Military Executions

[NHjohn]

(06-23-2014 03:15 PM)Gene C Wrote:  NHjohn, makes sense, but I don't remember seeing any sign of a band or musicians in the photo's taken at the conspirators hanging.

Me neither. But the images I've seen are naturally of the gallows and a tight surrounding area. I didn't know what else was out there you guys might know about and I just took a chance that one of you guys may have read something that could point me in some direction. And, it could be there was no band, only drummers. I'll keep plugging away at it.

[L Verge]

I wish that either John Elliott or Barry Cauchon would read this exchange. In all the research that they have conducted over the years on the trial et al, they might have come up with something regarding a band and/or drummers.

[NHjohn]

(06-23-2014 04:15 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I wish that either John Elliott or Barry Cauchon would read this exchange. In all the research that they have conducted over the years on the trial et al, they might have come up with something regarding a band and/or drummers.

And that's why I turned to you folks. I just found that Hartranft wrote to the commander of the 10th Veteran Reserve Corps about a man in that unit being present at the prison. That unit would make sense as one assigned. They were stationed in DC in 1864-65, made up of wounded veterans whose purpose was guard duty at Federal installations. Both the 9th & 10th VRC had great brass bands and there are a few images of these bands taken in DC.

[BettyO]

In his letterbook, General Hartranft records just about everything which went on within the prison; what the Conspirators ate, when their laundry was done; even what their laundry consisted of. He's very specific. There is no mention of any regimental band or otherwise attached to the Arsenal or troops stationed there. However one survivor who died in the early half of the 20th Century recounted that he was a drummer and played with 10 other boys as part of a group of drummers who played a slow cadence as the Conspirators marched the short distance to the scaffold.

[NHjohn]

(06-23-2014 05:18 PM)BettyO Wrote:  In his letterbook, General Hartranft records just about everything which went on within the prison; what the Conspirators ate, when their laundry was done; even what their laundry consisted of. He's very specific. There is no mention of any regimental band or otherwise attached to the Arsenal or troops stationed there. However one survivor who died in the early half of the 20th Century recounted that he was a drummer and played with 10 other boys as part of a group of drummers who played a slow cadence as the Conspirators marched the short distance to the scaffold.

And I will take your word for it. I will say, at the risk of sounding like nobody can talk any sense into me, I have read more regimental histories and diaries than I can count where there was no reference to a regimental brass band, official/on the roster/paid as Class 1,2 3 Musicians, or detailed privates, no stories, no nothing... and I have found absolute proof a band existed. I just check off one more possible source, and move on. To some soldiers, generals or privates, band music was background. It was like having the radio on. To others, the music touched them and they wrote about it. I think my first goal will be to ascertain what regiments were assigned inside the arsenal during the trial and execution.

[BettyO]

Here is the article from which we surmised that drummers played at the execution. No one else ever recorded or mentioned a band, the "Dead March" or anything else "musical" except this bit about the drummers - which in itself is very interesting -

   

[NHjohn]

(06-23-2014 06:14 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Here is the article from which we surmised that drummers played at the execution. No one else ever recorded or mentioned a band, the "Dead March" or anything else "musical" except this bit about the drummers - which in itself is very interesting -
Well that is interesting. I'm on it. The 29th Maine Infantry did indeed have a regimental brass band, and it was under the direction of Daniel Chandler during the war. Chandler's Band, called the Portland Brass Band enlisted as the Band of the 10th Maine Infantry, Dan Chandler leader, and a number of them re-enlisted as privates in the 29th Maine, detailed to form a regimental brass band while in Louisiana in 1863. Dan Chandler joined up as a hired civilian leader and the band stayed together with the regiment thru Louisiana, the Valley Campaign, DC at the end of the war and sent to North Carolina for reconstruction duties. VERY interesting! Thanks!