# Music by Genre > Old-Time, Roots, Early Country, Cajun, Tex-Mex >  Six Civil War Era Songs - Standard & Tab

## Mike Pilgrim

Here are six Civil War era songs in standard notation and 
mandolin tablature:

The Bonnie Blue Flag (F & G); The Battle Cry of Freedom (Bb & 
G); Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (C & D); When 
Johnny Comes Marching Home (Gm, Am, Em); Just Before The 
Battle, Mother (Bb & G); Tenting On The Old Campground (A & 
G).

My deepest appreciation to Benjamin Robert Tubb at Public 
Domain Music

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Chuck Holton

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## JEStanek

Michael, thanks for this especially today on the 150th Anniversary of the start of the War Between the States.  Your additions to my music folio are always enjoyed and appreciated.

Jamie

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## Denny Gies

My favorite Civil War songs are "The Rebel Soldier" and "Last Letter Home".  Supposedly, the Last Letter Home was written by a survivor of the battle of Gettysburg.  I learned it from a Sam Bush album but had to wait quite a few years before running into someone who knew a third verse that Sam did not include in his version.  The third verse is...Thorough the day I watched those Southern boys go down, and they lay like Georgia peaches, bruised and broken on the ground, through the night I wondered is it worth the pain, and I screamed for revenge and called your name.

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## MandoSquirrel

That era is one of my favorite specialties.
"Just Before The Battle, Mother" and " Tenting On The Old Campground"(I think the title is actually "Tenting Tonight") are two of my all time favorite songs.

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## nickster60

Thanks Mike 
I watch the Civil Wars series every time it is on PBS. I love the music of the era and always say to my self I need to learn some song from the Civil War.

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## Jesse Harmon

Thanks Michael, Interesting site.  I'll add these to my new collection of mandolin music.

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## allenhopkins

I do regular Civil War Songs programs (last Sunday at the George Eastman House in Rochester), and these are great standards to use.  Others well-known ones that work well:
_Goober Peas_ (published 1865 in New Orleans)
_Marching Through Georgia
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching
Lincoln and Liberty_ (tune is _Rosin the Beau_)

Some great songs collected from Frank Proffitt of of _Tom Dooley_ fame: _Going 'Cross the Mountains_ and _We Go Marching On,_ another _John Brown's Body_ variant.

_Faded Coat of Blue_ is another great song; it has a local connection here (written in Caledonia NY), and I use the original published tune from 1863, but the Carter Family's variant on the tune works as well.

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## Willie Poole

My band is into Civil War songs also, my favorite is "Have Someone Play Dixie For Me", we also have two originals that we have penned and put on a CD...Also "Loreena" is a good one, not sure if that is from the Civil War or another war....We do "Rebel Solidier"and a few others....I love the TV shows about the war and there was a whole section in The Washington Post last weekend showing some great happenings that were going on here in Maryland and Northern Va....I frequently take my grand kids to some of the battlefields in this area and walk around with them so they can read all of the plaques...

    Another great song that I almost forgot is "Atlanta Is Burning"

    Willie

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## Willie Poole

And then there is "Two Little Boys"...Since my band name is taken from a civil war site, Durham Station, we play quite a few of those songs....

    Willie

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## allenhopkins

It's an interesting issue, as to whether to play *only* songs actually written/sung during the Civil War era, or whether to mix in the many excellent "new" songs *about* the Civil War.  Since I do mostly museum/restoration/historical society work, I only do "period" songs, and try to evoke (costume, 19th-century instruments) the sound and style of the war era.  So I don't do _Legend of the Rebel Soldier_ or other songs written recently, though I do appreciate them and enjoy hearing others do them.

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## MandoSquirrel

> My band is into Civil War songs also, my favorite is "Have Someone Play Dixie For Me", we also have two originals that we have penned and put on a CD...Also "Loreena" is a good one, not sure if that is from the Civil War or another war....We do "Rebel Solidier"and a few others....I love the TV shows about the war and there was a whole section in The Washington Post last weekend showing some great happenings that were going on here in Maryland and Northern Va....I frequently take my grand kids to some of the battlefields in this area and walk around with them so they can read all of the plaques...
> 
>     Another great song that I almost forgot is "Atlanta Is Burning"
> 
>     Willie


Lorena dates from 1858, and was extremely popular during the War.

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## Dan Hulse

This is another great (recent) tune about the war by Andrew McKnight, On the road to Appomottox.
http://www.andrewmcknight.net/index.php?q=node/94

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## Willie Poole

Yeah Allen, I guess the OP WAS looking for songs that were written during the Civil war era, I didn`t read his post good enough to understand that, good point...I`m usually half asleep when I get on here....Actually it`s an old age thing, someday you will be there and will see what I mean....

   I don`t know if I have ever posted it on here but I really enjoy your post when you have looked up things and let us know all of the facts, I need to learn more about this computer.....I guess thats where you get most of your info from....

