Civil War Bands and Their Music

Band of 10th Veteran Reserve Corps, Washington, D.C., April, 1865

During and prior to the Civil War, musical training for band musicians occurred at the "School of Practice for U.S.A. Field Musicians" at Governor's Island, New York. The earliest reference about the school is found in the book "Ten Years in the Ranks, U.S. Army" written by a young soldier, Augustus Meyers, age 12 . He wrote about his experiences at the school.

The living quarters were sparse, consisting of double bunk beds with insufficient space for comfort or convenience. The beds were large sacks stuffed with straw. The meals consisted of boiled salt pork and beef, rice soup, bread, potatoes, bean soup, and coffee.

The daily duties began with "reveille" and the fife and drums performing at the official entrance to Governor's Island. At 0800, the guard mount ceremony commenced followed by a period on uniform and equipment maintenance. School started at 0900 until 1100 followed by musical training from 1100 to 1200 and then 1400 to 1600. The young drummers and fifers also performed at retreat. This schedule occurred every day except Saturday, when all instruction ended at 1200. In addition to board, lodging and musical training, the boys received $7.00 a month.

Band of 107th U.S. Colored Infantry, Arlington, Va. At Fort Corcoran. Nov. 1865

The School of Practice studied from "The Drummers and Fife Guide" by George G. Bruce. A board of musicians assembled by the War Department adopted this book as the official text for the school. The manual was used until the end of the Civil War.

Seven years later in 1869, a board of appointed officers investigated the system of training field musicians. The board approved a method book called "Strube's Drum and Fife Instructor" by Gardiner A. Strube.

Band, Washington, D.C. Before officers' quarters at Harewood Hospital. April, 1864

Five weeks after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter. The 1st Regiment of Artillery Band was present during the bombardment and surrender. This band was also known as Chandler's Band of Portland, Maine a civilian band volunteering its' service to the regiment.

The first band to suffer casualties during the Civil War was the 6th Massachusetts Regiment Band. On April 19, 1861, the band arrived by train in Baltimore, MD. As the band left the station a mob marching through the street attacked the band. The band fled, abandoning all equipment, as local Union sympathizers took bandmembers into their houses. The band suffered 4 deaths and 30 injured personnel.

As the war began, the military was as divided as the country. Many of the Army's finest officers resigned their commissions, returned home, and joined the Confederacy. Enlisted personnel from the southern states deserted the Union Army to fight for the South.

Band, Washington, D.C. Before quarters at Camp Stoneman. March, 1865

Faced with severe personnel shortages, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve three-month enlistments. Three weeks later, he realized that the shortages would continue and called for 40,000 three-year enlistees and 40 additional regiments to be recruited, organized, and equipped by the states.

The Federal government allowed the states to establish their own recruiting and organizational policies. Many volunteer regiments recruited bands. Civilian bands with such famous conductors as Patrick Gilmore (whose band served with the Massachusetts 24th Volunteer Regiment) volunteered their services to Union regiments. Band recruiting was so successful that, by the end of 1861, the Union Army had 618 bands and more than 28,000 musicians.

On July 22, 1861, Congress passed "An Act to Authorize the Employment of Volunteers to aid in Enforcing Laws and Protecting Public Property." Section 2 authorized each Regular Army regiment of infantry two principal musicians per company and 24 musicians for a band. Each cavalry and artillery regiment was authorized two musicians per company or battery. Each Artillery Band was permitted 24 musicians and each Cavalry Band was permitted 16 musicians. The Army was following the same practice as Weiprecht in Germany with distinct bands for each branch.

Band, U.S. Army, standing on steps. Headquarters of Gen. T.W. Sherman, Beaufort, S.C. Between 1861 and 1865.

In response to a Congressional inquiry, the Paymaster General of the Army reported the following pay scales for musicians:

First-Class $ 34.00 per month
Second-Class $ 20.00 per month
Third-Class $ 17.00 per month
Drum Major $105.50 per month

The federal government assumed the cost of volunteer regiments during the Civil War. With the increase of the number of regiments, some members of Congress became cost conscious. The cost of maintaining bands for all regiments was a burden Congressmen did not want to bear. On January 31, 1862, Congress asked the Secretary of War, Simon Camero, to evaluate the cost of each band and could bands be dispensed without injury to the public service.

