Band at the execution

[NHjohn]

(06-27-2014 03:35 PM)L Verge Wrote:  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.

The Band of Finley Hospital would be primarily Veteran Reserve Corps soldiers assigned the hospital as guards, supply, maintenance, ward orderlies, but any having a musical background could/would play in the band. Others US General Hospitals in DC fielded bands, including the Lincoln, Campbell, Carver, Armory Square, Harewood, and they played in Lincoln's Funeral Procession. Since the Arsenal had a hospital, one of my thoughts was, the soldiers of the Veteran Reserve Corps stationed at the Arsenal & hospital may have had a band. The "Draft Rendezvous" post, manned by Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC) in Alexandria had a brass band, General Slough, the Military Governor of Alexandria had his own Brigade Band, separate from the Draft Rendezvous band; the Quartermaster Corps in DC had a band, The US Treasury had a band; the 9th VRC and 10th VRC stationed in downtown Washington, DC, each had a band.