Brown Collection- XI. Marital, Political & Patriotic Songs

Brown Collection- XI. Marital, Political and Patriotic Songs

XI. MARTIAL, POLITICAL, AND PATRIOTIC SONGS (Contents)

366. The Rolling Neuse 436

367. The Jolly Soldier 437

368. Flora MacDonald's Lament 437

369. The Rambling Soldier 439

370. Then We'll Have a New Convention 440

371. Colonel Harry. He Was Scared 441

372. Root Hog or Die 441

373. Harness up Yo' Hosses 442

374. The Southern Wagon 443

375. Red. White, and Red 444

376. The Soldier's Farewell 447

377. Early One Morninc; in the Month of July 449

378. John Brown's Body 449

379. The Bonny Blue Flag 451

380. The Homespun Dress 453

381. Pretty Peggy 456

382. Never Mind Your Knapsack 457

383. Bushwhacker's Song 458

384. Deserter's Song 459

385. Come, Rain, Come 460

386. Sorghum Molasses 460

387. Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse 461

N.C.F.. VoL III, (2)

 

xvi contents

388. Old Abe Is Sick 462

389. The Privates Eat the Middlin' 462

390. When This Cruel War Is Over 462

391. The Good Old Rebel 464

392. The Veteran's Song 467

393. Brother Green 468

394. He Never Came Back 470

395. Goodbye, My Blue Bell 471

396. Soldier's Epitaph 472

397. Tippecanoe 472

398. Does Your Mother Know You're Out? 473

399. Uncle Sam's Farm 474

400. The Sweet Sunny South 475

401. Blue Ridge Mountain Blues 476

402. The North Carolina Hills 477

403. The Hills of Dan 478

XI. MARTIAL, POLITICAL, AND PATRIOTIC SONGS

BETWEEN THE SONGS of the following group and an im-
portant portion of a preceding group there is a close parallel.
Among the native American ballads we have included a consider-
able number of pieces primarily devoted to telling stories about the
deeds of men in battle and about the actions and incidents of war.
These touch some of the obscure skirmishes as well as a few of
the high points of the principal wars of American history since
the Regulator troubles of 1765-71. Following the same pattern but
on a smaller scale, there is a group of songs expressing or sug-
gesting the emotional impact of armed conflict and all its accom-
panying economic and social shocks. From these we learn a little
about how people felt, what resolves they made, how they regarded
their causes, how they sought to encourage one another, how they
viewed their enemies, how they endured or dodged hardships and
perils, how they longed for peace, and how they faced death and
defeat. Thus through contemplating these "old, unhappy, faroff
things, and battles long ago," borne on the light wings of simple
song, we may for a moment share the feel of epochs that, viewed
across the chasm of two recent catastrophic wars, have come to
seem more legendary than historical.

Only three songs of the group belong to the period of the Ameri-
can Revolution. .Said to be of North Carolina origin. 'The Rolling
Neuse' tells how a young man, "When Greene's horn blew a long,
loud blast," felt those conflicting emotions of love for country and
love for his Nancy that young men have felt since wars began.
'The Jolly Soldier' is an old song refurbished "for the honor of
George Washington." Only historical context justifies placing in
this setting 'Flora MacDonald's Lament.' It is a love song pure
and simple that connects, on the one hand, with the old Jacobite
sentiment of the Highland Scots and, on the other, with the story
of a heroic woman who sojourned briefly in North Carolina, en-
couraged her menfolk to participate in an abortive Tory rising, and
is said to have left l)ehin(l her silver ])late, the graves of two chil-
dren, and a legend.

Of about two dozen Civil War songs the majority are related
to issues and events. 'Then W^e'll Have a New Convention' jest-

 

M A K T I A 1. A X 1) r A T U 1 (1 T I C S N C S 435

ingly proposes inarrvinj^ Kaly and killing; tlit' turkcv lu'ii as pre-
liminaries to establishing "the riglits of men" throngli secession,
and 'Colonel Harry He Was Scared' indicates the trepidation with
which one well-to-do conservative viewed such a prospect. 'Root
Hog or Die' reduces to understandable terms Lincoln's motives in
reinforcing Fort Sumter. "Harness up yo' bosses." cry the Yank-
ees; "We'll fight for Uncle Sam." The .Secesh rejjlied with an
invitation to ride in "the Southern wagon." J-Iarly confusion about
colors but no uncertainly about loyalties is expressed in 'Red, White,
and Blue (or Red).' "Early One Morning in the Month of July'
tells how the crops were laid by and the boys marched away — on
the first of many missions like that described in 'The Soldier's Fare-
well,' "to Pensacola/To tarry for a while." In the North Carolina
variants of the song about him, John Brown's body suffers a sea-
change. 'The Bonny Blue Flag' takes on new stanzas as new states
are added to the roll of secession.

Some of the songs suggest the stresses and strains of war. In
'The Homespun Dress' speaks the clear, resolute voice of the loyal
women of the Confederacy. The feminine note is pathetically clear
and sweet in 'Pretty Peggy' as the song gives us a glimpse first of
a girl "tripping down the stairs/A-parting her yellow hair." then
of her mourning for her Captain "buried in the Louisiana country,
O." The fighting spirit of 'Never Mind Your Knapsack' is con-
tradicted by 'The Bushwhacker's Song' and 'Deserter's Song.' The
last-named has a forthright mountain accent and two interesting
topographical allusions. In 'Come, Rain' and 'Sorghum Molasses,'
the seasoned old campaigner turned forager sings in the dryly,
whimsically humorous nostalgia of one who remembers the fleshpots
of peace. The last-named is an authentic concoction of cornbread,
sorghum molasses, and goobers, mixed and consumed in the remem-
bered smile of a blue-eyed Georgia girl. The ancient Gl-vs.-otificer
grudge is succinctly uttered in 'The Privates Eat the Middlin'.'

In the sentiment of 'When This Cruel War Is Over' North and
South were united long before the close of the struggle. Both
regions, perhaps, could feel the simple pathos of 'Brother Green.'
Still-divergent points of view, however, find inveterate expression
in two blunt and vigorous songs, 'The Good Old Rebel' and its
Union counterpart, 'The Veteran's Song.' It is the ironv of his-
tory, if not the token of reconciliation, that 'The Veteran's Song'
was remembered in a state which still boasts of having sent to the
Southern armies the highest per capita of manpower contributed
by any of the Confederate States.

Perhaps all the war songs of all the ages, of this country and
of all countries, find laconic summary in '.Soldier's Epitaph,' from
the World War of 1914-18.

Faint echoes of ancient wars of the parties and old battles of

 

436 X O R T H C A R O L I N A l" () I. K L O R E

the ballot boxes persist in two canipaisn son,y:s. The "ballad deaf-
ened" contest of 1840. between General William Henry Harrison
(Old Tippecanoe) and President Martin \'an Buren. is spiritedly
recalled by 'Tippecanoe.' Only reference to newspapers or detailed
political histories of the 1870s would connect 'Does Your Mother
Know You're Out' with Horace Greeley's candidacy for the presi-
dency in 1872.

From a final sheaf of songs in this group we learn tliat just as
a man may love his country passionately in war so may lie love
it (luietly in peace. In 'Uncle Sam's Farm" patriotism is so ex-
pansive that it includes an invitation, "Come every nation, come
every way," which seems to date it among the years when the
land still seemed big enough for all comers. 'The Sweet Sunny
South' and 'Blue Ridge Mountain Blues' are both nostalgic pictures
of lands to which dreams and fond wishes return. 'The North
Carolina Hills,' in similar key, localizes the vision. It is from an
informant with a good repertory of folk songs, and has not appeared
in other collections; it may be an original song. 'The Hills of Dan'
has the honor of concluding the songs of this group.

366

Tin-: Rolling Neuse

From S. M. Davis, White Hall (on Neuse River); undated; with the
following note : "This is a song composed by a Revolutionary Soldier
living on Neuse River at White Hall, about four miles from where 1
was born. He was in the American Army at the time lie comixised it.
There is more of this, but I do not know it."

1 When Greene's horn blew a long, loud blast.
At early clay's bright dawning.

In slumber my heart was pulsing fast.
I was dreaming of the morning
When Nancy sliould be my youthful jjride
When she would be my darling.

2 I thought upon the rolling Neuse,
I thought upon my Nancy.

I thought ujion my future bride

That took my youthful fancy.

The horn called nie from dreamland sweet.

It called nu' t rom u]v .\ancy.

3 (jod'.-, bles.sing.s fm- her I intreat.
The girl of my youthful fancy.

My heart pleads for the rolling Neuse
With boat and girl floating on it.
JMir eyes ,so bright with ( iod's own truth
And lips singing a war sonnet.

 

MAR T 1 A L A N 1) V A T K I () T 1 C S C) N G S 43/

Tiiic JoLi.v Si>i.I)Ii:k

In WSSU 181-2, George I'ullen Jackson says: "Among: tlie songs
wliich attached themselves, in retrospect, to George Waslungton and
his period is 'The Jolly Soldier,'" and he quotes the song from
John G. McMurry's" The Social Harp (Philadelphia, 1859). The
"first stanza of The Social Harp and the North Carolina texts has a
close analogue in a hroadside, No. 16. hy W. & T. Fordyce, New-
castle and Hull (undated). See headnote to "The Rambling Sol-
dier.' There are two traditional versions of the song in our
collection.

A

No local title. Text, with music, collected by Thomas Smith, Zionville,
Watauga county, from Mrs. Peggy Perry. In a letter to Dr. Brown,
dated .March 15, 1915, Mr. Smith stated that he had recently heard an
old lady sing songs learned from her grandfather, a soldier of the Revo-
lution. In a footnote to the text he wrote : "The above Mrs. Perry
says was sung by her grandfather, Clem Dorsett, who fought for our
country. One of his brothers fought for the British."

The text in Jackson (cited above) makes clear the original of the
garbled first line of stanza 2 in ^Nlrs. Perry's song ; it should read
"Aboard a man-of-war and a merchantman."

1 I once was a seaman stout and bold,
Ofttimes I plowed the ocean,

I plowed it over and over again
For the honor and promotion.

2 Aboard a man-of-war marchin' men.
Many be the battles that I've been in.

It was all for the honor of George Washington,
And I'll still be a jolly good old soldier.

B

No local title. From Miss Nanfcy] Maxwell, Hazel wood, Haywood
county; contributed in 1919-20. Same as Mrs. Perry's version.

