MIlitary Executions

[BettyO]

I've been doing a bit of research regarding military executions and have found out that music also seemed to play a large part in these affairs.

According to various reports, music was played before the condemned were marched to the gallows or to the firing squad. There are various reports to the effect that Southern bands played, and before those who were hanged or shot were marched to their death, the usual choice by southerners was a funeral dirge; in most cases, Handal's Dead March from Saul, taken from his famous opera, Saul.

One instance of a Union execution records that: "Through the corps, ranged in hushed masses on the hill-side, the procession moved to the funeral march, the culprits walking each behind their own coffin." - Harper's Weekly, September 26, 1863. Therefore, Federals also had a liking for dirges....

Which leads me to believe that of course, the execution of the conspirators was perhaps one and the same, and that the last "music" that ever reached the ears of the hapless foursome on July 7, 1865, was at least a military cadence (perhaps not a full band), but a drumbeat, deadly and steady. There are no records that Hartranft had a band on site at the Arsenal.

[RJNorton]

Betty sent me music to go with her post above, and I uploaded it to my server. It is an .mp3 file.

CLICK HERE

[BettyO]

Betty sent me music to go with her post above, and I uploaded to my server. It is an .mp3 file.

CLICK HERE

Thanks, Roger!

This is a drumbeat cadence - slow and steady which was played at Union executions and may have more or less also been played at the Arsenal on July 7, 1865 as Powell, Herold, Atzerodt and Mrs.Surratt "marched" or were carried to the scaffold....

Thanks to Laurie Verge for FINDING this audio file. It was a video file - but I made an audio file from it along with increasing the drumbeats to make use of the prescribed 10 drummers who were usually utilized in these "marches"....

[HerbS]

Betty,You are amazing!But,the drumbeat is "haunting"!I can only think how of what it was like for the Conspirators and others to hear that cadence knowing the end was very near!

[BettyO]

Thanks, Herb! Hearing that slow, deadly beat would be enough to make me faint on the way to the gallows!

[LincolnMan]

Betty: I don't remember reading anywhere that there was or might have been music or a drumbeat at the execution of the conspirators. Yet, it makes so much sense. How chilling it must have been-even in the July heat!

[BettyO]

Betty: I don't remember reading anywhere that there was or might have been music or a drumbeat at the execution of the conspirators. Yet, it makes so much sense. How chilling it must have been-even in the July heat!

I don't know....I'm just guessing -- but I have wondered if this was so. It was a custom which was utilized so prevalently during other executions. This one, however, WAS special and somewhat different as were the circumstances. But there is always that chance....

[LincolnMan]

Well, they were tried, convicted, and sentenced in a military court. At the very least they could have been consistent and played the darn music!

[BettyO]

Well, they were tried, convicted, and sentenced in a military court. At the very least they could have been consistent and played the darn music!

More or less like the music like this snare drum....I doubt they played "Wipe Out!" Just kidding!!!

[LincolnMan]

Oh, you're bad!

[RJNorton]

For those folks on the forum who are too young to remember Wipe Out, please Click Here.

[LincolnMan]

It was the first song I learned how to play on lead guitar. I started lessons in 1866- I mean 1966. I've had school kids ask me: "Did you know Lincoln?" Man, I'm not that old!