Music and Gallantry in Combat During the American Civil War

Courage was abundant on the battlefields of the American Civil War. Whether in small skirmishes or massive engagements, soldiers in blue and gray displayed heroism that surpassed even the naive and idealized expectations that precipitated the conflict. Music likewise pervaded the theaters of war. The sound of fifes, bugles, and drums accompanied the soldiers in every phase of a battle, keeping time as they marched and broadcasting commands across the raucous battlefield. Yet bugle calls and drumbeats were not the only music sounding amid the clash of arms: scattered accounts by witnesses and participants described voices raised in song alongside the firing of rifles or the blaring of a brass band accompanying the roar of cannon.

These two iconic aspects of the American Civil War, courage and music, joined together on the battlefield in ways both obvious and subtle. As might be expected, one can easily find descriptions of the inspiring sound of a brass band playing "John Brown's Body" or "The Bonnie Blue Flag" as soldiers marched to a battle. Less common are accounts of musical performances in the thick of the actual fighting. But the colorful terminology and imagery found in these battle descriptions suggest a peculiar link between the notes and the fighting, one more complex than merely providing an adrenaline boost with patriotic music. Consider one such example from the memoirs of the nineteenth president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes. In August of 1862 Colonel Hayes and his 23rd Ohio Regiment were stationed in southern West Virginia when news came that their pickets across the nearby New River had been cut off by a Confederate incursion. Believing a significant attack was imminent, Hayes dispatched the majority of his unit, including his musicians, to burn the ferry and keep the enemy from crossing. In his words:

I sent the band to give them music and told the men: "Fighting battles is like courting the girls: those who make most pretension and are boldest usually win. So, go ahead, give good hearty yells as you approach the ferry, let the band play; but don't expose yourselves, keep together and keep under cover. It is a bushwhacking fight across the river. Don't expose yourself to show bravery; we know you are all brave," etc., etc. The men went off in high spirits.

Hayes's quick response worked: the Southern troops stopped firing and pulled back. As to why it worked, Hayes himself wondered: "Whether they left because they heard our band and reinforcements coming or because they saw the major had done their work, is problematical."¹

Hayes's simile linking combat and courtship is curious to say the least. Many nineteenth-century Americans saw assertiveness as normal masculine behavior in mating rituals, while boldness was and remains a necessary trait for combat soldiers. Yet one might think the distance between the parlor and battlefield too great to draw a comparison such as Hayes's. What probably brought them together in his mind was gallantry, a standard of behavior that exceeded mere courage. Gallantry was not only a way of being but also a way of appearing, one that shaped nineteenth-century American perceptions of warfare and civilized behavior in general.

Courage and the Civil War Soldier

The American Civil War served as a transition in the history of Western warfare: innovations in weaponry came in the midst of traditional tactics and training, leading to a hybrid that showed characteristics of both Napoleonic and modern warfare. Advances in weaponry and increased field fortifications required a shift away from the formal frontal assaults of previous generations. That shift necessitated new ways of managing a battlefield, ways that included greater sensitivity to troop morale in battle.

One needed courage, of course, if one hoped to survive—let alone succeed—in a Civil War battle. Much of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century warfare pursued a doctrine of morale attrition. The goal was not to destroy your opponents but to maneuver in such a way as to disrupt their formation, break their will to fight, and force a retreat.² Although creative...