FolkWorld - Home of European Music – Folk, World & Roots Music Webzine

http://www.folkworld.eu/

Imprint | Impressum
Editors, Publishers, Webmasters, Layout, Idea, ©opyright:
Michael & Christian Moll

FolkWorld is a web magazine and internet portal, being online since 1997. At the time being, we publish three issues every year that appear in spring (1st March), summer (1st July) and autumn (1st November), respectively.

FolkWorld is an independent and non-profit making web magazine. All material published in FolkWorld is © The Author via FolkWorld. Storage for private use is allowed and welcome. Reviews and extracts of up to 200 words may be freely quoted and reproduced, if source and author are acknowledged. For any other reproduction please ask the editors for permission. ...

* * *

"A Decade of Folk: Editorial" by Michael and Christian Moll, FolkWorld Issue 34 Nov. 2007 http://www.folkworld.de/34/3/ed.html - has kind of a prospectus ...

FolkWorld, the European online folk, world and roots music magazine celebrates its 10th anniversary in the world wide web on 1st November 2007. This issue is being published to coincide with the anniversary. Also with this issue, FolkWorld is re-launched at a new .EU domain: www.folkworld.eu, to fully reflect the European dimension of the publication.

Over its 10 years, FolkWorld has developed into the biggest and ultimate resource for European folk, world and roots music on the internet. The "Home of European Music" has accumulated on its website more than 5,000 CD reviews and over 500 articles, live reviews and interviews, plus regular news updates, from European and international artists. Every day 10,000 worldwide visitors are looking for information about European folk music on the FolkWorld website.

Back in 1997, the trigger for developing FolkWorld was the discontinuation of the German print magazine Folksblatt, to which we had been main contributors over the previous few years. Folksblatt was merged with the other German magazine, Folk Michel, to form the new magazine Folker. Thus Folker has also reached its 10th anniversary this year, and FolkWorld would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleagues. ...

usw.

Article about FolkWorld: Reprinted from Folker! ... "Folkworld.eu – Home of European Music: Internetmagazin feierte Zehnjähriges - Ultimative Adresse im Netz" - FolkWorld Ausgabe 37 11/2008; Folker!-Artikel von Dirk T. Fellinghauer. http://www.folkworld.eu/37/d/folker.html

Creole = diversität ... globale Musik aus Deutschland

File under creolization ... a German world music website ... homepage at creole – globale Musik aus Deutschland 2011

Who they are and what they do:

creole = diversität
creole steht für die unverwechselbare Kulturdiversität Deutschlands. Nur hier kann entstehen, was wir bei den alle zwei Jahre stattfindenden Bundeswettbewerben musikalisch erleben dürfen: Die KünstlerInnen, die alle in Deutschland leben und arbeiten, experimentieren mit dem, was hierzulande – teilweise seit Jahrhunderten, teilweise seit gestern – an transkulturellem Reichtum vorhanden ist.

Identität, Tradition, Regionalität, Grenzen und deren Wegfall dienen den MusikerInnen als Inspiration; gesellschaftlich relevante Themen werden so mittels Musik be- und verarbeitet. Die aus Migration und Kulturkontakt resultierenden musikalischen Neuentwicklungen werden damit zu einem Spiegelbild Deutschlands im 21. Jahrhundert. ...

At http://www.creole-weltmusik.de/index.php5?lang=1&lm=CREOLE&lc=aktuell

"There Once Was an Owl"

I learned it from Betty Smith ... words by the poet John Ciardi, music by Bob Beers, who played psaltry and was active on the New England festival scene in the 1950s or 60s ...

InspiredPreK on YouTube
There Once Was an Owl Song Sung for class by Carolyn
I learned this song from wonderful folk musician, Betty Smith, in her 1977 June Appal recording of For My Friends of Song. I saw her performing in Baltimore in 1980 and am so glad I bought that album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m166cbg6qUA

Wilfried Ulrich, "Story of the Hummel"

Copy of a blast email I sent out today promoting Wilfried Ulrich's new book The Story of the Hummel (German Scheitholt). 181 pages. Published by the author. A translation of Die Hummel: Geschichte eines Volksmusik-Instruments. Volume 42 of Materials Pertaining to the Everyday History and Folk Culture of Lower Saxony. Clopppenburg: Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, 2011. Price: 22 euros, plus 7 euros shipping (approximately $45 total at current exchange rates).

