The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-18
AN OLD WAR SONG.
ORIGIN or THE SONG OF "JoHN
BROWNS BoDY.-
IL I'm a Joke and it Grew Intn a
National War Song.
BY JAMES S. BEALE,
Late Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry.

1ulGllIgs
copyrighted, 1894, by S. S. Mcclure,
Limited.]
About forty years ago the Sumter Hose
company of Charleston, S. c., commits
Eioned a Philadelphia musician to write a
"chantz" for their use on a proposed ex-
cursion. They received a song, the open
ing words Of which were:
Say, bumnerS, will you meet uS?,,
Acting on John Wesley'S maxim, Al
ways steal a good tune from the devil
when you find him with one" the Meth
modification OF the words, the new YER
sion being:
meeting and revival hymn, and by 1861 it
was quite generally known.
The firing on Sumter and consequent
rally to arms caused Fort Warren, Boston
harbor, TO be occupied by the Second pat
talon of Massachusetts infantry, t GoIn-
monty known as the Tigers. Ihey
found the fort in a very UNFINISHED state
work on it having been stopped When
Jefferson Davis was secretary Oh VII Va,
and as natural result tatlgue par5lles
were very numerous. After the day S
vork was over a faVorite amusement was
singing, for there were some excellent
voices in the battalion, notably one quar-
Hette. Charles E. b. Edgerly, James Jen-
kns Newton J. Purnette, John Brown;
The last-a Scotchman- was the SUD
iect of many jokes, owing to the Slmllarl-
~ of his name to that of the famous Os9-
watomie Brown, then recently executed
The Scot rather resented these quidlt1es,
and this of course. MADE them more con-
slant. The story goes that one evening
when two of this quartette We're return-
ing TO the fort-John Brown and the 9th
er being seated near the Saily-port-tne
query was shouted: whats the news!
Promptly came the retort: why " Joh nm
Browns dead" Someone ADDED, Ael ne
still goes marching round.
Unlike a rolling stone, these ideas gath
cred as the. changes We're sung on th EN-
Ix-, Ia, ly he communicating tune hau
undergone revision, for the myers were
ssJohn Browns body lies a-mouldering in
But his soul goes marching on
ONCE BEGUN, THE SONG GREW.
on May 5, 1861, the Tigers left Fort
Warren, but, as on May 7th the TWelttn
Massachusetts volunteers CWebster reg1-
rneut) had reached the fort, many of the
Tigers enlisted in this regiment, Jen-
kins and Brown joining Company A, fnr-
nette and Edgerly Joining Company Il
all four being sergeants. ...,.
OF course, they carried their song with
them, and as the regimental dress,parades
were in ''heavy-marchinS order KNAPP
sacks and all accoutrements-It became
The fashion after dress parade for the
regiment to march around me paraue-
.'John Browns knapsack's strapped upon
his back,
And we go marching on"
s-haplafns in those days styled the vol
unteers .'The army of the Lord, so the
He's He gone gone to be a soldier in the army of
The he regiment had the. sobriquet Of
H'Websters Cattle" This Is referred 10
On the fourth , verse: not lambs will
meet him TSerg't Brownl on the way"
(which they used to do every evening
while making the march around the par
The unfinished state in which Fort
Warren had been found and the great
amount of labor thereby entalled nat
trally caused some vindictiveness 10
ward the author thereof, who, as presi-
dent of the insurgent states, was then
an object of universal attention so IN
the fifth verse the ''Websters" proposed
''Hang Jeff Davis to the bough of a
tree
which eventually became ga sour apple
tree
HOW THE SCORE WAS WRITTEN.
The air was whistled by the bandmas-
Ter, William ]. MARYLAND, the score writ
zen by Samuel c. Perkins, a member OF
the band, and very soon the tune was
Flayed on dress parade as acconpanl-
3nenf TO the 1.1OO voices of the regiment
Copies of the score were given to Oil
more and the Gerdnania- band, then Dit
son published it, and SO the John Brown
song became common property. .
The webster Regiment first sang Ii
in Boston on July is, 1861. when It's colors
were presented by Hon. Edward Everett
next day it electrified New York City
with the weird chorus; Baltimore heard
it on July 26, and on March !, looz. al
Charleston, Va, on the spot where Os3,
-watomie was hanged the "Websters
sang: =.
His soul goes marching on"
THE ".WEBSTERs CEASED TO SING
IT.
1,ooir,o,+ afte1, regiment adopted the
gong and so it ceased to be the specia
n1-o5erfv of the "NN ebsterS" who gradu'
ally disused it. Perhaps the fate o.
Sergeant Brown. VINO o1. Tas June g 1853
MAJ have had a lettering lnIlu zen 9,
some think the death OF Coroner on " 1e S9
Sfer. O5illed at Bull Run, August oV'looz
mad much to do with IL; puI M I -
1be cause. the fact remains that the solls
Was. never more used by the WeosteI .S,v
In July 1864, as it made us e., ret ,1Ia y
march through iI- I.srssented BY
a;hree-an effort was made by It's coIo.Ie
TO revive the old chorus. II was ptoI III -
~ frowned down, ana slleIltyi ~,
soldierly tread, the WEBSTER 6NeS
passed into history: - .,,o 1ol,
Tlhe question of the origin OIL lhe ; Jol.i
17r,ortn song was discussed at regimen u
saI reunion some years ago. 4Mo y
- ouartette the DandmaSter ana soin'
~ tha band were present, and the sldle
rnents then made are emoodled III LIE
paper. -,,.s.,,,e If +1,e orieina
IF both words and music, but none e 1
I have seen give any reasonable e sAa4ol
sation of the rather singular pnrdSIeoIo r.
,1f +be song Purnette ana EoSeTly ue
eiarn they took the time from tne calhp
meeting hymn, and that II IS knomn :
have been borrowed from the Ire 9IldL1
chorus. Sure 1t IS thdt tIt te og1i a5ontee
~ 51l who heard il, and that what W a
Originally a joke became a literal prom