368
Flora MacDonald's Lament

When in 1774 Flora MacDonald (1722-90) emigrated with her
family to the Cape Fear country of North Carolina, she was already
famous in song and story for having delivered Prince Charles Ed-
ward Stuart from the hands of his enemies, after the batde of
Culloden in 1746, and for having been visited by Dr. Samuel John-
son and James Boswell in T773. Concerning her two years' sojourn
in North Carolina many legends have accumulated, and a few relics
have survived. Most of these are connected with the Tory rising
of the Highland Scots, settled in the region around Cross Creek
(now Fayetteville), in 1775 and 1776. Her husband and sons were

 

438 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

members of the Loyalist Scots force gathered there to join an ex-
pected British landing at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in
January 1776. "A picturesque Carolina legend relates how Flora,
mounted on her white pony, rode part of the way with the Highland
army, and under an old oak tree that is still pointed out she is
said to have taken her farewell." (See Edith E. MacQueen. "A
Highland Tragedy, the Story of Flora MacDonald in America,"
The Scots Magazine, n.s. xvii [July and August, 1932]. 257-66,
351-9.) After the disastrous defeat of the Scots at the Widow
Moore's Creek, the IMacDonalds and all the other leaders were
either prisoners or fugitives. Flora, her husband, a son. and her
son-in-law were imprisoned for a while at Halifax, N. C. Mean-
while, her home and plantation in Richmond county were being
pillaged, and they were confiscated in 1777. When she was per-
mitted to depart, in 1779, according to local tradition she left behind
her the graves of two children and most of her silverware, sold to
defray expenses of her return to Scotland. ^ Some of the silverware
is now owned by North Carolinians, but the greatest monument to
Flora MacDonald is the woman's college named in her honor, at
Red Springs, N. C. (See J. P. MacLean, Flora MacDonald in
America [Lumberton, N. C, 1909]). Her memory is venerated by
thousands of the descendants of the Scotch Highlanders still living
in the Cape Fear country and still retaining the characteristic traits
of their race. (See Jonathan Daniels. Tar Heels [New York,
1941], pp. 63-77.)

Historical accounts of Flora MacDonald's first exploit, wliich
made her "the heroine of the Forty-five," partly confirm the some-
what amorous nature of the 'Lament.' Winifred Duke, in Prince
Charles Edzuard and the Forty-fife (London, 1938, pp. 284-5), tells
of how on the morning that the Prince left Kingsburgh House,
Flora and her stepmother obtained and divided a lock of the Prince's
hair, and how, after he had gone, the two "went to his bedroom
and folded away the sheets between which he had slept, declaring
that they were never to be washed or used again. She and Flora
divided these, each retaining her portion to serve as a winding-
sheet." Mrs. A. T. Wilson, in Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715
and 1^4^ (London, 1846, 3 vols., HI, 356-7), declares that "Her
emotions on separating from Charles have been expressed in a poem
entitled 'The Lament of Flora Macdonald,' beginning thus" (quot-
ing the first stanza of Hogg's poem). Yet, profound as her passion
of loyalty may have been, she would hardly have thought of him
as her "royal swain." That is hardly the sentiment of Hogg's poem,
which equals the North Carolina traditional song in admiration and
sorrow for "my hero, the gallant and young." At any rate, the
portrait of Flora, from life, by Allan Kamsay, reproduced in Mrs.
Wilson's book and in others, supports the 'Lament's" assertion that
Flora's beauty is surprising," whether or not it is "Like bright
Venus in the morn," and shows her young and romantic looking.

' In "i'lora Macdonald in llist<jry," North Carotin Historical Re7'icic,
xviii, 233-58, Profi'ssor Dnrothy Mackay Qiiynn discredits the tradition
about tiic two cliildriii (pp. 256-7) and raises some douln about tlic
silver (p. 251).

 

MARTIAL AND PATRIOTIC SONGS 439

Though reprintings of Hogg's poem are common, the editors
have not been able to find any printed record of the North CaroHna
traditional song.

'Flora McDonald's Lament.' From S. M. Davis, White Hall (near
Neuse River), N. C. ; without date, but with this note: "The following
is a song that was sung by my great-grandmother Whitfield, whose father
was a Scotchman, one of Flora McDonald's followers. This song was
written about Charles Stuart. His health had given away and he had
gone away into the mountains to recuperate. The words were sung by
Flora McDonald."

1 Over hill and lofty mountains

Where the valleys were covered with snow.
Hear the murmuring of the fountains
Where the crystal waters did flow.
There poor Flora sat lamenting.
Thinking of her royal swain.
Crying. 'Charlie, constant Charlie,
My kind, constant Charlie, dear.

2 'When the winter's frost is over
Charlie shall return again.

On the banks of pinks and clover
There I'll meet my royal swain.
The lamb shall caper over the turf,
The lark and linnet they shall sing.
Charlie, Charlie, constant Charlie,
My kind, constant Charlie, dear.'

3 Flora's beauty is surprising.
Like bright Venus in the morn.
She a rich and lamblike lady
Like a rose just in the dawn.
She each minute on her spinet
Doth her royal swain repeat :
'Charlie, Charlie, constant Charlie,
Now my joys are all complete.'

369
The Rambling vSoldier

'The Rambling Boy' appears in Fred May's Comic Irish Songster
(New York, c. 1862), pp. 36-7, where stanza i reads:

Oh, I am a gay and rambling boy.
From Tipperary town I came ;
And poverty has compelled me.
To turn out in the rain —

 

with chorus-

 

Oh come buy my humble ditty,

 

440 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

From tavern to tavern I steer,

Like every uther good fellow,

I like my glass of beer,

For 1 am the rambling son of poverty,

And the son of Michael O'Feer.

The piece i.s clearly a prototype of "'riie Rambling Soldier.' An-
other version of the same song appears in the familiar "Son of a
Gambolier.' printed by H. J. Wehman. as a penny song (No. 381).
(Cf. Sandburg ASb 44.) In these versions the equivalent of
"Drey's Lane" (stanza 5 of our text) is, respectively. "Catherine
Lane"' and "Maiden Lane." Another version. "Rambling Sailor.'
appears as a broadside (No. 16) printed by W. & T. Fordyce,
Newcastle and Hull.

'Old War Song.' Contributed by Julian P. Boyd ; obtained from James
Tingle, a pupil in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county, c. 1927-28. On
the MS Dr. Brown suggests that "Drey's Lane" is Drury Lane and
queries: "Napoleonic Wars?" Dr. White notes: "I have seen some-
where the original of this. The second line should be 'From Tipperary
Town I Come.' The original is the model for 'Rambling Wreck from
Georgia Tech.'"

1 I am a rambling soldier
From Tripling come to France.
It was poverty compelled me
To turn out in the ranks.

2 In all sorts of weather,
Let it be wet or dry,
'Tis my fate, I will relate,
To either sing or cry.

3 Cold weather is ai)proaching ;
I have no clothes to pack,
None I've left behind me.
For they're all on my back.

4 As for my shirts, 1 have none,
My pants are all the same.
And if I'm poor and ragged,

I think I'm none to blame.

5 As for my silk handkerchief.
To ornament my frame,

I bought f)f a girl at the gin shop door
At the corner of Drev's Lane.

 

370
'I'liKX
\\'i."i.i. Have a New Convention

From Miss Jewell R(il)liins, Pekin, Montgomery county (later Mrs.
C. P. Perdue), who lent Dr. Brown .some "old song books" c. 1925.

 

M A K T 1 A I. AND 1' A T R I () T 1 f S () N' C S 44I

A phonograph recording, prisumahly of Miss R()l)l)ins' singing of this
song, was made at Pckin in ii;2i or 1922. Of tiie song Dr. Brown notes:
"Played liy brass band at Klierl)ee Springs muster-ground. Enlisting
song Ix-fore Civil War, at beginning of 'conventinns.' " Tlie "eonven-
tions" were those held in counties and states tbnmubDUt the Snuth to
consider the question of secession.

1 Katy, Katy. (hjn't }C)U want to marrv ?
Your mother says you shall not marry.
Your mother says yoti shall not marry
Until we kill the turkey hen.

2 Then we'll have a new convention
And we'll kill the turkey hen;
Then we'll have a new conventi(jn.
And we'll have the rights of men.

371
Colonel Harry, He Was Scared

No title. From Professor M. G. Fulton, Davidson College, N. C. ; un-
dated, but c. 1 91 2- 1 6, when Professor Fulton was in fairly regular
correspondence with Dr. Brown. MS bears notation "all that could be
remembered." This fragment seems related to 'Then We'll Have a
New Convention,' above.

Colonel Harry, he was scared,

And he was scared of the Indian man.

We'll all have the new convention.

We'll have the rights of men.

We'll all have the new convention.

The volunteers and the drafted men.

372

Root Hog or Die

The Arkansas Traveller's Songster (New York, c. 1864). p. 48,
has a version of this song, of which the first stanza and the cliorus
run as follows :

Fm right from ole Virginny, wid my pocket full of news.
Fm worth twenty shillings, right square in my shoes ;
It doesn't make a dif of bitterance to neder you nor \.

Fm chief cook and bottle-washer,

Cap'n ob de waiters ;

I stand upon my head

When I peel de apple-dumplins !

It was published in various versions by Partridge, Boston, and J.
Andrew, New York — two versions by tlie latter, one version with a
note, "Composed and Sung with Unbounded Applause by Ricliard

 

442 X O R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

J. McGowan, the W'orUl Renowned Champion Banjoist"; the other
with a note, "'Sung with Shouts of Applause all over the country
by Madigan & Co.'s National Travelling Circus." Apparently an
adaptation of a minstrel song, it has some vague relation to 'Root
Hog or Die,' in BSM 334, which Belden describes as "a patriotic
ditty, probably a variety stage production originally . . . printed
in The Dime Song Book (Boston, 1859) along with extensions or
parodies of it in the nigger minstrel lingo." See Frank Moore, 77/t'
Rebellion Record, "Poetry, Rumors and Incidents," iv, 51, for an-
other parody found in a Texas regiment camp. See also A. E.
Wier, Songs of the Sunny South (New York, 1929), pp. 251-2,
and Randolph OFS iii 162.

'Root Hog or Die.' From Miss Jewel Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery
county (later, Mrs. C. P. Perdue). A phonograph recording of the
song was made at Pekin, in 1921.

1 I'm just from the South for to tell you all the news.
It's worth a half a dollar right square in my shoes.
There isn't much difference betwixt you and I —
Little pig, big pig, root hog or die.

Chorus:

Chief cook and bottle-washer,
Captain of the waiters.
Stand upon your head,
Till you peel a bag o' 'taters.
And do jog along.

2 When old Abe went to reinforce Sumter for the fight
He told his men to pass thru the harbor in the night.

He said to them, 'Be careful ; I'll tell you the reason whv ;
I want to teach old Jefif to root hog or die.'

 

373

Harness up Yo' Hosses

No title. From Fred A. Olds, Raleigh, July i, 1914, with the comment:
"Here is another which used to be in vogue after the war among the
darkeys, having to do witii Gen. Sherman's march to the sea."

Harness up yo' bosses,

Hey, o hey !

Harness up yo' bosses.

We'll teach you how ter drive uni,

1 ley, o hey !

We'll fight fur Uncle Sam.

 

MARTIAL ANU PATRIOTIC SONGS 443

374

The Southern W'agon

"R. B. Buckley's li'ait for the Jl'agon," says Belden BSM 364,
"was immensely popular iu the dozen years or so before the out-
break of the Civil War, and lasted well down into my own time.
It was parodied to express political feeling on both sides in that
contest." He cites Hudson FSM 262 for a traditional Southern
form from Mississippi and prints a Missouri text satirizing the
Confederacy.