Hi everybody -

A couple of months ago Wilfried Ulrich, a German luthier whom I met when he taught in Mountain Dulcimer Week at Western Carolina, came out with a book called "The Story of the Hummel." He asked me if I could help with publicity for the book, and I'm happy to do what I can. It's a fascinating book, and it's changed the way I think about the origins of the mountain dulcimer. In a word, I really liked it and I highly recommend it.

"The Story of the Hummel" is a translation of the catalog for an exhibition of hummels and other European folk zithers at Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, an open-air museum in North Germany. I'm attaching a synopsis and a PDF file of a flyer for the exhibit; the flyer is in German, but the pictures are thumbnails of visuals in the book. The blue instrument on the flyer is a North German hummel that is also pictured on the book's cover. It was apparently a wedding present, and you can see the bride's and groom's initials intertwined with a bridal crown in the soundhole. Like so many exhibit catalogs, it's a hardback coffee table book with very nice photography.

The synopsis I've attached elaborates on Wilfried's history of the hummel. In addition to pictures and history, dulcimer players will find a chapter on how to tune a hummel in Ionian, Aeolian, Dorian and Mixolydian modes, along with tablature; it would work on most American dulcimers. Full measurements of the instruments in the exhibit, including vibrating string length and fret placement, are also given.

"The Story of the Hummel" costs 29 euros with shipping from Germany included (a little less than $45 at today's exchange rates), which isn't bad for a hardback coffee table book. For more information, or to order a copy, contact Wilfried Ulrich, Am Diekschloot 40, D-26506 Norden, East Frisia, Germany. Email: ulricus.norden@t-online.de Web site: www.ulrich-instrumente.de ...

- Pete

"De Boatman Dance" - sheet music, pix, etc.

De Boatman Dance: An Ethiopian Ballad Arranged for the Spanish Guitar by Philip Ernst. New York: C. G. Christman, 1844.


Available on line in several versions:

• Library of Congress, Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music ...
  
• Arr. for piano, "De Boatmen's Dance: An Original Banjo Melody by Old Dan D. Emmit, in collection of Dan Emmit's songs Levy Collection, Johns Hopkins

Like other early minstrel tunes, it was in the oral tradition before Dan Emmit adapted it for the stage ... Andrew Kuntz in Fiddler's Companion has this:

BOAT(S)MAN [2]. AKA and see "Sailing Down the River on the O‑hi‑o," "Ohio River," "Boatman Dance." Old‑Time, Breakdown. USA; W.Va., Pa. A Major (Krassen, Phillips): D Major (Johnson): G Major (Spandaro). Standard tuning. AABBC: ABCC (Johnson): AABBCC (Phillips). The fiddle tune is derived from the minstrel piece credited to Dan Emmett called "De Boatmen Dance" or "Dance, Boatman, Dance;" the tune (words below), according to some accounts, was first heard in performance in Boston in 1843. Emmett published it in that year, advertising it as "An Original Banjo Melody." The tune appears in many American and even English songsters of the 19th and early 20th centuries; Scott (1926) prints it as "Sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders." Both Nathan and Cauthen (1990) assert the melody was in folk currency before the minstrel era, and that it made its way back to folk currency in the fiddle tradition after popularization by minstrels; this is probably true, for it was in print (as "Ohio River") in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume IV (Baltimore, 1839) -- associated with Ohio River boatmen -- before it was played on the minstrel stage. See also "Boatman's Dance" for version of the tune in the morris dance tradition and "Little Rabbit" for a related old-time version.

... with reference to two pictures ... George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879). Raftsmen Playing Cards and Flatboat Fiddler. From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspapter, v. 50, April, 1880.

http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/BMRF566.html
The Ballad Index Copyright $TrueYear by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Wikipedia article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show#cite_note-124 Minsterel Show notes that "... when the sound era of cartoons began in the late 1920s, early animators such as Walt Disney gave characters like Mickey Mouse (who already resembled blackface performers) a minstrel-show personality; the early Mickey is constantly singing and dancing and smiling" - cited to Sacks, Howard L.; Sacks, Judith (1993), Way up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem, Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 158.

