Civil War Era Music. This section includes: military field music – 18 drum calls and bugle calls/commands;  military brass bands and their music;  civilian music for  parlors, hearth & home, ballroom dancing, concerts and patriotic airs;  soldiers campfire music & for religious services;  includes 53 songs, 34 of which feature the 19th century sheet music covers for that piece.

  

19th Century Sheet Music Cover for Harry McCarthy’s Bonnie Blue Flag

 

         

19th Century Sheet Music Cover for George F. Root’s Battle Cry of Freedom  

Credit for both: Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD  

        “In both military and civilian life, music entertained both passively and actively, challenged and inspired, expressed spiritual beliefs, enhanced the formality and grandeur of ceremonies, helped recruit soldiers and sailors, bolstered morale, regulated daily   military routine both in camp and in the field, communicated orders on the field of battle, and provided variety and pleasure to the soldiers around their evening campfires.  During the course of the war, about 9,000 new songs were published in the North, and about 750 were printed in the south.”