    Willie

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## allenhopkins

> ...it`s an old age thing, someday you will be there and will see what I mean...I don`t know if I have ever posted it on here but I really enjoy your post when you have looked up things and let us know all of the facts..I guess that's where you get most of your info from...


Willie, thanx for the kind words.  By the way, I'm 67 and I do know what you mean, yes I do; I'm "there" already.  And I love using Google (my younger son was a software engineer for Google, before moving on to Twitter last year) to find out stuff.  There are so many original recordings now posted on YouTube, as well as contemporary videos of songs and musicians.  I remember trying to find songs 20 years ago, looking through a shelf of songbooks and _Sing Out!_ reprints and coming up short most times.  Now much of that is at our fingertips.

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## Theo W.

Thanks, Michael! What a beautiful way to celebrate something so ugly.

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## lmartnla

> My favorite Civil War songs are "The Rebel Soldier" and "Last Letter Home".  Supposedly, the Last Letter Home was written by a survivor of the battle of Gettysburg.  I learned it from a Sam Bush album but had to wait quite a few years before running into someone who knew a third verse that Sam did not include in his version.  The third verse is...Thorough the day I watched those Southern boys go down, and they lay like Georgia peaches, bruised and broken on the ground, through the night I wondered is it worth the pain, and I screamed for revenge and called your name.


Also one of my favorites and always an audience favorite.  I have it that Last Letter Home was written by David McDade (drummer for Amazing Rhythm Aces) and James H. Brown, Jr. (keyboardist for the Aces).  McDade died in 1998.  Here is their version on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8PxAjgtoR8

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## Willie Poole

Also on that you-tube site is a version of "Last Letter Home" by Sam Bush, at a little faster speed though...It`s a great song and one that I will surely be a learning soon....

       Willie

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## allenhopkins

Easy to get confused between "period" songs *from* the Civil War, and later songs *about* the Civil War.  The song _Two Brothers -- "Two brothers on their way, one wore blue and one wore gray"_ -- gets played a lot by re-enactor musicians, but it's a recent (1960's?) composed song by Irving Gordon.  And we all know about _Ashokan Farewell,_ composed by Jay Ungar in 1974 but forever linked with the Civil War by Ken Burns' documentary soundtrack.

To most musicians, makes no never-mind, as they say; they're not trying to re-create a historical period, just play some songs old and new around a particular subject or theme.  To musicians like me, working the smaller niche of historical programming, a certain level of research is really required.  And also, the consistency to reject playing a lot of really great songs, because they're not from the Civil War era.

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## stevenmando

Much Thanks now i can't wait to start playing them

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## woodwizard

Yes thanks! 
My OT band plays many Civil War era tunes. Actually our range is about from the Civil War to the 1920's. I really enjoy playing them. One we do is a tune called Camp Chase... the name of an early Yankee Civil War prison camp. The story goes ... in the early part of the Civil War this "Camp Chase" near Columbus OH ... the prisoners had a sort of country club arangement, plenty to eat, entertainment on Sundays and such. The warden decided that he would have a fiddle contest and the person that wins it he said he was gonna turn em loose. It's a cool tune.

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## woodwizard

> Yes thanks! 
> My OT band plays many Civil War era tunes. Actually our range is about from the Civil War to the 1920's. I really enjoy playing them. One we do is a tune called Camp Chase... the name of an early Yankee Civil War prison camp. The story goes ... in the early part of the Civil War this "Camp Chase" near Columbus OH ... the prisoners had a sort of country club arangement, plenty to eat, entertainment on Sundays and such. The warden decided that he would have a fiddle contest and the person that wins it he said he was gonna turn em loose. It's a cool tune.


here's our take on "Camp Chase"

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## Bill Monroe's Sideburns

Thanks for posting this.  I have The Bonnie Blue Flag, Battle Cry of Freedom, and Kingdom Coming under my fingers pretty well now.  Funny-- I have whistled Kingdom Coming all my life but never knew name of it.

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## Ed Goist

> ...snip...I have whistled Kingdom Coming all my life but never knew name of it.


*+1!* Looking forward to playin' this one.

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## Ed Goist

...and here's my take on Michael's arrangement of _"Kingdom Coming"_ in C major. I've made one slight embellishment to the arrangement, playing most of the long C notes as E-C double stops.

Based on the background of this tune, it seems quite appropriate for Independence Day weekend! *Happy 4th!*




Michael, thanks again for posting these on the Cafe!

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## Mike Pilgrim

Sounds great, Ed.

To be clear, these are not my arrangements. I just put 'em on paper. The arranging credit (and my deepest gratitude) goes to Benjamin Tubb at Public Domain Music.

I just posted The Star Spangled Banner over in Song and Tune Projects. Happy 4th!

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## Mike Pilgrim

Here's a couple of sound files for "Kingdom Coming". One slower, one faster.

Hope these help.
KingdomComing144.mp3
KingdomComing216.mp3

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