountai
I A noble band Of patriots the Union to maintain.
e And they will return, till the country stanC
. United, firm and free
Glory Halleluiahl etc.
Henry Clay Work, "A western bare
wrote and composed the music of sew
eral of the best songs, among whic
may be named Marching Throug
Georgia." and that very capital an
favorite song with the soldiers, 'King
dom Coming" which has an additions
y charm from being i'll the negro dialect
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa
Wild de muffstash on his face.
" Go long de road some time dis mOrnin'
Like his gOin' to leave de place
He seen de smoke way up de ribber
Where de Lincum gunboats lay;
He took his hat and left berry sudden,
And l spOse he's ruined away
De massa run, ha, bal
DE darkey stay no, hol
1t must be now de Kingdom cOmil
An de var OBJ jubilO.
The air which accompanies the,
words is very inspiriting one, and
makes capital quickstep. We call
mind an incident in connection wit
it. The army of the Potomac was {
its march to intercept Lee, in his marc
through Pennsylvania. The Fif
Y corps, then commanded by Mead
, passed through the town of Culpeppe
or Culpepper Courthouse, as it w
called. We were riding with Stror
Vincent, afterwards killed at Getty
burg, who then commanded the thi
brigade of the fist division. When '
- came to the outskirts of the town
was place of some eight hundred i
habitants-Nincent ordered all ii
drums and flies in the brigade to
massed, and, with those in the fro
and colors flying, we went through, t
drums beating and the flies tooth
"Kingdom Coming" and ''the boy
lending a ready chorus. We had .
v. half way through the principal street
indeed, there was but one street-wh
gh suddenly the door of a dilapidat
tn dwelling was thrown open, and the
s'' appeared solitary female, with t
ng most vinegarish visage we ever behe
on mortal. She looked at the troO
for a moment, and then, quiyering wi
20 rage and shaking her fingers, 5