A

'Southern Wagon.' From an anonymous contributor ; witliout date. This
is fairly close tc a text printed in Frank Moore's The Ciiil War in Son;/
and Story (New York, 1889), pp. 397-8, but shows variations that evi-
dence oral transmission, e.g. : "Justice is our mother" for "Justice is
our motto" ; "to protect our firesides" for "to defend our firesides" ;
"'Tis stuffed with cotton round the sides" for 'It's stuffed around with
cotton"; no stanza corresponding to Moore's si.xth ; and "Wait for the
wagon, the secession wagon" for "O, wait for the wagon, the dissolution
wagon." A text close to Moore's in the first three stanzas and chorus,
attributed to Maria Grason, of Anne Arundel county, Maryland, has been
published in Colonial Dames of America's Anicrican War Soiujs (Phila-
delphia, 1925). PP- 132-3-

1 Come all ye sons of freedom and join our Southern band ;
We're going to fight the Yankees and drive them from

our land.
Justice is our mother, and Providence our guide ;
So jump into the wagon and we'll all have a ride.

Chorus:

Wait for the wagon, the secession wagon ;
The South is our wagon, we'll all have a ride.

2 Secession is our watchword, our rights too all demand.
And to protect our firesides we pledge our hearts and

hands.
Je^ Davis is our president with Stephens by his side ;
Brave Beauregard our general will join us in the ride.

3 The wagon is plenty big enough, the running gear is good.
'Tis stufifed with cotton round the sides and made of

Southern wood.
Carolina is the driver, with (Georgia by her side ;
So jump into the wagon, we'll all have a ride.

4 There's Tennessee and Texas also in the ring ;

They would not own a government to hear cotton was not

king.
Alabama, too, Florida have long replied,
Mississippi in the wagon, anxious for a ride.

 

444 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

5 Missouri. North Carolina, and Arkansas are slow;
They must hurry or we'll leave them and then together

they will go.
There's old Kentucky, .Maryland, each hasn't made up

their mind ;
So I reckon after all we'll have to take them up hehind.

6 (Jur cause is just and holy, our men are hrave and true;
To whip the Yankee cut-throats is all we have to do.
God bless our noble army, in him we all confide ;

So jump into the wagon and we'll all have a ride.

 

'The Southern Wagon.' From Miss Fredrika Jenkins. Wihnington,
Brunswick county ; text undated. One stanza.

We'll wait for the wagon, the Secession \\'agon.
We'll wait for the wagon and we'll all take a ride.
Carolina'll be the driver, with Georgia by her side ;
V'irginia'll hold the flag up and we'll all take a ride.

375
Red, Whitk. and Red

Though there is no evidence that the tirst of tlie three following
texts has been sung in North Carolina, the two following versions
have been, and there is another song, 'On the Plains of Manassas,'
which seems related to it. (For notes on battles and leaders men-
tioned, see that song. Vol. II, No. 223, p. 529. )

There are three broadside printings of this song in a collection of
Southern songs and ballads formed by Dr. Charles T. Abell of
Arlington, Virginia, about 1923, and bought from him and pre-
sented to the Harvard College Library by Mrs. Percival Alerritt,
in 1925. Dr. Abell stated, in a letter to Professor Franz Rickaby,
that "The songs were all printed during the Civil War — in the 6o's,
and but a few [of] each one was issued." He was a printer in
Baltimore in 1861, sympathetic toward the Southern cause. One
day he met a Dr. Ridgely, a book dealer, who was making a col-
lection of "Rebel literature" ("He bad quite a number of Southern
ballads in manuscript"), and agreed to print broadsides for Ridgely.
He reserved copies for himself. These he added to copies of bal-
lads he had already collected, and he continued collecting. Dr.
Abell's letters attest the oral popularity of many of the songs. In
a letter to Professor G. L. Kittredge, October 13, 1925, he stated
that "if the author of any of the songs [was discovered], or anyone
[was] found in possession thereof, his or her fate was a cell in the
fort [McHenry]. Some were sent as far as Fort Lafayette in Bos-
ton barbcjr. So that is why their [the authors'?] names are not
])ublisbe(I." He goes on to tell of an incident that occurred in New
Orleans while (ieneral Ben F. Butler was in command there: "A

 

M A K r I A I. A N I) !• A T U 1 O T 1 C S () X C S 445

P'ederal soldier was walkin.iL;' down one of the avemu's when he
encountered a Southern lady wearing;- a Confederate hadj^e — red,
white, and red. — The soldier ordered lier to remove the hadge and
when she refused, he endeavored to tear it otY, and she spit de-
liberately in his face. Wlien Butler heard of this he issued an
order, it is chary^ed, that if any female should affront a Federal
soldier she should be treated as a zcomaii of the to-u'ii. This order
created a sensation that swept the country."

The three Abell broadsides are different printiui^s, with different
captions and sliijht textual differences. One, under heading 'Con-
federate Flai,^ Red White and Blue. C"omposed by Y. P. Prevette,
Co. E., 6th Georgia Regiment, C.S.A. (Air — Gum Tree Canoe.),' is
close to A below. Its chorus, however, runs :

Huzza ! Huzza ! We're a nation that's true.

And we stand by our colors of Red White and Blue,

and it lacks A 3-4. The other two, under different captions, are
textuallv close to each other and to A.

 

'Red, White, and Red.' From an anonymous contril)utor, who noted,
"Written by Mary Stevenson Hughes in 1862." The contribution is
undated.

1 On the banks of the Potomac, there's an armv so grand.
Whose object is to subjugate Dixie's fair land.

They say that we split this great universe in two
And altered the colors of the Red. White, and Piltie.

Chorus:

Huzza ! Huzza ! we're a nation they dread.

We'll stand by our colors of Red, White, and Red,

We'll stand by our colors of Red, White, and Red.

2 Our banner is simple and by it we will stand.

It floats from the Potomac to the great Rio Grande,
And waves o'er a people so gallant, 'tis said.
Who will die defending the Red, White, and Red.

3 If yoti want to hear Greeley and Yankeedom rear.
Just mention the ^lason and Slidell affair.

When first they got them, they made a great to do.
But now they curse England, the Red, White, and P)lue.

4 We had a little fight on the tenth of last June.
Magnider [Magruder] at Bethel whipped old IMcayune;'

^ "Old Picayune" is apparently a nickname of General Ben F. Butler.
In the Rose of Alabama, a songster published by William H. Murphy of
New York (undated), there is a sung entitled 'Picayune I'utler, as sung
by dat greatest of living darkies, Jim .Sanford." wbicli, referring to war
conditions, has a refrain :

'Picayune Butler's coming, coming,
Picayune Butler's come to town.'

 

446 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

They commenced in the morning and fought, it is said,
When glory waved over the Red, White, and Red.

5 On the twenty-first of last July,

A trip down to Richmond the Yankees did try ;

They had not got far before back they all flew

With the old Union banner of Red. \\'hite, and Blue.

6 On the plains of Manassas, there we met ;

We gave them a whipping they will never forget.

Poor lazy old scoundrels, how little they knew

That we would not fight under the Red, White, and Blue.

7 They never can subdue us, and that they all see.
While we've got a Beauregard, Johnson, and Lee ;
Magruder, McCulloch, and Jackson they dread ;
They all die defending the Red, White, and Red.

8 The sweetest, the dearest spot on earth

Is Dixie, sweet Dixie, the land of my birth ;

I love her, I adore her, and with her I'll be wed,

And stand by the colors of Red, White, and Red.

B

'The Red, White, and Blue.' From Miss Jewell Robhins, Pekin, Mont-
gomery county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue). A phonograph recording
was made in July 1922. This confuses the colors, and hence the two
adversaries.

1 On the banks of the Potomac there's an army so grand,
Whose object's to subjugate Dixie's fair land.

They say we have split this great Union in two
And altered the colors of the Red, White, and Blue.

Chorus:

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! We're a nation so true ;
We'll all die defending the Red, White and Blue.

2 Our colors are simple, but by them we'll stand ;

They wave from the Potomac to the great Rio Grande ;
They wave over people who are gallant and true,
Who will all die defending the Red, White, and Blue.

3 In the year '61 on the loth day of June
Magruder at Bethel threshed out Picayune.

We commenced in the morning and fought until two,
When glory waved o'er us and the Red, W hite, and Blue.

 

The same song is in The People's I'ree and Easy Songster (New York,
n.d. ), p. 12. This seems to be an adaptation of an older one, with the
same title, in White's Neiv Illustrated Melodion (New York, c. 1848),
p. 30.

 

M A R T 1 A L A X I) PATRIOTIC SONGS 447
4

T1k'\- hadn't gut far before back they all flew

With their old Union banners, their Red, White, and I line.

c

'Red, White, and Red.' From a manuscript notebook lent to Dr. White
in December 1943 by Mrs. Harold (jlasscuck, Raleigh. "Most or all of
her st)ngs Mrs. Glasscock learned from her parents, and she can now
sing all but one of those copied from her notet)ook."

1 ( )n the banks of the Potomac there's an army so grand.
Whose object is to subjngate Dixie's fair land.

They say we have split this great Union in two

And have altered the colors of the Red, WHiite, and Blue.

Chorus:

Hurrah! Hurrah; We're a nation they dread.
Three cheers for |eff Davis and the Red, White, and
Red.

2 Our banner is simple and by it we'll stand.

It floats from the Potomac to the great Rio Grande.
It floats o'er our people, who're honest and true.
Whilst others are defending the Red, White, and Plue.

3 On the twenty-first of last July

A trip to old Richmond they thought they would try.

They had not gone far till back they flew

With their old Union banner shot right half in two.

4 If you want to hear Lincoln and Yankeedom rear
Just mention the Mason and Slidell afl^air.

And after we got them how often they said

Old England is favoring the Red, White, and Red.

The Soldier's Farewell

In BSM 380-1 Belden prints a song entitled 'Fare You Well,
My Darling.' "Here," he remarks in his headnote, "a familiar
situation of street balladry and recurrent elements of folk lyric
have been adapted to the conditions of the American Civil War.
No doubt from print, but I have not found it printed." Since
North Carolina origin for the following song in our collection has
been indicated, three stanzas in Belden's Missouri text are here
given for comparison :

I Oh, fare you well, my darling.
Oh, fare you well, my dear.
Don't grieve for my long absence
While I am a volunteer.

X.r.F.. Vol. Ill, <M)

 

448 NORTH CAROLINA F L K L R K

3 I am going to Pensacola
To tarry for a while
Away from my darling,
Yes, about five hundred mile.

4 When the cannon loudly roar
And the bullets swiftly fly,

The drums and fifes are a-beating
To drown their deadly cry.

Similarities between the North Carolina and the Missouri te.xts
would seem to confirm Belden's surmise about a printed text. Dif-
ferences would stiggest considerable oral diffusion.

 

'The Soldiers's Farewell." From Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Mont-
gomery county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue). A phonograph recording
was made c. 1921-24. On the copy of the text Dr. Brown noted:
"Originated in Richmond County' (N. C).

1 I'm going away tomorrow
To tarry for a while,

So far from my dear darling.
About five hundred mile.

2 Where the cannon's loudly roaring;-
And the bullets like grapeshot fly.
The fife and drum a-sounding

To drown the dying's cry.

3 Stand sturdy by your cannon.
Make balls ancl grapeshot fly.
And trust in God. your Saviour,
And keep your i)owder dry.

4 In the battle you'll be wounded
And on the field be slain.

It'll luirst my heart asunder
1 f I never see you again.