Thomas Kingo: Hører til, I høje himle (melody Freu dich sehr) w/ English translation of Hymns on the Passion, bio of Kingo

Promotional video on YouTube for public singing of Kingos passionssalmer at Helligaandskirken [Church of the Holy Spirit], Copenhagen, Friday April 8, 2011.

From YouTube blurb: "Barokkens største danske litterære perle! Kingos passionssalmer fra 1689. Enevældens største salmist."

De 17 salmer:
1) Hører til, I høje himle (Om Jesu lovsang)
2) Over Kedron Jesus træder (Om Jesu sved i urtegården)
3) Sover I? hvor kan I sove ( Om de sovende disciple)
4) Mørket skjuler jorderige (Om den forrådte Jesus)
5) Længe haver Satan spundet (Jesus føres bunden)
6) Ingen højhed, ingen ære (Om St. Peders fald)
7) Vælder ud, i øjne-strømme! (St. Peders tårer og omvendelse)
8) Søde synd, du vellyst-engel (Om Judas, som fortvivler)
9) pengene som Judas slængte (Om pottemagerens ager)
10) Jesus, som skal verden dømme ( Om Jesus i Pilati domhus)
11) Til Herodes Jesus føres (Jesus sendes til Herodes)
12) Se, nu er Pilatus gangen (Barrabas løsgives, Kristus begæres korsfæstet)
13) Vil dog himlen intet tale (Jesus hudstryges, bespottes og tornekrones)
14) Hvordan end Pilatus hinked (Se hvilket menneske)
15) Rettens spir det alt er brækket (Jesus dømmes til at korsfæstes)
16) Kommer I, som vil ledsage (Jesus bær sit kors til Golgatha)
17) Bryder frem, I hule sukke (Om Kristi korsfæstelse, pine og død)
I Den Danske Salmebog findes ca. 50-60 vers ud af originalens 209.

No. 80 in Den Danske Salmebog Online:

Hører til, I høje Himle
Mel.: Jesus, dine dybe vunder
1
Hører til, I høje Himle,
hører til, I englekor!
Hører, o I folk, som vrimle,
som på jordens klode bor!
Høre, hver, som høre kan,
hver, som sans har og forstand!
Alt det, som har ånd og øre,
lave sig nu til at høre!

osv.

English transaltion of the text at http://www.blc.edu/comm/gargy/gargy1/KingosPassionHymns.html [Translation © Mark DeGarmeaux unless noted]

HYMNS ON THE PASSION
which can be used in the congregations during Lent
at the weekly service and on Days of Prayer
according to the custom of each place
Gradual of 1699

THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT
Jesus' Hymn of Praise
HØRER TIL I HØYE HIMLE [8]
tune: Freu dich sehr

1 O ye highest heavens, listen,
Hear the angels' anthem swell!
People without number, listen,
All who on the earth do dwell!
Listen, all who now can hear;
Every heart and mind, draw near;
All with breath and life, draw near Him,
Now prepare yourselves to hear Him.

etc.

Fairly detailed bios of Kingo, including from Dahle, Library of Christian Hymns, on the Wittenberg Trail "an online community for people exploring and confessing the Lutheran faith" ... mention of Kingo in a sermon at Mindekirken in Minneapolis Pastor Jens Arne Dale on Oct. 3, 2004:

We celebrate today’s worship service with a Danish flavor. That’s nothing new to Norwegians. For 400 years Norway was under the rule of Denmark. Sermons were delivered in the Danish language in Norwegian churches. Until 1814 pastors and other officials were sent to Norway from Copenhagen.

Many have judged the Danish time negatively, but the picture is not unambiguous. We received a rich spiritual and cultural heritage from our brother people in the south. For instance, it’s hard to imagine Norwegian church- and Christian life without the hymns of Kingo, Brorson and Grundtvig, just to mention a few. They are all represented on today’s hymn list.

Let’s stop for a moment by Thomas Kingo whose hymn we just sang. How really was this giant writer of hymns who made such an impact also in Norway? Ask one of his enemies, of whom there are not few, and you’ll get to hear that he was a calculating flatterer of the king, an unpredictable hothead, and a skinflint. His friends, however, portrayed him as a humble Christian, a powerful preacher, and a brilliant hymn writer. The words on Alexander Kielland’s grave stone fit for Kingo: Those who knew him, loved him. Those who didn’t love him, didn’t know him.

