Show Ari OLD WAR SONG I PRIGIX OPi THE SONG OP JOHN 1Itos 110DY4 Swine Massachusetts Soldiers Bc au it In aUolic v nUll it Grew Intn a t National war Sons 2 C BY JAMES S BEALE Juata IFwclfth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Copyrighted 1S91 by S S McClure Limited About forty years ago the Sumter Hose company of Charleston S C commissioned commis-sioned a Philadelphia musician to write a chantz for their use on a proposed excursion ex-cursion They received a song the opening open-ing words of which were Say bummers will you meet us Acting on John Wesleys maxim Always Al-ways steal a good tune from the devil when you finO him with one the Methodists Meth-odists appropriated the tune and with modification of the words the new version ver-sion being Say bummers will you meet us Th a became very popular as a camp meeting and revival hymn and by 1861 it waj quite generally known Te firing on Sumter and consequent rally to arms caused Fort Warren Boston harbor to be occupied by the Second battalion bat-talion of Massachusetts infantry com jnonly known as the Tigers They found the fort in a very unfinisted state work on it having been stopped when Jefferson Davis was secretary of war and as a natural result fatigue parties were very numerous After the days T ork was over a favorite amusement was singing for there were some excellent voices in the battalion notably one quar itptte Charles E B Edgerlv James Jenkins Jen-kins 3STewton J Purnette John Brown The lasta Scotchman was the subject sub-ject of many jokes owing to the similarity similari-ty of his name to that of the famous Osa watomie Brown then recently executed The Scot rather resented these quiaitics and this of course made them more constant con-stant The stoy goes that one evening when two of this quartette were returning return-Ing to the fortJohn Brown and the other oth-er being seated near the sallyportthe query was shouted Whats the ness Promptly came the retort Why John Browns dead Someone added Yet he still goes marching round fnlike a rolling stone these ideas path tered as the changes were sung on them anrl by dark the campmeeting tune had undergone revision for the Tigers were chanting John Browns body lies amoulderins in the grave But his soul goes marching on ONCE BEGUN THE SOXG GREW On May 5 3SG1 the Tigers left Fnrt Warren but as on May 7th the Twelfth Massachusetts volunteers < Webster regi rrrnt had reached the fort many of the Tigers enlisted in this regiment Jenkins Jen-Kins and Brown joining Company A Pur nette and Edgerly joining Company Ball B-all four being sergeants Of course they Carried their song with them and as the regimental dressparades orderknap were In heavymarching sacks and all accoutrementsit became the fashion after dress parade for the regiment to march around the parade round singing the second verse John Browns knapsacks strapped upon his back And we go marching on Chaplains in those days styled the volunteers vol-unteers The army of the Lord so the third verse Hes gone to be a soldier in the army 01 the Lord The regiment had the sobriquet of Websters Cattle This is referred ton to-n the fourth verse fl J His Col Websters Upet lambs will meet him Sergt Brown on the way which they used to do every evening while making the march around the par adeground The unfinished state in which Fort Warren had been found and the great amount of labor thereby entailed naturally nat-urally aused some vindictiveness toward to-ward the author thereof who as president presi-dent of the insurgent states was then sin object of universal attention So in the fifth verse the Websters proposed to Hang Jeff Davis to the bough of a tree which eventually became a sour apple tree HOW THE SCORE WAS WRITTEN The air was whistled by the bandmaster bandmas-ter William J Martland the score written writ-ten by Samuel C Perkins a member of the band and very soon the tune was played on dress parade as accompaniment accompani-ment to the 1100 voices of the regiment Copies of the score were given to Gilmore Gil-more and the Gerjnania band then Dit Bon published it and so the John Brown song became common property The Webster Regiment first sang it in Boston on July 18 1S6L when its colors were presented by Hon Edward Everett leaving Fort Warren on July 23 on the next day it electrified New York City with the weird chorus Baltimore heard It on July 26 and on March 1 1SGJ at Charleston Ta on the spot where Osa Websters watomie was hanged the sang in John Browns body lies amouldering the grave His soul goes marching on THB WEBSTBRS CEASED TQ SING IT Regiment after regiment adopted the song and so it ceased to be the special of the Websters who gradu property the fate of Slv disused It Perhaps aliy < accidentally Brown who was Sergeant 6 lsG2 drowned at Fort Royal June Sv deterring influence had a have Some think the death of Colonel Web soMe 301852 killed at Bull Run August ster had much to do with it but whatever the cause the fact remains that the song used by the Websters more I mas never return In July 1864 as it made its through Bostonelght five men arch A being represented by 1 n all Company colonel made by its was ihrpo effort an threean to revive the old chorus It was prompt frowned down and silently but with soldierly 3v tread the Webster Regiment into history passed The question of the origin of the John was discussed at a regimen Brown song Two of ago reunion some years ial itad some She auartette the bandmaster an present and tile state itheUband were of the made are embodied in this snents then pap < r the original of PaThere many versions There are that words and music but none of both reasonable explan give any I have seen onofthe rather singular phraseology tlon > of n Purnette and Edgerly de the song oI the camp took the time from dare ltt1tln they hymn and that it is known to borrowed from the tlreman have been Brown Sure it is that the John chorus most enthusiastically adopted song was and that what was heard it who all ily literal proph orIginallY a joke became a 5 |