5 I hope the time is coming
When you and 1 will meet;
With looks and words and kisses
We will each other greet.

B

No title. Contributed c. i<)i5 by Thomas Smith, Zionville, Watagua
county, with this note; "Recited by .Mrs. Polly Rayfield Feb. 1915. She
says she heard the sun^ sung when a child. She is 64 years of age."

I So fare you well, my darling.
So fare vou well, mv dear.

 

M A R T I A I. A N I) 1' A T K 1 () T I C SO N S 449

I'm Li'oing away louKirrow
To tarry for a while.
To leave my dear darling
About five hundred miles.

If in battle you are wounded,
1 f in the held you're be slain,
Burst my heart asunder
If vou never return again.

 

4 Stand steady

And make the grapeshot Hy ;
Trust in the Almighty
And keep your powder dry.

377
Early One Morning in the Month of July

From Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery county (later Mrs.
C. P. Perdue). A pbonograph recording of Miss Robbins' singing of
the song was made at Pekin in 1922 or 1923. There is no indication
as to whether the last couplet completes the song or is only half of a
stanza the rest of which had been forgotten.

1 Early one morning in the month of July
We finished our crops and laid them all by.

We left our plows and gear a-laying in the mow [mold?] ;
We left our pretty girls silver and gold.

Chorus:

If you want to know for what I can tell you why —
We're bound to whip the Yankees, we'll do it or die.

2 The Louisiana Legion is bound to win or die.
With the Mississippi Rifles ; fly, boy, fly.
Florida is out hunting all through the bush.
The Yankees are in earnest ; push, boys, push.

3 There's old General Butler, such a warrior was he,
But not such a one as our General Lee.

378
John Brown's Body

According to C. A. Browne. The Story of Our Xatirc HaUads
(New York, 1919). pp. 142 ff.. 'John Brown's Body' was composed
in April 1861 bv a quartet of soldiers in the Second Battalion of
Massachusetts Infantry, to the tune of the old Methodist hymn
'Glory Hallelujah,' the'authorship of which was claimed by William
Steffe, a Sunday-school music composer. ('Battle Hymn of the

 

450 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Republic' is sung to the same tune.) It was immediately parodied,
and only parodies of it have found their way into our collection.
One of these returns the derision of Secessionist parody by sub-
stituting the name of leff Davis for that of John Brown. Cf.
Lomax ABFS 528-29. Botkin APPS 221.

A

'John Brown's Body.' From Miss Clara Heariic, Principal of Central
School, Roanoke Rapids, Halifax county, probably in 1923. The repe-
titions indicated in stanza i continue throughout.

1 John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
As we go marching on.

Chorus:

Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
As we go marching on.

2 Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree,

3 Grasshopper sitting cjn a sweet potato vine,

4 Little yellow dog come trotting on behind,

B

'Hang Jolm Brown on the Sour Apple Tree.' From a MS bearing only
the name McAdams, without date or address but with informant's note:
"Sung in going to and coming from picnics." Dr. White adds : "From
early youth I have been familiar with this song in this function. It
is also sung with 'Jeff Davis' for 'John Brown.'" For a play-party
version, see Botkin APPS 221.

1 Hang John Brown on the sour apple tree.
Hang John Brown on the sour ai)i)le tree.
Hang John Brown on the sour apple tree,
As we go marching home !

Chorus:

Glory, glory, halle-lu-jah.
Glory, glory, halle-lu-jah.
Glory, glory, halle-lu-jah.
As we go marching home.

2 Hang \inscrt any ;/</;;/(' | on the sour apple tree.
[Repeat as in i. \

c
'Civil War Song.' From Miss .Mma Irene Stone, Meredith College;
MS undated. One stanza and chorus as in B, except that refrain reads
"As wc go marching by."

 

M A K T 1 A I. A X U P A T K 1 O T 1 C SOX G S 45 1

 

No title. From Miss Jessie Hansen, Forsytli county; no date, (^ne
stanza, withont chorus.

Hang Jefif Davis on a sonr apple tree,
Hang JefF Davis on a som* apple tree,
Hang Jeff Davis on a soiu* apple tree,
.As we go marching on.

379

THK r.ONNY liLL'K l^^l.AG

Tlie most circumstantial and convincinij accounts of the origin
of 'The Bonny Blue Flag' are to be found in Franklin L. Riley's
A School History of Mississippi (Richmond, 1900), pp. 223-5, ^^d
Dunbar Rowland's History of Mississippi, the Heart of the South,
4 vols. (Jackson, Mississippi, and Chicago, 1925), i 784 ff. On
the authority of Col. J. L. Power's "Mississippi Secession Conven-
tion," published in Southern Home Journal for April and May
1899, and of Power's oral statement to him, Riley places the origin
of the song in the Mississippi Secession Convention. Following
the adoption of the ordinance of secession, on January 9, 1861, at
Jackson, Mississippi, a "Mr. C. R. Dickson entered the hall, bear-
ing a beatitiful silk flag with a single white star in tlie center (made
that morning by Mrs. Dickson. . .). Upon leaving the hall, Harry
]McCarthy, a comic actor who had witnessed the scene, wrote that
popular war-song, 'The Bonnie Blue Flag, that Bears a Single
Star.' The next day it was printed by Col. J. L. Power, and that
night it was sung in the old theatre in Jackson by its author."
Rowland, agreeing in the main recital with Riley, but adding de-
tails (for instance, that the ground of the flag was blue), states:
"A week later the song was heard on the streets of New Orleans
and in many Southern and some Northern cities."

Other accounts agree with these two in ascribing the song to
IMcCarthy but differ in some of their details. Mildred L. Ruther-
ford, in The South in History and Literature (Athens, Ga., 1906),
says tliat it was composed by Harry McCarthy, a Confederate
soldier-Irish comedian, and first sung on the stage of the Academy
of Music in New Orleans, September 1861. In compliment to Te.xas
soldiers in the audience, McCarthy's sister displayed a large flag of
blue silk with one white star in the center. (Later in the war,
"When Gen. Butler was in command at New Orleans he issued an
order that any man, woman, or child that sang, whistled, or played
it, should be fined twenty-five dollars.") In a later note on the
history of the song, published in Miss Rutherford's Scrap-Book, iv
(April 1926), p. 22, Miss Rutherford states: "McCarthy sang his
Bonnie Blue Flag [at New Orleans] not for the first time, for lie
had sung it at his home in Jackson, Miss." She also (ibid., p. 23)
disposes of another claimant to partial authorship, as found in
S. J. A. Fitz-Gerald's Stories of Famous Songs (London, 1898),
p. 106, with an additional remark: "Mrs. Annie Chambers-Ketchum,

 

452 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

of Kentucky, wrote other words to the tune, and for this reason it
has been said slie claimed to have written tlie ori.^inal song."

Kate E. Staton, in Old Songs of the Period of the Confederacy
(New York, n.d.j, p. 66, says that McCarthy was the author of
other popular songs, among them 'Origin of the Stars and Bars,"
'The Volunteers,' and 'Missouri,' and that "he wrote, composed,
and sang his compositions at his personation concerts." The in-
clusion, in several versions of "The Bonny Blue Flag,' of stanzas
calling the Secession roll of other states after Mississippi is to be
explained by the probability that as events progressed he, or other
singers of die song like Mrs. Chambers-Ketchum. added stanzas
to the original.

'The Bonnie Blue Flag' was parodied by the Unionists. One
parody, apparently first printed by S. T. Gordon, was reprinted
twice, on illustrated notepaper for Union soldiers, by Charles Mag-
nus, New York; another, for Marsh, Philadelphia, in 1862. The
Southern version was printed as a broadside by H. De Marsan
(copy in the Burton Collection, concerning which see "The Cum-
berland').

For texts and further information see, besides the foregoing
references: Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the Southern
People 135-7; Confederate Scrap Book 192-3; Belden BSAI 357-8;
and Randolph OFS 11 261-2. All the texts differ from one another
in one or more respects — wording, number of stanzas, order of
stanzas.

A

'War Song".' CtJiitrilnitcd l)y Minnie Bryan Farrior, Duplin county, with-
out indication of date.

1 We are a band of brothers
-And native to the .soil,
Fis^htin<( for the property
\\ e <^ained by honest toil ;

And when our rights were threatened.
The cry rose far and near^ —
Hurrah for tlie Bonnie Blue I'^lag
That liears a single star !

Chorus :

I lurrah ! I lurrah !
h'or Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Bkie Flag
'I1iat bears a single star!

2 As long as e'er the l^nion
Was faithful to her trust.
Like friends and like brcjthers
l)Oth kind we were and jtist ;

I'ut now, when Northern treachery
.Attempts our rights to mar,

' Thus in .MS.

 

MARTI A I, A N 1) V A T K 1 T I C SONGS 453

W'c hoist on his^h the Honnie 15hic Flag
That bears a single star.

3 First gallant South Carolina
Nobly made the stand ;
Then came Alabama.

Who took her by the hand ;

Next quickly Mississippi,

Georgia, and Florida,

All raised on high the I'onnie lUue I'lag

That bears the single star.

4 And here's to old Virginia,
The Old Dominion State,
With the young Confed'racy
At length has linked her fate.
Impelled by her example,
Now other states prepare

To hoist on high the Bonnie IJlue Flag
That bears the single star.

5 Then here's to our Confederacy,
Strong are we and brave.
Like patriots of old we'll fight
Our heritage to save.

And rather than submit to shame,
To die we would prefer ;
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears the single star.

6 Then cheer, boys, cheer !
Raise the joyous shout.

For Arkansas and North Carolina

Now have both gone out.

And let another rousing cheer

For Tennessee be given ;

The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag

Has grown to be eleven.

B

No title. Marked "Contributor : Minnie Bryan Grimes, Duplin County"'
(without date). Except for the last line of stanza i (reading "That
bear the single flag"), exactly like A, this appears to be simply another
copy of A. "Minnie Bryan Farrior" and "Minnie Bryan Grimes" would
seem to be the same person.

380

The Homespun Dress

The aiitliorship of tliis, one of the most beloved and best remem-
bered songs of the Southern Confederacy, has l)ccn ascribed to at

 

454 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

least two different people. Belden BSM 360 cites an informant
who wrote that the song "is to be found in Miss Mason's Southern
Poems of the War (Baltimore. 1867 J and in Confederate Scrap-
Book (Richmond, 1893 j, and that it was written by Carrie Bell
Sinclair in 1863." Mildred Lewis Rutherford, The South in His-
tory and Literature (Athens, Georgia, 1906), p. 2j2, confirms this
ascription. On the other hand, Luke W. Conerly, Pike County.
Mississippi, ijgH-i8j6, pp. 214-16, ascribes the song to Lieutenant
Harrington of Alabama, on the authority of " a writer in the Age-
Herald of Birmingham" (date of issue not specified). Agreeing
with Conerly's account in outline, but adding some circumstantial
details, Kate E. Staton, in Old Southern Songs of the Period of the
Confederacy: The Dixie Trophy Collection (New York, ig26), pp.
111-12, says (without citing sources of information) :

"In September, 1862, Lieutenant Harrington, of Alabama, passed with
.Morgan's cavalry through Lexington, Ky. The women gave a hall one
night in their honor. They wore homespun dresses. So impressed was
the Lieutenant that he wrote the words to the song, 'The Homespun
Dress.' He met during the evening a Miss Earle, of whom he imme-
diately became enamoured. As she was musical, she improvised an air
for the young Lieutenant's song-poem which all the men of Morgan's
command soon learned and sang. To Miss Earle the original manuscript
of the words was given, she in turn giving it to George Dallas Musgrove,
of Carrollton, Ky., who preserved it among his treasures and from which
later typewritten copies were made. The song never found its way into
print, but was always popular about camp fires. . . . Lieutenant Har-
rington was killed in the battle of Perryville, October 3, 1862, only a
few days after the ball in Lexington."