Kingo himself was painfully aware of his shortcoming. It’s clearly expressed in the hymn we just sang: I’m never free from failure, never though, without God’s grace, I have always sigh and woe, God me always Jesus show. Kingo admits his own failures and sins, but at the same time he experiences himself enveloped by God’s incomprehensible grace. ...

A history is available on line of Kingo Lutheran Church founded by Danish immigrants in the Milwaukee area ... there is also a Kingo Lutheran Church in Fosston, Minn., a town founded by Norwegian immigrants. "The incorporation papers of Fosston were recorded June 8, 1889, by the Register of Deeds in Crookston, the County Seat of Polk County, Minnesota. Fosston was named for Louis Foss (1849–1920), who was an immigrant from the village Nyttingnes in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. Mr. Foss was the founder and owner of Louis Foss & Company, one of the first business to be established in the community. The city of Fosston is reputed to be the adopted hometown of Cordwood Pete, younger brother of famed lumberjack Paul Bunyan." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fosston,_Minnesota

cWikimedia Commons photo of Thomas Kingo (1634-1703) from: J. P. Trap, Berømte Danske Mænd og Kvinder [Famous Danish Men and Women], 1868. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_kingo.jpg

Swedish radio show signs off in Rockford

http://www.rrstar.com/carousel/x401387193/Swedish-radio-show-Temple-Toner-to-sign-off-next-month Rockford Register Star

Swedish radio show 'Temple Toner' to sign off next month
By Corina Curry
RRSTAR.COM
Posted May 14, 2011 @ 11:25 PM
Last update May 14, 2011 @ 11:46 PM

ROCKFORD — Seventy-five years of broadcasting a half-hour of worship and music in Swedish on Sunday mornings is ending.

The Salvation Army Rockford Temple Corps is pulling the plug on “Temple Toner,” a radio program that has long served as a lifeline and a comforting reminder of home to scores of the city’s Swedish immigrants.

“It’s run its course,” said Salvation Army Maj. Randy Hellstrom. “In some ways it’s sad. But in some ways, it’s time. The show served its purpose. It had a really good 75 years. There are just fewer and fewer people out there who speak the language.”

“Temple Toner” airs at 8 a.m. Sundays on WNTA (1330 AM). The last show will be June 26.

Hellstrom said there’s no way to know just how many people are listening, but he’s sure the number has dropped dramatically in recent years as the older, Swedish-speaking population of the city shrinks.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2005-09 estimates, there are 295,803 people living in Winnebago County, 27,536, or 9.3 percent, of whom claim Swedish ancestry.

“So many of our listeners are no longer with us,” said Marita Sjogren, the show’s host for the past 15 years. “We used to get a lot of feedback but not any more. ... Every now and then, we’ll hear from someone. But it’s a lot of work for such a small number of people.”

Connecting old and newSjogren, 66, was born in Sweden. She’s one of few people, she believes, from her generation who came to Rockford as a child and still speaks fluent Swedish. For 13 years before her, her mother hosted the weekly radio broadcast. Sjogren took the reins when her mother died. Back then, plenty of people tuned in on Sunday mornings, she said, to hear sounds from the old country.

For more than seven decades, dozens of voices and technicians have helped produce the show. Salvation Army Brigadier Gunnar Erickson, who died last fall at 101, gave the show’s devotional reading every week for almost 40 years. Dale Runberg, a radio equipment operator, helped record the show for more than 30 years.

Sjogren said she knew the end had come when Erickson died, and there was no one to take his place. For the past six months, the show has been about 95 percent Swedish. Hellstrom gives the devotional in English.

The idea for the radio show sprang from Rockford’s deep and much-celebrated Scandinavian roots. Thousands immigrated here to work in the city’s booming manufacturing industry starting in 1852.

“It started as a way to connect to the Swedish immigrants,” Hellstrom said. “It was a way to help them mesh their new lives with their old lives.”

‘No longer the case’The broadcast started in the basement of the Salvation Army Temple Corps Church on Rockford Avenue. Back in the day, the church had a Swedish-language service that provided much of the show’s audio, but that ended in the 1970s.

