Who wrote this?

[David Lockmiller]

(05-13-2025 05:05 PM)AussieMick Wrote:  Laszlo tells the band leader to play The Marseillaise .... Lincoln liked Dixie, so I am guessing he ordered it be played.

You are right and you are wrong. I anticipated the correct answer to be that both Victor Laszlo and the President of the United States Abraham Lincoln told the respective bands to play the Marseillaise.

Marquis Adolphe de Chambrun wrote [page 82]:

We were to leave City Point on Saturday, April 8, [1865]. A few hours previous to departure, a military band from Headquarters came on board the River Queen. After they had given us several pieces, Mr. Lincoln thought of the Marseillaise, for which he professed great liking, and asked to have it played. The French anthem was performed a second time; while turning toward me, Mr. Lincoln remarked: "You have to come over to America to hear it." [footnote 2 reads: The Marseillaise was proscribed in France during the Second Empire.] He then asked me if I had ever heard the rebel song Dixie, to the sound of which all the Southern attacks had been conducted. I replied in the negative. The President continued: ""That tune is now Federal property and it is good to show the rebels that, with us in power, they will be free to hear it again." So he told the surprised musicians to play it for us. Thus ended our last evening.