Yet, on p. 125 of Old Southern Songs, the same song is reprinted
with the subcaption "Words by Carrie Bell Sinclair. Air "Bonnie
Blue Flag.'"

Frank Moore's The Cii'il ll'ar in Song and Story (New York.
1889), p. 174, prints a full text of 'The Homespun Dress' with a
headnote stating : "The accompanying song was taken from a letter
of a Southern girl to her lover in Lee's army, which letter was
obtained from mail captured on Sherman's march through Northern
Alabama" (1863-64).

Moore's headnote and text, in full, were copied, without acknowl-
edgment as to source, and sent to Miss Frederika P. Jenkins, Trinity
College, July 13, 1923. by Captain E. D. Williams. Harbor Master,
Wilmington, N. C. This copy appears in the Frank C. Brown
Collection, "Contributed by Capt. Williams thru Miss Frederika
Jenkins." The text of the song is reprinted below, so that the
following traditional versions may be compared with it.

Oh yes! I am a Southern girl, and glory in tlie name.

And boast it with far greater pride than glittering wealth or fame ;

I envy not tlic Northern girl her robes of beauty rare,

Though diamonds deck livr snowy neck and pearls bedeck her hair.

Chorus:

Hurrah I hurrah ! for the Sunny South so dear.

Three cheers for tiie homespun dress the Southern ladies wear.

 

MARTI A L A N I) P A T R 1 O T I C S () N (; S 455

Tliis homesinin dress is plain, I kiK)\v, my Iiat's ])aliiictto tcx),

But then it shows what Soutlicrn girls for Southern rights will do —

We scorn to wear a dress of silk, a hit of Northern lace,

We make our homespun dresses up and wear them with much grace.

Now Northern goods are out of date, and since old Ahe's hlockade
W^e Southern girls are quite content with goods ourselves have

made

We sent the hrave from out our land to battle with the foe
And we will lend a helping hand — we love the South, you know.

Our land it is a glorious land, and ours a glorious cause.

Then, three cheers for the homespun dress and for the Soutlicrn

boys.
We sent our sweethearts to the war, but, dear girls, never mind,
The soldier never will forget the girl he left behind.

A soldier is the lad for me — a brave heart I adore.
And when the Sunny South is free, and fighting is no more,
I then will choose a lover brave from out that glorious band.
The soldier boy that I love best shall have my heart and hand.

And now, young man, a word to you, if you would win the fair,
Go to the field where honor calls, and win your ladies there ;
Remember that our brightest smiles are for the true and brave.
And that our tears are for the one that fills a soldier's grave.

 

From a manuscript notebook lent in December 1943 to Dr. White by
Mrs. Harold Glasscock, Raleigh. "Most or all of her songs Mrs. Glass-
cock learned from her parents, and she can sing all but one of those
copied from her notebook."

1 Oh, yes I am a Sotithern girl
And glory in the name

And boast it with far greater pride
Than glittering wealth or fame.

Chorus:

Hurrah, hurrah for the Sunny South so dear!
Three rousing cheers for the homespun dress
That Southern ladies wear.

2 W'e envy not the Northern girl
Her robes of beauty rare.

The diamonds that deck her snow\- neck
And the jiearls that deck licr hair.

3 We scorn to wear a bit of silk,
A bit of Northern lace,

But make our homespun dresses u])
And wear them with a grace.

4 Oiu" homespun dress is ])lain, 1 know,
Our hats palmetto too.

But then it shows what Southern girls
For Southern rights will do.

 

456 N I) R T 11 C A R L I N A FOLKLORE

5 W'e sent our sweethearts to the war,
But. dear girls, never mind,

Your soldier lad will not forget
The girl he left behind.

6 And now. young men. a word to \ou
If you would win the fair —

Go to the field where honor calls
And win your lady there.

7 Remember that our brightest smiles
Are for the true and brave

And that our tears fall for the one
Who fills a soldier's grave.

Chants:

Hurrah, hurrah for the Sunny South so dear!
Three rousing cheers for sword and plume
That Southern soldiers wear.

B

'The SDiitlicrn Girl.' From Vernon Sechriest, Thomasville, Davidson
count}-, April g, 1928: "As remembered by Mrs. Augusta Fouts, Thomas-
ville, N. C., at the age of 77 years." Three stanzas with chorus.

1 The homespun dress is plain, I know.
My hat's palmetto too;

But then it shows what Southern girls
For Southern rights will do.

Chorus:

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for the Sunny South, hurrah !
Three cheers, three cheers for the Scnithern girls and
boys.

2 I envy not the Northern girl
Her robes and beauteotis rare ;
Diamonds adorn her snowy neck,
And pearls bedeck her hair.

3 W'e sent the bravest of our land,
But. dear girls, never mind ;
The soldier boy will not forget
The girl he left behind.

381
Pretty Pix.gy

This is an adaptation of the Enj^lish son<^ 'Pretty Girl of Darby
O.' I<"or Kentucky and other North Carolina versions, see SharpK
II 59-61 (;ill with music). Sharp's A and C texts say that the
captain "
\\a> buried in the Louisiana country." and C identifies
him a> "("antain Wade."

 

M A R T I A L A N I) i' A T R I T 1 C SO N G S 457

"Pretty JV-ggy-' I'Voiii Thonias Smith, Zionville, Watauga county, May
8, 1915, with tliis note: "As sung by Bennett Smith, who learned it as
early as i860. Civil War song." Two MSS, one in Dr. lirown's hand
and one in the hand of Thomas Smith. It is also noted that the song is
accompanied by music from Mrs. Perry.

1 Won't you marry me, Pretty Peggy O,
Won't you marry me. Pretty Peggy O,
Won't you marry me ?

Such a soldier Pll l)e.

Just as grand as any in the country, (),

Just as grand as any in the country, O.

2 She came tripping down the stairs. Pretty Peggy O,
She came trip[)ing down the stairs. Pretty Peggy (J,
She came tripping down the stairs

A-partin' of her yellow hair.

Just as grand as any in the country, O,

Just as grand as any in the country, O.

3 His name was Captain Wade, Pretty Peggy O,
His name was Captain Wade, Pretty Peggy O,
His name was Captain Wade,

And he died for a maid.

And was buried in the Louisiana Country, O,

And was buried in the Louisiana Country, O.

382

Never Mind Your Knapsack

'Southern Spy's Song — Spy in Lee's Army.' From Miss Jewell Rob-
bins, Pekin, Montgomery county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue), July 1922.
Dr. Brown notes : "Miss Robbins' father learned it in Lee's army. Sung
just before close of war."

1 Never mind your knapsack,
Never mind your gun.
Fighting of the rebels
Ain't nothin' but fun.

Chants:

And it's ofif to Richmond
So early in the morning,
Ofif to Richmond,
I heard a Yankee say.

2 We've got the navy,
We've got the men.

We're bound to go to Richmond
To storm the rebel den.

3 They anchored out a battery
Upon the waters free.

 

^-8 N- () R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

'Twas the queerest looking thing
You ever did see.

383
Bushwhacker's Song

"There was a husliwhacker's strongliold in Montgomery County
I writes Dr. Brown] wliere the deserters during the Civil War found
refuge, especially pacifists, and organized a band whose leaders
were the Owenses, who built a fort, called Owens' Fort. The hunt-
ers (those too old for service) from southern Montgomery County
went up to arrest the deserters and hung two women by their
thumbs to make diem tell where the fort was. They found the fort
and had a battle, and part were killed, part escaped, and others were
captured. One who escaped crawled into a tree to hide and stayed
so long that maggots ate into his wound and they had to amputate
his leg. The captain sang this song. Miss Robbins' grandfather
was one of the hunters. William Fraser Merton."

'Owen's Fort.' From Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery county
(later .Mrs. C. P. Perdue), July 1922; with music.

1 1 am a bushwhacker.
The thicket's my heme.
The thicket's my home.
The thicket's my home.
I am a bushwhacker.
The thicket's my home.
.And them that don't like it
Can let me alone.

2 I'll tune up my fiddle
And rosin my bow,
And rosin my bow,
And rosin my bow.
I'll tune up my fiddle
And rosin my bow.

And I shall find welcome
Wherever I go.

3 Mv kinfolks don't like me
And that I well know,
.■\nd that I well know.
And that I well know.
My kinfolks don't like me
.'\nd that I well know.
And I don't find welcome
To knock at their door.

 

m a r t 1 a l a \ u patriotic songs 459

Deskktkr's Sung

'Deserter's Son^' suggests the story of sonic North Carohna
mountain man from tlie neighborhood of Grandfather Mountain who
had dodged the conscription officers^ and was thinking of the fates
of his less fortunate fellow-citizens who had not but were languish-
ing in "Castle Thunder."

A clipping from the Richmond Timcs-Dispatcli of June 22, 1943,
kindly supplied by Miss Mary M. Watt, editor of the Questions and
Answers column of that newspaper, identifies "Castle Thunder"
(1. 3) as follows:

"Castle Thunder was tlie cliicf provost prison in the South and was
used for civilian, rather than military, prisoners of the Confederacy. Its
commander. Captain C. W. Alexander, was a disabled soldier with vigor
and determination, .\ccording to Richmond. I'lrgiiiia, in Old Prints, by
Alexander W'eddell, 'Castle Thunder, on the north side of Cary Street,
between Eigliteenth and Nineteenth Streets, and its twin fortress. Castle
Lightning, almost opposite on the south side of Cary, were both built
prior to the War Between the States as factories for "the manufacture of
tobacco. At the outbreak of hostilities they were taken over by govern-
rnental authorities and used principally for the incarceration of 'unde-
sirables' of our own people, but a certain number of Federal prisoners
were also kept there. . . . Neither of the "castles' here referred to is
now standing, their places being filled by modern plants in which, as
in their predecessors, tobacco is prepared for the market.' The United
States Tobacco Company now has the property on which Castle Thunder
formerly stood."

Mr. Ben Ames Williams, in his novel of the Civil War, House
Divided (Boston, 1947 J, refers to Castle Thunder several times,
e.g., p. 6-2.

There is a song of the same pattern as Mr. Smith's in White
ANFS 289 (from Alabama).

No title. From Thomas Smith, Zionville ; undated ; with this explana-
tion : "A deserter's lament sung during the Civil War by many persons
in Watauga county."

I'd nither be on the Grandfather Mountain
A-taking the snow and rain
Than to be in Castle Thunder
A-\vearin' the ball and chain.

^ "Draft-dodgers and deserters were found in ail the Snuthern states
during the Civil War, but especially in those sections where sentiment
was divided between the two causes. When in 1864 the Confederate
Congress drafted boys from eighteen down to seventeen, hundreds of
these new draughts from counties east of the Blue Ridge were avoiding
the Confederate service by scouting their way to the Yankee lines in
Tennessee." — Shepherd M. Dugger, The War Trails of the Blue Ridyc
(Banner Elk, N. C, 1922), pp. iio-ii.