Today, Sjogren records the show in front of a computer at the home of her good friend Bob Slack. With his skills, dozens of CDs featuring Swedish language music and an archive of recordings — some going back 40 years — Slack and Sjogren can crank out about a dozen shows in a couple of hours.

Sjogren greets the listeners, makes a series of announcements and reads from the Bible. Slack then takes those recordings and combines them with songs and the devotional message.

The duo recorded the broadcast’s final four shows a couple of weeks ago. They put the recordings on a disc and high-fived, Sjogren said.

“It’s time,” she said. “It’s a passing. There’s always a sadness when things end.”

Hellstrom said the church may look into a different kind of radio ministry. “Perhaps there’s an audience out there for a Spanish broadcast. We did the show in Swedish because it was the most common second language of people in Rockford back in the days. That’s no longer the case.”

Want to play dulcimer at New Salem?

Sent the afternoon of May 11 to people on the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings email list, soliciting volunteers to take the one-day historical interpreters' training at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site and play acoustic instruments in the historic village. If anyone sees it here and wants more information, I can be reached by email at peterellertsen [at] yahoo.com ...

An important disclaimer: My thoughts on how and why I play music appropriate to the 1830s in a living history environment reflect my personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a statement of official policies and procedures of Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency or any other agency.

* * *

They need people who play in the historic village to have the volunteer training, other than during festival weekends like the Traditional Music Festival in September, but [they have] boiled it down to one morning of orientation, from 9 a.m. till about 1 p.m. (it used to be three days)! The training gives an overview of the historical themes, frequently asked questions and things like emergency procedures, logging in (volunteer hours count as in-kind donations for grant applications), keys to the buildings, handling artifacts and reproductions, etc. I've taken the training, and it's really interesting. New Salem is kind of a magical place, and the magic gets stronger the longer I volunteer there and the more I know about it, so I think this is a real opportunity.

Several of us attended my off-season workshops this year in playing music of the 1830s in modal dulcimer tunings (mostly DAA and DAG), and we discussed this idea of jamming in the historic village in period dress. I think these trainings that Glen is willing to do for us will be a big step toward making that happen. While most of us in the workshops play mountain dulcimer, we had fiddle, banjo, autoharp and tin whistle represented, too, and I think just about any kind of acoustic instrument is appropriate in the historic village. (I've been looking for documentation of early Fender Stratocaster electric guitars on the Illinois frontier, but so far I haven't found any!) So I don't want to limit it to Appalachian dulcimers or to people who play with the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings. Any and all who are interested in playing at New Salem are welcome.

Also: We have the Summer Festival coming up the weekend of Saturday, June 11, and I'm recruiting musicians.

Here's what the New Salem website says about Summer Festival: "Come join New Salem interpreters as they will be demonstrating various crafts and trades throughout the village. Children will be able to participate in early 19th century activities such as butter churning, basket weaving, making corn husk dolls, quilting, broom tying, playing games and attending the 'blab' school. Musicians will be performing throughout the village to entertain visitors." It's a busy weekend, with the Dulcimerville workshops in North Carolina the week before and the Gebhard Woods Festival that weekend. But if you're going to be in the area Saturday, June 11, please let me know. We need musicians!

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or want to volunteer, please don't hesitate to get back to me. You can reach me any time at this address. I look forward to hearing from you.

And the following excerpt, from a later message, further explains why I think it's important for musicians to have some training as interpreters ...

Overall, I think it's important for all of us who play music in the historic village to have at least a minimal amount of historical background as well as a knowledge of emergency procedures, etc. ... a lot of visitors say they appreciate talking with trained interpreters in period dress, that it makes the history come alive for them. ... So when we play music in New Salem village, we're entertaining the visitors, but in a way we're also demonstrating historical arts and crafts on the same basis as the weavers, the blacksmiths or the ladies who demonstrate cooking in a dutch oven in the Rutledge Tavern. And very often we're talking about history with the visitors as well.

I hope this isn't getting too long-winded, but the reasons for wanting some level of training for people in the historic village are kind of hard to explain. Anyway, I really do believe New Salem is a magical place and the training is a big part of what helps us create the magic. ...

