Civil War Era Concertinas, Again

[Dan Worrall]

From time to time there have been questions raised as to the extent of concertina playing during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Two sightings discussed on this forum heretofore include a picture ca. 1863 of a black youth playing one (I posted it a couple of years ago) and a diary account of a group of sailors from the Confederate raider Alabama playing concertina, fife and cornopeon (cornet) as they marched through the Liverpool dockyards. (see both at http://www.concertina.com/worrall/anglo-in-united-states/ ). To this we can now add a German square-ended concertina displayed by the National Park Service at the Gettysburg National Battlefield (in Pennsylvania, sight of a massive fight in 1863). It is part of a display of vintage instruments played by soldiers; I caught it on camera during a visit there two weeks ago. It is strikingly similar to the one played by the black youth in the above-mentioned photo. In a nearby display case was a flutina, with an accompanying period photo of a soldier holding one.

 

The accompanying blurb reads:

Music for Personal Pleasure

Some soldiers had harmonicas, jews harps, concertinas, fiddles, banjos, flutes, or other musical instruments that they played when off duty for their friends and their own pleasure. Singing was a common form of entertainment to ward off boredom.

 

By the way, Harold Herrington recently told me he was thinking of building a few more square-ended concertinas, as he keeps getting enquiries about them.

 

Also on our trip we passed through Bardstown, Kentucky; the accompanying photo is of the now-defunct St. Joseph’s College there, where David Edward Hughes taught music and natural philosophy (sciences) back in the 1850s; the building is now a museum for the local bourbon distillery trade. The significance of Hughes to concertinadom (and of this building to your PC’s keyboard) can be found by ICA members in the latest PICA. I hear that it is in the mail or nearly so.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Jim Besser]

To this we can now add a German square-ended concertina displayed by the National Park Service at the Gettysburg National Battlefield (in Pennsylvania, sight of a massive fight in 1863). It is part of a display of vintage instruments played by soldiers; I caught it on camera during a visit there two weeks ago. It is strikingly similar to the one played by the black youth in the above-mentioned photo. In a nearby display case was a flutina, with an accompanying period photo of a soldier holding one.

 

Interesting information, especially since I'm now playing in a band doing Civil War reenactment dances. For the last one, I brought my square Herrington, thinking it somehow looked more authentic; guess I was right.

 

ANd we're doing a reenactment ball in Gettysburg on New Year's Eve!

[allan atlas]

FOLKS: though it deals with ACCORDIONS (not concertinas). . . .some of you might find the following article of interest:

 

Jared Snyder, "Wind in the Carolinas: Accordions on America's Easter Seaboard, 1840-1900," in The Free-Reed Journal,

vol. 3 (2001)...........

 

Allan

[allan atlas]

FOLKS: THIS IS A CORRECTION. . . .the exact title of Jared's very fine article is "Breeze in the Carolinas: the African American Accordionists of the Upper South"...........

 

sorry for the incorrect citation in the first memo.........Allan

[Dan Worrall]

To this we can now add a German square-ended concertina displayed by the National Park Service at the Gettysburg National Battlefield (in Pennsylvania, sight of a massive fight in 1863). It is part of a display of vintage instruments played by soldiers; I caught it on camera during a visit there two weeks ago. It is strikingly similar to the one played by the black youth in the above-mentioned photo. In a nearby display case was a flutina, with an accompanying period photo of a soldier holding one.

 

Interesting information, especially since I'm now playing in a band doing Civil War reenactment dances. For the last one, I brought my square Herrington, thinking it somehow looked more authentic; guess I was right.

 

ANd we're doing a reenactment ball in Gettysburg on New Year's Eve!

Jim,

 

Glad you found it interesting. Here is one more tidbit...from the Daily Cleveland Herald (Ohio) of Oct 9 1868...just a few short years after the war. Ulysses F Grant was visiting, and a throng numbered in the tens of thousands appeared to see and (maybe) hear him, including many of his decommissioned veterans. In a long description of this event is the following snippet:

"Fun not in the Bills"

Among the many noticeable incidents was one that occurred in one of the stands, when a man named James Alsoeth, of Newberry, Gesuga County, mounted the stand and sang a number of Grant songs, accompanying the singing with a concertina. His grotesque appearance, base voice, and vehement gesticulations caused a great deal of merriment.

