Band at the execution

[NHjohn]

[quote='L Verge' pid='34874' dateline='1403975628']
I see your point, but wouldn't mention of it have been made somewhere? The history of Ft. McNair from its earliest beginnings in the 1700s has been the subject of books on its own as well as related to the Civil War at the trial of the conspirators. If no one found records of a band there in 1865 in all that research, it would be fairly strange.
[/quote
I agree. Someone should have mentioned a brass band if there was one playing at the execution. But, if a band was there playing before the actual ritual of leading the prisoners out, one by one, would they ordinarily mention it? Maybe; of after the hanging? Maybe, if they felt like it. Bands were taken for granted. The writers of the day were listening to the sentence being read, and observing the demeanor of the condemned, not the band. So, I continue...............