"Five Pounds of Possum (in my Headlights Tonight)"

Five Pound Possum- by New Highway
Uploaded by newhighwaybluegrass on Jan 24, 2010
Here's a fun song entitled "Five Pound Possum" that NH has a lot of fun with! It was a great tune found on youtube but Tim (lead singer) decided to write another (third) verse to the song- so ENJOY! Come visit our website at www.newhighway.net and become a member and sign our guestbook! New Highway is a bluegrass band in N.W. Arkansas.



Appalachian dulcimer tab (DAD) by Dogwood http://www.gulfweb.net/rlwalker/dogwood/alltunes/Five%20Pounds%20Of%20Possum%20(D).pdf

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10228 Mudcat Cafe threads

Lyrics at http://mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=2605#10962 Lyr Req: Five Pounds of Possum http://mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=2605#10962

Sweeney Clan Web Site - Notable Sweeneys

Sweeney Clan Web Site - Notable Sweeneys

"Jenny's Gone to Ohio" ** UPDATED 03-12 **

A.k.a. "Jenny's Gone Away." Dulcimer tab in DAD by Doofus ... Don Pedi has lyrics w/ fret numbers above the words for Ionian tunings on his website

Peggy Seeger sings it on her album Heading for Home (click here for an audio clipA). Joe Hickerson, in the liner notes, says the song is traditional. He adds:

In June 1959 folksong collector Philip Kennedy attended a Tart family reunion in Benson, North Carolina, where he heard Carlie Tart and his sister leading a 3-verse song about Ginnie. He described the incident in his article "An Unusual Work-Song Found in North Carolina: "Ginnie's Gone to Ohio'," in North Carolina Folklore, volume 15, number 1, May 1967, pp. 30-34. The song was part of a family "group-singing" tradition going back at least a century and had originally been learned from black singers. The three verses began with "Ginnie's gone to Ohio, Ginnie's gone away," "Ginnie's a pretty girl, don't you know," and "Ginnie's dressed in her strings and rags." The chorus was "(Oh) Ginnie's gone away, Ginnie's gone to Ohio, Ginnie's gone away." In the article, Phil mentions two parallels to the song: "Jenny shake her toe at me, Jenny gone away," which was reported as early as 1839 from black singers on St. Simon's Island, Georgia; and the sea chantey, "Tom's Gone to Hilo."

I learned the song from Phil Kennedy in 1960. I soon added three verses and have performed it many times since, occasionally as "Jenny's Gone To Ohio." My melody with Kennedy's words and notes appeared in Sing Out!, vol. 17, no. 2, April-May 1967, pp. 16-17. ...

Peggy recalls learning the song in England from an American singer. So, from wherever Ginnie or Ginny or Jenny started her journey to Ohio, her peregrinations (with added details from myself and others) eventually took her from the USA to England and back to the USA and, of course, to all those places good songs go.

Two articles available through JSTOR on "Jenny Shake Her Toe at Me" - African American slave song ... one quotes Fanny Kemble who heard it in 1830s, called it "a very distinct descendant of "Coming Through the Rye" ...

Jenny's Toe: Negro Shaking Dances in America
Chadwick Hansen
American Quarterly
Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1967), pp. 554-563

The other uotes William Cullen Bryant in 1843 [but T'm not sure what he says about it, except he heard it at a corn shucking in S.C.

Jenny's Toe Revisited: White Responses to Afro-American Shaking Dances
Chadwick Hansen
American Music
Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 1-19

103rd Illinois - marching out of Memphis to strains of "Girl I Left Behind Me"; playing a fiddle on warm day in winter quarters in North Alabama

Charles W. Wills. Army Life of an Illinois Soldier: Including a Day-by-Day Record of Sherman's March to the Sea. 1906. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996.

Feb. 7, 1864, in winter quarters at Scottsboro, Ala. 213-14 -

This has indeed been a day of rest. More like a home Sabbath, than the Lord's day often seems, here in the "show business." None of my company have been on duty, and as the day has been bright and warm, the men have been all out in front of the quarters; all looking natty and clean and healthy, sunning themselves real country-Sunday fashion. ... The boys brought a fiddle in with them yesterday from our Lebanon march, and as nearly all of them play, "more or less," it has seen but little rest today.

Adjutant General's Report, 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry http://civilwar.ilgenweb.net/history/103.html

September 28th we received marching orders, and the next day the Fifteenth Corps was on the road and arrived at Vicksburg, taking transports for the North as fast as they could be furnished.

