Band at the execution

[L Verge]

I have heard that same story for years, but don't remember where - probably Twenty Days. I suspect that the story is true, however. Victorians (as well as the crowds at the foot of French guilliotines) enjoyed the three Rs: retribution, revenge, and revelry.

Our staff librarian, Sandra Walia, found reference to the band that was used in the 1864 cortege that bore the female victims of the Washington Arsenal explosion to their graves as being from the Finley Military Hospital, which was listed as being the best in the capital. However, Finley Hospital was in northeast D.C., and the execution of the conspirators occured in southwest D.C. My first thought was that Finley was close to the Arsenal and served it as well as the hospital, but I think that rules that out. Back to square one.