 

460 north carolina folklore

Come. Rain, Come

From a manuscript notebook lent in December 1943 to Dr. White by
Mrs. Harold Glasscock. Raleigh, N. C. "Most or all of her songs Mrs.
Glasscock learned from her parents, and she can now sing all but one
of those copied from her notebook." Cf. Hudson FSM 257.

1 I'm alone in my shanty
And rations are scanty,

For grits are now the order of the day.

The young moon is peeping

While o'er the hills are creeping

Some hungry Rebs about to make a raid.

Chorus:

Come, rain, come, rain, come.

Come, flow to the top of my boots.

Oh, come and I'll thank 'ee

To keep back the Yankees

Until our ranks are filled up by recruits.

2 The watchdog is growling
While down the lane is prowling
Some Rebs about to steal a hen away.
The watchdog is snarling

For fear Annie darling,

His beautiful young friend, they'll steal away.

3 You may talk about your Annie,
But give me some hammie.

Some biscuit nicely buttered over, too,

-A cup of smoking Java,

'Twill make your mouth saliva.

I wish I had some in me now ; don't yoit?

386

Sorghum Molasses

This blend of Cracker. Tar Heel, and Piedmont we have not
found in other published collections.

'Sorghum Molasses.' Contributed by G. S. Robinson. Asheville. A
phonograph recording was made on August 4, 1939.

I A soldier was a-setting by the road one day
As he was a-looking very gay.
By his side he had some meal
He'd just stolen from an old tar-heel.
Bye and bye.

 


S O R G H U M B () I L I X G

 

MARTIAL AND PATRIOTIC SONGS 461

Cliorits:

I'm a-goin^^ to marn- before I die.

Bye and bye, bye and bye,

Marry the girl with the bright bkie eye.

The Georgia girls there's none surpasses ;

They are swetter than sorghum molasses.

P>ye and bye.

2 He made a hre to bake iiis bread.

And when it was done he laughed and said,
*A11 the world there's none surpasses
Good cornbread and sorghum molasses.'
Bye and bye.

3 In a canteen by his side

That he was trying hard to hide
From the eyes of those who were passing,
He had a quart of sorghum molasses.
Bye and bye.

4 As I went up Atlanta street

A tar-heel girl I chanced to meet.
Says to me, 'Are you a traveller?'
'Yes. by ginger, I'm a goober grabbler.'
Bye and bye.

5 There's Alabama, thus you see,
Tennessee, or what you please,
South Carolina, tar and resin,

Good old Georgia, goobers and sorghum.
Bye and bye.

387
Jeff Davis Rode a White H()r.se

Cf. Scarborough SCSM 74, in wliich the lines are transposed.
Miss Scarborough's text is from Asheville.

No title. The text bears only the notation "Mr. Fairley, Duke Univer-
sity student" and Mr. Fairley's note : "This was a very popular verse
after the war. It was sung, it was recited, and was put in every form
possible."

Jeff Davis rode a white horse,
Lincoln rode a mule ;
Jeff' Davis was a gentleman,
Lincoln was a fool.

N.C.F.. Vol. III. i.U)

 

462 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

388

Old Abe Is Sick

From Vernon Sechriest, Thomasville, Davidson county, March 9, 1928,
with comment: "As remembered by Mrs. Augusta Fonts, Thomasville,
N. C. at the age of j-] years."

1 Old Abe is sick, old Abe is sick.
Old Abe is sick in bed.

He's a lying dog, a dying dog.
With meanness in his head.

2 He wants our cotton, he wants our cotton.
He wants our cotton, too.

He shall have it, he will have it —
Some tar and feathers, too.

3 Down with old Abe, down with old Al)e,
And all his Yankee crew.

Up! up! with Jefif, hurrah for Jeff,
A Southern man so true.

389
The Privates Eat the AIiddlin'

'Verse from "Git erlong home, Cindy, Cindy." ' Contributed by V. C.
Royster, Wake county, 1914 ( ?), with the note: "Before the Civil War —
Personal recollections refreshed by talking with other old people. Sung
during the war."

The privates eat the middlin.

The officers eat the ham.

They put me in the guardhouse.

Rut I don't care a D — n.

[Or]

Way down in Rockingham.

390
When This Cruel War Is Over

Esther Park i'^llins^er, in The Soiithcni War I'octry of the Ck'il
War (Philadelpliia, iyi8), p. 189, quoting the title and the first
two lines of this song, describes it as: "Ballad. Words by Charles
C. Sawyer, Richmond, Va. Music by Henry Tucker. George Dunn
and Co." She indicates that it is in the collection of nuisic in
Ridgway Branch of Library Company of Philadelphia. 'When
I'his Cruel War Is Over' was printed as a broadside by De Marsan
and by Auner of Philadelphia. It is in Frank Converse's Old
Cremona Songster (New ^'()rk, iW),^), p. 5. Belden BSM 381 re-
marks tliat the song "scenic to have e.\])resst'(l a feeling about the

 

M A U r 1 A I. A N I) r A T K 1 () l' 1 I' SO N C S 463

\v;ir cdiiniKiii to both Ninth and South," gives notes on parodies of
it. and jn-int?, a Missouri text. It appears in an excellent musical
setting? in Olin Downes and Elie Siej^nieister : ./ 'I'rcasury of
American Song (New York, 1^40) , pp. 164-5.

A

'W'licn This Cruel War Is Over.' Coiilrilmtid by Austin I,. ICIlintt.
Farmer, Randolph county ; without date.

I iX-arcst love, do yoti reniemhcr, wlieii we last did meet.
How you told me that }-oii loved me. kneeling at my feet ?
Oh, how proud you stood before me. in your suit of j^ray.
When yoti vowed for me and couiitrv ne'er to jn'o astray.

Chorus:

Weeping sad and lonely, sighs and tears, in \ain.
^\ hen this cruel war is over praying to meet again.

_' When the summer breeze is sighing mourn fullv along.
( )r when the autumn leaves are falling, sadly breathe the

song.
Oft in dreams I see you lying on the battle plain.
Lonely, woitnded, even dying, calling, but in \ain.

3 If, amid the din of battle, nobly you should fall.

Far away from those who love you, none to hear you call.
Who would whisper words of comfort, who would soothe

your words of {)ain ?
Ah, the many cruel fancies ever in my brain.

4 liut our country calls you. loved one. Angels guide yotir

way ;
\\ bile our Southern sons are fighting, we can only pray.
When you strike for God and Freedom, let all nations see
How you loved your Southern banner, emblem of the free.

B

'Song Composed During the Civil War.' From a notebook lent in
December 1943 to Dr. White by Mrs. Harold Glasscock, Raleigh, N. C.
"Most or all of her songs Mrs. Glasscock learned from her parents,
and slie can now sing all but one of those copied from her notebook."
Three stanzas and chorus, corresponding to stanzas i, 2, 4, and chorus
of A (stanza i. 1. 4 reading "As you vowed to me and country never
to betray" ; stanza 3. 1. 3, "Nobly strike for God and Liberty . . ." ;
chorus :)

Weeping sad and lonely, hopes and fears how vain.
Yet ])raying when this cruel war is over that we'll meet
again ) .

 

'When This Cruel War Is Over.' From an anonymous contributor ; un-
dated. Four stanzas and chorus, differing in a few verbal details frorn

 

464 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

A and the corresponding parts of B (stanza i, 1. i reading "Dearest
one . . ." ; stanza i, 1. 2 reading "how you loved me"; stanza i, 1. 4,
"When you vowed from me and country ne'er to go astray"; stanza
3. 1. 3, "All! the many cruel fancies ever in my brain").

1)
'If Amid the Din of Battle.' From Miss Jewell Rohbins, Pekin. Mont-
gomery county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue). A phonograph recording was
made in 1921. One stanza, composed of lines corresponding to the first
halves of A 3 and 4 :

If amid the din of battle nobly you should fall,

Far awav from those who love you, and none to hear vou

call,
But your country calls you. loved one. Angels guide your

way.
While our Southern boys are fighting, we will also pray.

E
'When This Cruel War Is Over.' From the John Burcli Blaylock
Collection. With a few verbal changes, close to A.

 

The Good Old Rebel

Louise Pound, in Poetic Origins and the Ballad (New York,
1921), pp. 228-9, called attention to the fact that 'The Good Old
Rebel,' which has become a folk song, "is one of the best poems of
Innes Randolph (1837-87), who was for a time connected with the
Baltimore American." It appears in its original form in Poems by
Innes Randolph (Baltimore, 1898), pp. 30-1. Harold Randolph,
W'ho edited the Poems, says that Innes Randolph served "in the
Confederate Army throughout the whole of the great struggle,"
and that the poem "was written . . . while Reconstruction held sway
in the South."

The original has been printed in The Oxford Book of Light
Verse, pp. 436-7. For other printed appearances, see the citations
in Cox FSS 281, and for a later traditional version of it, Hudson
FSM 259. See also Randolph OFS 11 291-5.

A

'The Unreconstructed Rebel.' From W. S. Fitzgerald, Durham, Decem-
ber 19, 1938, with tlie following note (which is in error about the
authorship) : "The following stanzas were composed many years ago by
an old Confederate veteran, a Georgia cracker, and were sung by him
with banjo accompaniment to a group at a Confederate reunion, probably
the one held at Nashville. Tennessee. The song represents the extreme
but semi-humorous attitude of the old soldier who at the close of the War
between the States refused to renew his citiztnsliii) by taking the oath
of allegiance to the government of the United States. So far as the
reporter knows, the words have never appeared in print." In this text,
stanzas i, 2, 3, and 4 correspond to Randolph's i, 4, 5, and 6, and there
arc no stanzas corresponding to Randolph's 2 and 3.

 

M A R T 1 A 1. A N I) P A T R 1 T 1 C SONGS 465

1 ( )h, I'm a o(H)cl ole Rebel.
An' that's jes what 1 am.

An' fer this 'Land of h'reedom'
I do not care a damn.
I'm glad I fit against it,
1 only wisht we'd won,
An' 1 don't want no ])ardon
Fer anything 1 done.

2 I followed ( )le IMarse Robert
Fer fo' years nigh abont.
Got wounded in three places
An' starved at P'int Lookout.
I cotch the rheumatism
A-campin' in the snow.

But I killed a chance of Yankees,
An' Fd lak to kill some mo'.

3 Three hundred thousand Yankees
Lie stifif in Southern dust ;

We killed three hundred thousand
Refo' they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever,
An' Southern shell and shot ;
I wisht it was three million
Instid of what we got.

4 I can't take up my muskey
An' fight 'em any mo',

But I ain't a-goin' to love 'em,
Now that is sartain sho.
An' I don't want no pardon.
For Reb I was an" am ;
I won't be reconstructed,
An' I do not care a damn.

B

No title. From Lois Johnson, Davidson county ; undated. One stanza.

Now Fm a good old rebel.
And that's just what I am ;
For this fair Land of Freedom
I do not care a damn.
I only fit against it,
I only wish we'd won,
.\nd I don't ax no ])ar(lon
h'or nothing 'tall I done.