The Secretary of War reported the average cost of maintaining an artillery or cavalry band was $9,161.30 and the cost of maintaining the larger infantry band was $13,139.40. It was also reported 26 of 30 Regular Army regiments and 213 of 465 volunteer regiments had bands. The War Department spent $4,000,000.00 on bands with 618 bands in service, a ratio of one musician to every 41 soldiers. Congress concluded bands were too expensive and could be disposed without injury to the service. During the inquiry, 50 Union bands staged a Sunday concert at the White House. This concert undoubtedly added fuel to the debate about the cost of regimental Bands.

Band (unknown) seated behind their instruments. Between 1861 and 1865

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed Public Law 165. Public Law 165 abolished regimental bands in the volunteer army and provided for the mustering out of all musicians within 30 days of passage. Public law only applied to bands in the volunteer service and not to bands in the Regular Army. Congress replaced the regimental bands with brigade bands (one band for every four regiments). Provisions were made allowing musicians in regimental bands to transfer to the brigade bands. The pay of the bandleader was reduced from $105.50 a month to $45.00 a month with the rank privileges of a quartermaster sergeant. Congress also reduced the authorized number of musicians in each band from 24 to 16. The Act reduced the number of bands to approximately 60 and the number of musicians to about 2500.

Militia units still remained under state control and were not affected by Congressional actions. Militia bands of 35 to 50 musicians were the rule, and the number of bands increased sharply as more militia units entered the war. The militia bands were far superior to the Federal bands. The majority of militia bands comprised of highly trained musicians augmented with some lesser trained performers to fill out the sound of the band.

Although Congress established no standard band instrumentation, most bands used all brass. Brass instruments withstood the rigors of the outdoors. Only the largest bands used woodwinds to complement the brasses.

Band of 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, in front of Petersburg, Va., August, 1864.
Group portrait of 14 men in Zouave uniforms; posed with musical instruments.

During the war, the duties of Union bands varied. They performed concerts, parades, reviews, and guard mount ceremonies for encamped troops. They also drummed soldiers out of the Army and performed for funerals and executions. The bands played for troops marching into battle, actually performing concerts in forward positions during the fighting. The martial and patriotic music the bands performed frightened the enemy and rallied soldiers to victory. Bands were stationed at major military hospitals lifting the morale of suffering soldiers. Bandsman day's were busy. Buglers sounded calls throughout the day. The musicians sounded the call for guard mounting at 0800 each day. Some regiments held dress parades twice a day, but most staged these events in conjunction with retreat ceremonies when regimental or brigade bands provided the music.

Band of 9th Veteran Reserve Corps,Washington, D.C. In shakoes and frogged jackets, at Washington Circle.

Performing under fire became commonplace for bands under the command of General Philip H. Sheridan. Sheridan loved music and took a personal interest in his bands. This was shown in the equipment, mounts, and uniforms he accorded his bandsmen. To pay for these privileges, his bands performed at the front during battle playing the liveliest airs in their repertory.

At Dinwiddie Court House, Sheridan massed all his musicians on the firing line with the order to "play the gayest tunes in their books .... Play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then." General Sheridan paid tribute to Army bands when he remarked, "Music has done its share, and more than its share, in winning this war."

Band of the 8th New York State Militia, Arlington, Va., June, 1861

On another occasion, General Horace Porter turned the corner of the Brooks cross-road and the Five Forks road and "encountered one of Sheridan's bands, under heavy fire, playing "Nellie Bly" as cheerily as if it were furnishing music for a country picnic."

Another commander who took his bands into combat was General George Armstrong Custer. The band spearheaded his famous cavalry charge at Columbia Furnace. Years later, when he organized the Seventh Cavalry for the Indian Wars, Custer insisted on a mounted band. This band led the charge at the Battle of Washita in 1868.

Between battles, Union and Confederate troops showed little animosity toward one another. Union soldiers often traded coffee for southern-grown tobacco. From behind earthworks, bands often played concerts, including the other side's favorite songs. On occasion, Confederate and Union bands would join in concerts when camped close together. A Union band gave a concert for the troops stationed at Fredericksburg, VA. After a playing a few favorite selections of the troops, a voice called from the Confederate positions across the river, "Now give us some of ours." The band played "Dixie," a favorite of both sides, "My Maryland" and "Bonnie Blue Flag."

