Anita Green presents UDC program on Music of the 1860's
The United Daughters of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis Chapter # 900, held their monthly meeting in April at the Kinser Church of God in Cleveland.
President Marilyn Kinne called the meeting to order. The Ritual was given by Helen Riden, chaplain. The pledges to the Christian Flag, the United States Flag, Tennessee Flag and the Confederate Flag were given. The Star Spangled Banner, Tennessee Waltz and Dixie Land were sang.
President Kinne gave a catechism quiz which pertained to the history of the Confederate States of American from 1861-1865.
The minutes of the previous meeting was read by Debbie Riggs, secretary, and approved. The treasurer’s report was given by Peggy Morrison and Lisa Pritchett, vice-president, spoke on the new organization of the Children of the Confederacy.
The new chapter is re-chartered, and newly elected officers are in place. Activities for the new chapter are being planned. The registrar’s report was given by Anita Green. Several new prospective members are in the process of being finished. Refreshments were furnished by Melanie Johnson and President Kinne.
The newly printed history pamphlets are still being given to the fifth graders in Bradley and Polk County schools. Sales are still ongoing with the cookbook project. Ms. Pritchett is currently working on a new design for a chapter pin. She should have an example of the drawing design by the next meeting. Plans are still underway for the chapter hosting the state convention in October in Chattanooga at the Read House.
The meeting was then turned over to Anita Green who presented the program on the Music of the 1860’s. Of all the songs written during and about the War Between the States probably no song is as strongly identified today as Julia Ward Howe’s stirring, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” For over 138 years this song has been featured in many patriotic programs in schools and churches of this nation.
In November of 1861, Julia Howe, the daughter of a well-to-do New York City banker, was touring Union army camps near Washington, D.C. with Reverend James Freeman Clarke and with her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was a member of President Lincoln’s Military Sanitary Commission and a fervent abolitionist. During their visit to the camp, the soldiers were singing some of the popular war songs. Reverend Clarke suggested that Mrs. Howe pen new lyrics to the familiar tune of “John Brown’s Body.” She replied that she might just do that.
The following morning, as Mrs. Howe later described it, she “awoke…in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished for lines were arranging (continued) themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, 'I shall lose this if I don’t write it down immediately.'”
Mrs. Howe’s lyrics first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and was paid $5 for the piece. The editor, James T. Fields, is credited with having given the song the name as we know it today.
After the war, Mrs. Howe was active in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1868, she founded the New England Women’s Club and was one of the founders of the New England Women’s Suffrage Association. She was much in demand as a lecturer. Although she continued her writing, nothing she produced ever achieved the popularity of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She died October 17, 1910 at the age of 91.
The lyrics she wrote: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps: They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps: I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps, His day is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment Seat. Oh! Be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me; As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, once said, that without music there would have been no army. Some have commented that the War Between the States was a musical war. When the soldiers North and South marched off to war, they took with (continued) them the love of music. Music passed the time; it entertained and comforted; it brought back memories of home and family. In camps, and hospitals they sang—sentimental songs, ballads, comic, and patriotic songs. The songs were better than rations or medicine.
It is estimated that during the first year of the war, 2,000 compositions were produced. There were patriotic songs for each side: The North’s “Battle Cry of Freedom", “May God Save the Union”, and the South’s “Dixie", “God Save the South”, "God Will Defend the Right,” and “The Rebel Soldier”.
After Robert E. Lee surrendered, Abraham Lincoln, on one of the last days of his life, asked a Northern band to play “Dixie” saying it had always been one of his favorite tunes. No one could miss the meaning of this gesture of reconciliation, expressed by music.
The meeting was adjourned. Anyone interested in the United Daughters of the Confederacy can visit www.udcjeffersondavis900.com or www.facebook.com/udcjeffersondavischapter900
The UDC Jefferson David Chapter at the April meeting. Front row, from left, Lisa Pritchett, Teresa Silvers, Marilyn Kinne, Debbie Riggs and Peggy Morrison. Second row, from left, Christy Peden, Amy Kibble, Melanie Johnson and Rose Willard. Back row, from left, Gussie Ridgeway, Anita Green, Mini Sue Willard, Helen Riden and Linda Ballew.