 

466 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

 

No title. From an anonyniuus contributor ; undated. Same as B, except
in 1. 5, "fight" for "fit."

D

'Ole Marse Robert.' From .Miss Jewell Robbins, Pekin, Montgomery
county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue). A ])honograph recording was made
in July K.J22. This corresi>onds to stanzas i, 4, 2, and 6 of Randolph's
text.

1 I am a good old rebel.
Now that's just what 1 am.
For this fair land of freedom
I do not give a danL

I'm glad I fought against it,
I only wish we'd won.
-And I don't want any pardon
For anything I've done.

2 Fve followed old Marse Robert
For four years all about,

Got wounded in three places,
And starved at Point Lookout.
I caught the rheumatism
While camping in the snow,
P)tit I killed a chance of Yankees —
( )h, I'd like to kill some more.

3 I hate this Constitution,
This great Republic too,

I hate the Freedman's Bureau,
Its uniform of blue;
I hate the nasty eagle
With all her brags and fuss.
And the lying, thieving Yankees,
1 hate them worse and worse.

4 1 won't take up my musket
To hght them any mcjre.

And Fm not going to love them.

Now that is certain shore ;

And I ne\ er will deny

W hat 1 was and am,

.And I won't be reconstructed,

Ancl I don't care a dam.

 

martial and t a t k 1 u t 1 c songs 467

The Vktkrax's Song

Contrilnitcd l)v lulian P. Boyd, who obtained it from a pupil in the
school at Alliance, Pamlico county, c. 1927-28. The copy of the song
iiears the notation: "By John Ross Dicks, a Yankee Soldier. Brought
from tlie Civil War by John L. Lee, Union Soldier."

1 Come, gather rotind the caniptire.
And till the hreak of day

I'll sing a song, my comrades,
To pass the time away.
I've been in many a battle —
You may see it in my scars —
And this old arm has failed not
Through all this weary war.

2 I was wounded at Bull Run
When the Rebels' bloody host
Came down in all their pride

And the stream in haste we cross'd.
'Twas the first time I smelled powder,
But I knew not how to yield,
And at Fair Oaks I contested
Another bloody field.

3 This scar upon my cheek I got
When a bloody charge we made
Upon the traitors — I was one
Of Fighting Joe's Brigade.

I was left for dead upon the field,
But when the former ran
With Averill at Culpeper,
I crossed the Rapidan.

4 When the cry was 'On to Richmond!'
I was in McClellan's track ;

1 put my face into the front
And couldn't show my back.
On Antietam's bloody field.
All hacked and gashed. I fell.
But not before some score of foes
Found I could smite as well !

5 I got at Fredericksl)urgh
A graj^eshot in my knee.
But fought on for the Union
Till I -saw the traitors flee !

I grasped one Rebel by the throat,

 

468 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Who tried to seize our flag,

And choked the cheer that to his Hps

Arose for General Bragg.

6 Three fingers of my left hand
A sharpshooter destroyed,

As I was out on picket,
But my bullet him annoyed.
I got his body in exchange.
And my revenge was full.
For I've a few more fingers
Which can still a trigger pull !

7 But what care I for wounds or death ?
With all a patriot's might.

As a good and faithful soldier

For the Union still I'll fight !

And will not sheathe my sword

Until from Florida to Maine

The Stars and Stripes shall proudly float

O'er all our land again.

393
Brother Green

Of this farewell song of a Union soldier mortally wounded in
battle, there are, in our collection, two closely similar texts, with
music common to both, and a phonograph recording.

Belden BSM 2;/";, printing one stanza of the song from Missouri,
notes that an Illinois contributor of a text in JISHS xxxi 303-10
reported the song to have been "'composed by Rev. L. J. Simpson,
late chaplain in tbe Army ... on the death of a brother who was
killed at Fort Donaldson, February, 1862." Belden also gives ref-
erences to other texts from Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and North Carolina. Fuson BKH 193-4 contains a text
of twelve stanzas, lacking one corresponding to 4, below, but con-
taining two additional stanzas and showing throughout many verbal
variations. For a text witb music, see Wyman and Brockway LT
18-21. See also Randolph OFS 11 253-6.

A

'Brother Green.' With music and the following note : "Collected for
Prof. I. G. Greer, of Boone, N. C, by Miss Ella Harden, of Stoney
Fork, N. C. Copied from original manuscript, written and composed by
Joseph Green." The typescript bears the notation "copied 3/4/15."

I () cnuK- to nie my brother green
for 1 am shot and bleeding
Now I must die no more to see
mv wife and m\- dear children

 

M A R T I A I. AND PATRIOTIC SO N G S 469

2 Sonic Southern foe have laid me low-
on this cold ground to suffer

dear brother Stay and lay me away
and rii^dit my wife a letter

3 tell her I am prepared to die
and hope to meet in heaven
since I've believed in Jesus Christ
my Sins are all forgiven

4 1 hope she prayed and prayed for me
and now my pra}-ers are answered

So I must be prepared to die
Still hope to meet in heaven

5 my poor little bal)es 1 love them well
o if could but oust more see them

to bid them all a long fare well
Still hope to meet in heaven

6 but here I am in tennessee
and bur in Illinois

soon I must die and be buried
no more to hear their voices

7 dear mary you must teach them well
and train them all for heaven

that may love and sur\e the lord
and they will be respected

8 dear father you have suffered long
and prayed for my salvation

and I must die and leev you all
Still hope to meet in heaven

9 Sister Nancey you must not greave
for the loss of a dear brother

for he are gon on to heaven to live
to see your blessed mother

10 two brothers yet I can not forget
a fighting for the union

for which dear wife I have lost my life
to put down this rebellion

11 tell my wife she must not greave
but kiss the little children

for they will call their paw in vain
when he are gone to heaven

 

1-0 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

12 they is men here from old Tennessee
anci from old Illinois

now 1 must die no more to see
no more to here thiere voises

13 dear brother green I am diing now
o that 1 die so easy

o shorley death has lost its sting
because I lov my Jesus

Joseph Green his song ballet
Sep the I 1877

B
'Brother Green.' A typescript. This is anonymous, but is on stationery
of .Appalachian Training School, I. G. Greer, Boone, N. C. The song
ends: "Joseph Green his song ballet, Sep the i 1877." This typescript
appears to be a regularization, with a lacuna at stanza 6, 1. 2 (which
reads "and hur in tennessee" in A 6) and a query "they?" for "that"
in A 7, 1. 3. It was probably made to accompany the music.

C
•() Brother Green, Come to Ale.' In 1939 a recording of the song was
made from the singing of Manley Greene, aged eighty-si.x, Zionville,
Watauga county.

394
He Never Came Back

This is a traditional variant of a song- published as a broadside
bv Auner of Philadeli)hia, with notation: "Words and music by
\Villiam Jerome, c. 1891, by Rossiter, Chicago." For another, see
Randolph OFS iii 124-6.

'He Never Came Back.' From O. L. Cofifey, ShuH's Mills, N. C,
August 1939. There is a recording of the song by G. S. Robinson,
West Asheville, 1939.

I A soldier kissed his wife good-bye,
He was going to the war ;
The tears did trinkle down his cheeks,
( )f the one he did adore,
"lie patient, love, till 1 return.
My own sweetheart,' ho cried ;
lUn at the liattle of Hull Run,
1 li' like a soldier died.

Chorus:

He ne\(.r came back, oh, he never came back;

Mis dear face .she'll never see more;

I'.ut how liappy she'll be

When bis diar tacc she'll see,

When wo niei't on that beautiful shore.

 

M A R l- 1 A 1. A X I) I' A T K 1 O T 1 C SONGS 47I

2 I wt'ul inid a iL'^lauraut.
As huiiyry as a hear.
And like a raving maniac,
I i,n-al)l)e(l a bill of fare.

The waiter said, A\'hat will you have?'
'Bring me a steak,' 1 say.
He took my order and bowed his head.
.\\u\ slowK- walked awav.

(Iionis:

lie never came back, oh, he never came back.

I waited an hour or more.

But his face 1 will break.

If he don't bring me that steak,

\\ hen we meet on that beautiful shore.

3 I went to see the Barnum Show,
I took my mother-in-law ;

She laughed at everything she saw.

Until she broke her jaw.

The big l)alloon outside the tent,

It proved to be my friend;

I shoved her in and cut the rope.

And up she did ascend.

Chorus:

She never came back, oh, she never came back,

High up in the air she did soar;

Oh I'm so happy tonight.

She is away out of sight ;

Till we meet on that beautiful shore.

395

Goodbye, My Blue Bell

From Newman I. White, Durham, January 13, 1945, with this note:
"Furnislied from memory of about 1900-1913, to accompany record
9-\'III as hummed l)y Miss Jewell Rohhins. It is a Spanish-American
War song, and I am not sure whether what 1 recall is stanza one or
chorus— the latter, I think." Miss Jewell Robbins. of Pekin, Mont-
gomery county (later Mrs. C. P. Perdue), made a recording of tlie
song at Pekin c. 1921-22.

Goodbye, my Blue Bell,

Farewell to you.

One last fond look into your eyes so blue.

'Mid campfires gleaming.

Through shot and shell,

I will be dreaming

( )f mv sweet Blue r.ell.

 

472 north carolina folklore

Soldier's Epitaph

Xo title. From Lucille Cheek, Chatham county, contributed while she
was a student in the 1923 Trinity College Summer School. Cf. White
ANFS 293.

Born in North Carolina,
Raised in Tennessee,
Worked like hell in Georgia,
Died in Gerniinee.

 

397
Tippecanoe

At the close of the presidential campaign of 1840, between Gen-
eral William Henry Harrison (Old Tippecanoe ) and President Mar-
tin Van Buren, the defeated Democrats complained, "We have been
sung down, lied down, drunk down." In no other American presi-
dential campaign have political ballads and songs played so impor-
tant a part. The Whigs got out several songbooks, among them
The Log Cabin Songster. The "ballad deafened" contest was re-
newed in the campaign of 1844. Cf. Meade Minnigerode, Presiden-
tial \'ears, I/87-1860 (New York, 1928), pp. 177-254.

'Tippecanoe' appeared in Tippecanoe Song-Book : A Collection of
Log Cabin and Patriotic Melodies (Philadelphia, 1840), pp. 18-19.
with direction that it was to be sung to the tune of "Old Rosin the
Bow,' with line 5 reading "near" for "by" in the Waddell version,
and the fourth stanza lacking. (Location and collation by Mr.
Richard B. Vowles. the Graduate School. Yale University, New-
Haven. Conn.)

'Tiijpecanoe.' Contributed by Julian P. Boyd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
April 19, 1928, as copied from "Waddell Manuscript, North Carolina
Hist(jrical Commission Archives," without identification or description
of the "Waddell Manuscript." A description of the source, with a copy
of the song, has been kindly supplied to the editors by Mr. D. L. Cor-
l)itt. Head of the Division of Publications, North Carolina State Depart-
ment of Archives and History, Raleigh. X. C, in a letter dated Novem-
ber 29, 1946, as follows :

"This campaign song is a manuscript written on a sheet 8x10. There
is no (late and no author indicated. Tiie page is yellow with age, but
otherwise in fair condition. I am sending you, herewitii, a typescript of
the song.