Drum Corps of 10th Veteran Reserve Corps, Washington, D.C. At leisure. June, 1865

The non-musical duties of bandsmen were primarily medical. Before battles, bandsmen gathered wood for splints and helped set up field hospitals. During and after the fighting, they carried the wounded to hospitals, helped surgeons perform amputations, and discarded limbs.

In addition to the bands of the Regular Army and the volunteer militias, there were field musicians. Field musicians, comprising of drummers and buglers, sounded camp calls and battlefield signals. They were not part of the band, and few could read music. Field musicians learned by rote the calls sounded at specific times in camp or upon command in battle.

Drum corps, 93d New York Infantry, Bealeton, Va.. Photograph from the main eastern theater of war,
Meade in Virginia, August-November, 1863. Notice that someone has made all of the drummers (first row) laugh.

Army regulations of 1863 allowed the superintendent of recruiting depots to enlist, as field musicians, boys of twelve years of age and upward who had a natural talent for music. After enlisting, field musicians of the Regular Army could be sent to the School of Practice on Governor's Island, New York. They were billeted opposite from Brooklyn, at the Old South Battery.

Drum corps, 8th New York State Militia, Arlington, Va., June, 1861

Army bandsmen's pay was substantially higher during the Civil War than previous years. The chief musician received $45.00 per month, one-fourth of the bandsmen received $35.00, another fourth received $20.00, and the remaining half received $17.00. The drum major also received $17.00. Fifers, drummers, and buglers were paid $12.00 per month. Musicians were by no means overpaid when their high casualty rate is taken into account. A reference to the record of the 125th Ohio Regimental Band (known as the Tiger Band) shows that only 10 of the original 36 members of this organization could still be accounted for at the end of the war in 1865.

The post band, Fort Monroe, Va.

The bands were well thought of by the soldiers. A soldier of the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment wrote in 1862, "I don't know what we should have done without our band. It is acknowledged by everyone to be the best in the division. Every night about sundown Gilmore gives us a splendid concert, playing selections from the operas and some very pretty marches, quicksteps, waltzes and the like."

United States Naval Academy Band, c 1869. Enlisted US Navy Musicians, not Midshipmen.
Photo taken adjacent to the Severn River in Annapolis, MD, which connects into the Chesapeake Bay.
Notice the ships in the background.
Formed in 1853, the USNA Band is currently the oldest and continuous military band in the United States,
and celebrated its 150th year in 2003.
Ron McGranahan, creator and webmaster of this website, was a proud member of this band (1972-1980).

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RECORDING

"Indiana Polka" (Band), by Edmund Jaeger; arranged by J. Schatzman.
From Peter's Sax-Horn Journal (Cincinnati: W.C. Peters & Sons [1859]).
The piece was also published in 1856 by the same firm in a piano arrangement.

Click here to hear the above recording (Real Player required)

This is the first of three selections for band presented on this recording that were intended not as concert showpieces but rather as functional music for amateur bands of as few as six players.
This piece was for dancing.

The writing is relatively simple; the tune is always in the E-flat of B-flat cornets, with the instruments in the middle register filling in the harmony with peck-notes over a conspicuously plain bass line. Contrast is provided between the opening repeated first strain and the middle section by assigning the melody to the E-flat cornets in the former, and the B-flat cornets in the latter.

The percussion parts in these amateur band arrangements seem generally to have been written with the assumption that the drums were played by the feeblest musicians. Good bands, however, had good drummers, and good drummers would quite probably have embellished their parts if they were too dull. Such is the case here. Moreover, the piccolo part has been added.

The popularity of these amateur brass band pieces is demonstrated by the fact that the same arrangements were still being offered for sale in the 1870s.

(See Bibliography below)

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Photographs: Library of Congress.
Bibliography: Cunningham, James MUCM, US Navy. US Naval Academy Band Website, History of the USNA Band. Music Division, Library of Congress; White, William Carpenter. A History of Military Music in America, New York: Exposition Press (1944); US Army Band website, A History of Army Bands, Civil War.