The One Hundred and Third arrived at Memphis on the 11th, at 9 A.M., drew new arms (we had heretofore been armed with old fashioned "69" Harper’s Ferry muskets), and at 11:20 were marched out of Memphis to the tune of "The Girl I Left Behind Me".

We arrived at Iuka about the 20th, having made two considerable detours from the direct line of march from Memphis. Here we received pay, transferred some men to the Invalid Corps, refitted the command, and on the 27th crossed the Tennessee River at Eastport, arriving at Florence the 29th, and began fortifying the place.

The 3d of November we again moved out, striking the N. & C. R.R. at Cowan about the 12th following the railroad to Stevenson and Bridgeport, where we arrived about the 18th.

An attempt had been made by General Corse, commanding, to mount the Brigade, and enough horses were picked up to mount the Fifteenth Michigan, and two companies - C and G - of the One Hundred and Third, who were then detached from, and did not rejoin the Regiment until the last of December, at Scottsboro, Ala.

On the 20th we left Bridgeport, and crossing Sand Ridge moved southeast so as to strike Trenton, near which we camped the night of the 21st. After building numerous and extensive fires to mislead the enemy, about midnight we quietly withdrew, marching towards Chattanooga, arrived at Wauhatchie the afternoon of the 22d, crossed the Tennessee at Brown’s Ferry, and moved up back of the hills near to the place where Sherman’s army subsequently crossed.

The morning of the 24th, with our Division, we crossed the river on the pontoon bridge and began the attack on the north end of Missionary Ridge. By 3 P.M. we had assisted to take the first of the hills, which we securely fortified, and at night drew up by hand the guns of Richardson’s First Missouri Battery and placed them in position.

The next hill, the one through which the tunnel passes, was the strong point of the Confederate right, and was accordingly strongly fortified. On the 25th our Brigade charged these works, and had it been possible, would have taken the point. Captain Walsh, of Company B, was killed within fifty feet of the rebel works, as were a number of men. After doing all that could be done General Corse ordered us to retire, which we did (part way down the hill) and fortified, expecting to try it again soon. In the meantime the rebel left and center had been crushed, which relieved us of further serious fighting. The eight companies at the beginning of the engagement mustered 237 men, of this number, one commissioned officer, Captain Walsh, and 19 enlisted men were killed on the field, and 68 wounded, 5 or 6 of whom died of their wounds.

After the engagement we followed Bragg for nearly two days and then went to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville. Arriving within 20 miles of Knoxville, we learned that General Longstreet had raised the siege and "fled to the mountains".

‘Having rested, we set out on our return to Chattanooga, which place we passed through about the 16th of December, arriving at Bridgeport the 19th, many of the men being literally barefooted.

Being newly clothed and paid the 24th, we marched to Stevenson, Ala., where we remained over Christmas. The next day we started for Scottsboro, Ala., but a heavy rain setting in we did not reach that place until the 28th.

In 91 days since we had left Vicksburg we had been transported 500 miles, marched over 1100 and participated in one of the most glorious victories of the war.

While in Scottsboro, nominally winter quarters, few days passed on which we were not called out for forage or scout.

Companies C and G returned to the Regiment, and Company F was again detailed to the commissary department.

About the 8th of February 1864, we were ordered to report at Cleveland, Tenn., which we did on the 14th. Here we were attached to a Provisional Brigade composed of nine regiments drawn like ourselves from the Fifteenth Corps, Colonel Dickerman, of the One Hundred and Third, being in command.

On the 23d we left Cleveland, Division commanded by General Chas. Cruft, and marched to Catoosa Springs that night. Here we joined General Palmer, commanding this detachment of the army.

The 24th we occupied the valley west of Tunnel Hill. During the night of the 24th moved to within three miles of Buzzard Roost Gap. The next morning formed the advance line and moved forward to wake up the enemy, which being accomplished, we were placed in reserve.

This was the beginning of the Atlanta campaign.


US Gazetteer > Alabama Gazetteer > Alabama Cities > Lebanon, AL (DeKalb County)

Lebanon is a community or populated place (Class Code U6) located in DeKalb County at latitude 34.366 and longitude -85.816 (Lebanon Panoramio Photos). The elevation is 735 feet.