"This song is in the collection entitled 'Waddell Papers,' which are
described in the Guide to Manuscript C(dlccti()ns, item No. 748. In check-
ing through the Biennial Reports 1 find that part of the 'Waddell Papers'
were i)reseuted by Mr. Guion W. Waddell, Mooresfield, N. C. This is
listed in the report covering the jteriod December i, 191 6, to November
30. 1918. In the ne.xt lUcnnial Report. 1918-1920. Mr. O. C. Erwin,
of .Morganton, presented a collection of pai)ers relating to the Moore
and Waddell families, wliich from casual investigation indicate they were
placed witii the Waddell papers. In the Collection of papers I find no

 

M A R T 1 A I. A N I) 1" A T K 1 T I C SON S 4/3

reference to this song in any correspondence or otherwise. It is difficult
for me to say that Mr. WaddcU owned this copy, or that Mr. Erwin
owned it. About the most I can say witli certainty is that tlie song is
in manuscript, and is in this department."

Mr. Boyd's and Mr. C'orbitt's copies of 'Tippecanoe' differ only
in a few mechanical particulars. Mr. forhitt's is followed here.

'ri])l)t'caii(ic'.

1 A humpcr around now, my hearties,
I'll sing you a song that is new ;

I'll please to the luittons all parties,
And sing of Old Tipl^ccanoc.

2 When first by the Thames, gentle waters,
My sword for my coitntry 1 drew,

I fotight for America's daughters.
Long side of Old Tippecanoe.

3 Ere this too when danger assailed tis.
And Indians their dread missiles threw,
His counsil & courage availed us ;

We conquered at Tippecanoe.

4 And when all the troubles were ended,
I flew to the girls that I knew.

They promptly declared that they intended
To kiss me for Tippecanoe.

5 And now that the good of the nation
Required that something we do.
W'e'U hurl little Van jroni his station
And elevate Tippecanoe.

6 Again and again fill your glasses.
Bid Martin Van Buren adieu.

We'll please ourselves and the lasses.
And vote for Old Tippecanoe.

398

Does Your Mother Know You're Out?

This is an echo of the canipaijjn of Horace Greeley for the
presidency on the Independent Republican and Democratic ticket
in 1872, adapted obviously from a vaudeville song of the time. It
is interesting to find it preserved in memory in North Carolina
down into the twentieth century.

'Does Your Mother Know You're Out?' From the manuscript notebook
of Mrs. Harold Glasscock of Raleigh, lent to Dr. White in 1943. The
songs in this l)ook Mrs. Glasssock learned from her parents.

 

474 ^' " R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

1 Does your mother know you're out ?
Does your mother know you're out ?
How arc you, Horace Greeley?
Does your mother know you're out ?

2 -Mother, is the battle over?
What are the men about?
How are you, Horace Greeley?
Does vour mother know you're out ?

 

399
Uncle Sam's Farm

This is in Jordan and Kessler's Songs of Yesterday and Ford's
Traditional Music of America, and the California Check-List re-
ports a broadside of it printed by Andrews of New York. It does
not appear in other regional collections of folk song. From its
emphasis on the melting-pot idea one infers that it dates from the
period following the Civil War.

'Uncle Sam's Farm.' From the manuscript book of songs belonging to
Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, lent to Dr. Brown in 1916. The Jordan
and Kessler text shows that in stanza 2 "past" in the first hne should
be "as fast" and that the first half of the third line should read "From
the great Atlantic ocean," that in the third line of stanza 3 "that" should
be inserted before "course," that the second line of stanza 4 should be
"Of the grand results that pour along this mighty age of steam," and
the fourth line "And we send our news by lightning on the telegraphic
wire."

1 Uf all the might}' nations in the east or in the west.

Oh, this glorious yankee nation is the greatest and the
best.

W^e have room for all creation, and our l)anncr is un-
furled ;

Here's a general invitation to the people of the world.

Chorus:

Then come along, come along, make no delav.
Come from every nation, come from every wav.
Our lands they are l)road enough, don't he ahirnied.
For Uncle Sam's rich enough to give us all a faruL

2 St. Lawrence marks the northern line, fast our waters

flow.
And the Rio (irande our soutliern l)ounds way down to

Mexico.
From across the great Atlantic, where the sun begins to

dawn,
Leap across the Rocky Mountains far away to Oregon,

 

M A R T I A I. A X I) I' A T K 1 O T 1 C SO N C. S 4/3

3 While the south shall raise the cotton, and the west the

corn and pork.
New luio-land manufacturers shall do up the hner work;
l'\)r the\leep and flowing water falls course aloui^ our

hills
Are just the ihinu for washin- sheep and dru ui- cotton

mills.

4 ( )ur fathers gives us liherty, but little did they dream

( )f the grand result that favors along that mighty stream;
l-or our mountains, lakes, and rivers are all a blaze ot

And we send our news by the lightnmg telegrai)hic wu'e.

5 Yes, we are bound to beat the nations, for our motto is

'Go ahead.'
And we will tell the foreign pauper that our jjcople are

well fed. .

b'or the nations must remember that Sam is not a too ,
For the people do the voting and the children go to school.

 

400
The Sweet Sunny South

This is reported as folk song from Virginia (SharpK ii 262,
263) and West Virginia (SharpK 11 263). and a song of the same
title but of a considerably diiYerent content from Michigan (BbSM
242-3). In Heart Songs (pp. 20-1) it is ascribed to "Raymond.
Professor White notes on the manuscript of the Nordi Caroina ver-
sion that it was -one of my mother's favorite songs m my cjiildhood
( 1802-1000) in Statesville. N. C. I can still sing it. The Massa
in our text suggests that it is a pseudo-Negro piece: but the word
is spelled "iMassie" in Sharp's Virginia text, and there is nothing
else in any of the versions to support the suggestion. In the
Michigan version and in Sharp's second Virginia text it is a song
of Southern patriotism in the Civil War.

'The Sweet Sunny South.' Reported by Mrs. Alice Cooke of Boone,
Watauga county, in 1921 or 1922. With the tune.

I Take me home to the place where I first saw the light.
To the sweet sunnv South take me home.
Where the mocking-bird sung me to rest every mght ;
Ah, why was I tempted to roam ?
I think with regret of the dear home 1 left.
Of the warm hearts that sheltered me then,
( )f the wife and the dear ones of whom I'm bereft.
And 1 wish for the old place again.

 

476 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Cliorus:

Take me home to the place where my Httle ones sleep ;

Poor Massa lies buried close by.

O'er the grave of the loved ones 1 long to weep

And among them to rest when I die.

2 Take me home to the place where the orange trees grow.
To my cot in the evergreen shade,

Where the flowers on the river's green margin may blow

Their sweets on the banks where we played.

The path to our cottage, they say, has grown green

And the place is quite lonely around.

And I know that the smiles and the forms I have seen

Now lie under the ground.

3 Take me home, let me see what is left that I knew.
Can it be that the old house is gone?

The dear friends of my childhood, indeed, must be few,

And I must lament all alone.

But yet I'll return to the place of my birth,

\\'here my children have played at the door.

Where they pulled the white blossoms that garnished the

earth,
Which will echo their footsteps no more.

401
Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

From the title and the refrain it is apparent that this is of com-
paratively recent origin. The editor has not found it in other col-
lections. The disordering of the rhyme arrangement in the final
stanza suggests that it has been misremembered.

'The Blue Ridge Mountain Blues.' Contributed by Otis Kuykendall of
Asheville in August 1939.

1 \\ hen I was young and in my prime
I left my home in Caroline.

All I do is sit and pine

For those folks 1 left liehind.

Chorus:

I got the Blue Ridge Mountain blues,

And I'll stand right here and say

b'very day I'm counting till I climb that mountain

To the I>lue Ridge far away.

2 I know the day when I'll return
There'll be a shindig in the barn.

 

M A R T I A L A X 1) P A TRIO T I C SON f. S 4/7

And folks for miles around will swarm ;
There'll he some fiddlers to the storm.

I see a window with a light,
I see two heads of snowy white ;
And 1 can almost hear them sigh.
'Where is niv wandering hoy toni^lit ?'

I'm going to do right hy Ma,

I'm going to do right hy Pa,

I'm going to hang around that cahin door,

Never going to wander any more.

I can hear my hound dog Ijay.
I'm going to hunt for the 'possum.
Where the corn tops hlossom
To my Blue Ridge far away.

 

402

The North Carolina Hills

This has not been found elsewhere, and there is l)ut one text in
our collection: but as a piece of local patriotism it should perliaps
be given place liere.

'The North Carolina Hills.' Contributed (and perhaps composed) by
O. L. Coffey of Shull's Mills, Watauga county, in 1939.

1 Oh. the North Carolina hills.
How majestic and how grand.
With their summits hathed in glory
Like our Prince Immanuel's land ;
Is it any wonder, then.

That my heart with rapture thrills
As I stand once more with loved ones
On those North Carolina hills?

' Chorus:

Oh. the hills, the heautiful hills.

How I love those North Carolina hills !

If o'er sea or land I roam

Still I think of happy home

And the friends among the North Carolina hills.

2 Oh, the North Carolina hills.

Where my childhood hours were passed ;
Where I often wandered lonely
And the future tried to cast.
Many are our visions hright

N.C.F.. Vol. Ill, (33)

 

NM) R T H CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Which the future ne'er fulfills ;
But how sunny were my day-dreams
On those North Carolina hills !

Oh. the North Carolina hills,

llow unchanged they seem to stand;

With their summits pointing skyward

To the great Almighty's land !

Many changes I can see.

Which my heart with sadness fills.

But no change can he noticed

On those North Carolina iiills.

Oh, the North Carolina hills,

1 must bid you now adieu.

In my home beyond the mountains

I will ever dream of you ;

In the evening time of life.

If my Father only wills.

I shall still behold the visions

Of the North Carolina hills.

 

403
The Hills of Dan

In the Greensboro Daily Nezvs of Sunday, November 2. 1947,
E. P. Holmes quotes a garbled five-stanza text of 'The Hills of
Dan' from a scrapbook owned by "Old Granny Parks" of Oakland
Farm, near Sanford, N. C. According to Mr. Holmes's informant,
Granny Parks's "attic library . . . hasn't been touched as I know
of since the Civil War."

'The Hills of Dan.' From the John Bnrch Blaylock Collection.

1 The world is not one garden spot
Or pleasure ground for man ;
Few are the spots that intervene.
Such as the Hills of Dan.

2 Though fairer i)rospects greet mine eves
In nature's i)artial plan.

Yet I am bound hv stronger ties
To love the Mills of Dan.

3 The breezes that around them ])lav.
And the bright stream they fan.

Are loved as scenes of childhood's day
Ann'd the Hills of Dan.

 

M A U T 1 A I. A \ 1) r A T R I () T I C SONGS 479

4 Here. too. the friends of early days
Their fated courses ran ;

And now they tind a resting place
Amid the 1 lills of Oan.

5 Ye saw the twilight of my dawn
When first my life hegan;

And ye shall see that light withdrawn.
My native Hills of Dan.

6 Whatever fortune may ensue
In life's short changeful span.

Oft niem'ry shall turn hack to view
I\Iy native Hills of Dan.

7 The love that warms this youthful l)reast
Shall glow within the man ;

And when I slumber, may I rest
Amid the Hills of Dan.