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May 23, 2003
Library of Congress Launches Patriotic
Web Site
Courage, Patriotism, Community Web Site Debuts May 23
In honor of Memorial Day and in celebration
of the American spirit, the Library of Congress is launching a new Web site highlighting its collections of veterans'
stories, patriotic music and community life.
Courage, Patriotism, Community comprises three Web presentations:
Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project; Patriotic Melodies: Selections from I Hear America Singing; and
Community Roots: Selections from the Local Legacies Project.
Experiencing War (http://www.loc.gov/warstories) features
selected stories from the Library's Veterans History Project in the American Folklife Center. Created by an act of Congress
in 2000, the Veterans History Project provides veterans and the civilians who supported them the opportunity to record for
posterity their wartime experiences. These poignant stories, which reflect the Web site's theme of "courage, patriotism
and community," are told through video, audio and written personal accounts from 21 veterans and civilians. They include
such stories as that of James Walsh, veteran of the Korean War, who describes the numbing cold and horrifying scenes he endured
with the 25th Infantry. Also included are photographs, diaries and scrapbooks-all digitized and presented on the Web site.
This initial release of personal narratives will be followed by many more from the 7,000 collections the Veterans History
Project has received to date.
Patriotic Melodies (http://www.loc.gov/patrioticmusic) illustrates the close connection
between patriotism, music, and the expression of the American spirit; it features some of the nation's most beloved patriotic
tunes as well as the story behind the creation of each melody. The 26 initial selections include national songs like "The
Star Spangled Banner," "America" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee"; military theme songs like "The
Army Goes Rolling Along," "Anchors Aweigh" and "The Marines' Hymn"; and music like "Over
There" and "Yankee Doodle Boy" drawn from musical theater. A trip to the Web site will allow visitors to turn
the pages of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," listen to Kate Smith sing "God Bless America,"
and learn interesting facts-such as the title of George M. Cohan's renowned song, "You're a Grand Old Flag,"
which was originally titled "You're a Grand Old Rag."
Community Roots (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/roots)
documents America's local festivals, community events and other grassroots activities. The events selected for this presentation
come from the larger Local Legacies collection-a joint project of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Congress that was initiated
during the Library's bicentennial celebration in 2000 to document the nation's multicultural traditions at the turn
of the 20th century. For the purpose of the online presentation, one local tradition has been selected to represent each state,
the District of Columbia, the territories and trusts. These include Buccaneer Days in Texas, which celebrates a time in history
when pirate ships sailed the Gulf waters, and the World's Largest Pancake Breakfast-serving some 40,000-in Springfield,
Mass. Viewed as a whole, Community Roots highlights the ways in which Americans celebrate their diverse cultural backgrounds.
The Library of Congress is the largest repository of human knowledge in the history of the world. During the last
decade, the Library took advantage of the power of the Internet and the unparalleled resources of its collections and curators
to become the leading provider of free noncommercial educational content on the World Wide Web. Its award-winning Web site
is accessible at http://www.loc.gov. From baseball cards to presidential diaries, from Edison's first films to Mathew
Brady's Civil War photographs, more than 8 million items are now available online showcasing the creativity and courage
of the American people.
PR 03-095
05/23/03
ISSN 0731-3527
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Featuring, " When Johnny Comes Marching Home..." More patriotic melodies will be featured on a regular basis
. . . Courtesy Of The Library Of Congress Note:
All underlined words and sentences are Links to various related sites you can spend all day on this page!
| WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME |
|
| CLICK LINK |
 Patriotic Melodies tells the stories behind many of the songs that have now become part of the American national
heritage. A combination of hymns, national songs, music of the theater, radio and television, military themes, and poetry,
all of this music demonstrates that while over history many things have changed, this expression of pride and hope remain
a constant part of the American experience. Browse Song Collections:
Sound Recordings click above and enjoy
When Johnny comes marching home again [Song Collection] When Johnny comes marching home again Hurrah! Hurrah! The story of "When Johnny comes Marching Home" is also the story of
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. Gilmore, an 1848 Irish immigrant to Boston, was considered by no less a musician than John Philip
Sousa as the "Father of the American Band." Gilmore
led a number of bands in the Boston area, including Patrick Gilmore's Band. At the beginning of the Civil War, in September
1861, the band enlisted as a group in the Union Army and was attached to the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. Gilmore's
band served both as musicians and stretcher bearers at such horrific battles as Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg
and Richmond. Gilmore was posted to occupied New Orleans, Louisiana in 1863 and, as Grand Master of the Union Army,
ordered to reorganize the state military bands. It was at this time that he claimed to have composed the words and music
to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." "When
Johnny Comes Marching Home" bears a remarkable similarity to the melody of the Irish song "Johnny, I Hardly Knew
Ye," which might be considered a protest song in the vein of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The Irish
song concerns conscription into the British Army Where are
your legs that used to run, huroo, huroo,
Where are your legs that used to run, huroo, huroo,
Where are your
legs that used to run when first you went for to carry a gun?
Alas, your dancing days are done, och, Johnny, I hardly
knew ye. It is possible that this air was written before Gilmore's
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and that Gilmore unconsciously might have borrowed from it. For his part,
Gilmore claimed that he had adapted an African-American spiritual. Sheet music for "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was first published by Henry Tolman and Company of
Boston in 1863 and bore the dedication "To the Army and Navy of the Union." Gilmore published the song under
the pseudonym Louis Lambert, although the title page also read "as introduced by Gilmore's Band." During his tenure in New Orleans Gilmore showed himself
to be not only a skilled musician but an extraordinary showman. He organized a musical extravaganza, with 500 musicians
and 5,000 or more school children, many from Confederate families, and staged a monumental concert in that city's Lafayette
Square. After the war Gilmore's flair for amassing large groups of musicians in spectacular productions reemerged.
Perhaps sick of war's tragedy Gilmore organized a National Peace Jubilee in 1869 that featured over 1,000 instrumentalists
and 10,000 singers. In 1872 he presented an even larger World Peace Jubilee with 2,000 instrumentalists and 20,000 vocalists,
including the composer Johann Strauss and his orchestra. During this extravaganza Gilmore made use of an electrically controlled
cannon and one hundred Boston firemen to pound out Verdi's Anvil Chorus on real anvils! Gilmore's "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" became popular with
northerners and southerners alike. Years later, in 1939, one child of the Civil War era remembered: The songs we sang were all patriotic. My niece Mary Hill, or Mollie, as we called her, but
two years younger than I, was a little songbird. She learned all the popular songs of the day and was ready to sing on
any occasion. "Dixie Land" was one of her favorites. She earned the pet name of "Dixie" by this
song. Other songs that were sung in school entertainments were "When Johnny comes marching home again," [and]
"On the field of battle, mother."
-- Mrs. Hortense Applegate, February 21, 1939
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1940 The song also gave rise to many a parody. The best known was the Confederate
parody "For Bales." Union soldiers sang about Generals such as Burnside, McClellan and Mead in a parody titled
"Boys of the Potomac"and northerners disgruntled by taxes, conscription and inflation sang "Johnny, Fill
up the Bowl." During the Spanish American War in 1898, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" reached new
heights of popularity. |