 

I hope your upcoming Gettysburg appearance is greeted with more respect!!

Dan

[Jim Besser]

I hope your upcoming Gettysburg appearance is greeted with more respect!!

 

I find the reenactors ( a very odd breed, to be sure) are very interested in the concertina , much more so in the square Herrington than in the fancier vintage instrument.

 

Adjusting to the dance rhythms of a period dance is interesting. Everything's much slower, more stately. There's little rhythmic punch, which I find very hard to deal with. I have to keep restraining the inner Jody kruskal in me.

[Jody Kruskal]

Adjusting to the dance rhythms of a period dance is interesting. Everything's much slower, more stately. There's little rhythmic punch, which I find very hard to deal with. I have to keep restraining the inner Jody kruskal in me.

 

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Gosh Jim, that’s too bad. I hope no one ever asks me to do that!

 

My playing buddy Sam has been known to say:

 

“I think I need a baby sitter for my inner child”

[Jim Besser]

Adjusting to the dance rhythms of a period dance is interesting. Everything's much slower, more stately. There's little rhythmic punch, which I find very hard to deal with. I have to keep restraining the inner Jody kruskal in me.

 

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Gosh Jim, that’s too bad. I hope no one ever asks me to do that!

 

 

Not to worry, repression will never be part of YOUR musical style.

 

After the first Civil War dance I was puzzled: why is everything so SLOW? Especially the waltzes, played at about half what I think of as normal speed.

 

At the second dance, I had a "well, DUH" moment: those giant hoop skirts and the weaponry and accessories hanging from the men's belts impair mobility. These people just can't move very fast!

Edited October 12, 2007 by Jim Besser

[spindizzy]

Adjusting to the dance rhythms of a period dance is interesting. Everything's much slower, more stately. There's little rhythmic punch, which I find very hard to deal with. I have to keep restraining the inner Jody kruskal in me.

 

I have a colleague who plays a lot of Playford for dancing, and that's pretty fast and punchy, maybe you should persuade your reenactors to go further back in time :-)

[Dan Worrall]

From time to time there have been questions raised as to the extent of concertina playing during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Two sightings discussed on this forum heretofore include a picture ca. 1863 of a black youth playing one (I posted it a couple of years ago) and a diary account of a group of sailors from the Confederate raider Alabama playing concertina, fife and cornopeon (cornet) as they marched through the Liverpool dockyards. (see both at http://www.concertina.com/worrall/anglo-in-united-states/ ). To this we can now add a German square-ended concertina displayed by the National Park Service at the Gettysburg National Battlefield (in Pennsylvania, sight of a massive fight in 1863). It is part of a display of vintage instruments played by soldiers; I caught it on camera during a visit there two weeks ago. It is strikingly similar to the one played by the black youth in the above-mentioned photo. In a nearby display case was a flutina, with an accompanying period photo of a soldier holding one.

 

The accompanying blurb reads:

Music for Personal Pleasure

Some soldiers had harmonicas, jews harps, concertinas, fiddles, banjos, flutes, or other musical instruments that they played when off duty for their friends and their own pleasure. Singing was a common form of entertainment to ward off boredom.

 

By the way, Harold Herrington recently told me he was thinking of building a few more square-ended concertinas, as he keeps getting enquiries about them.

 

Also on our trip we passed through Bardstown, Kentucky; the accompanying photo is of the now-defunct St. Josephs College there, where David Edward Hughes taught music and natural philosophy (sciences) back in the 1850s; the building is now a museum for the local bourbon distillery trade. The significance of Hughes to concertinadom (and of this building to your PCs keyboard) can be found by ICA members in the latest PICA. I hear that it is in the mail or nearly so.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

 

I received a note from Nels E., and American concertina player who went by Gettysburg to check out this concertina. Here is what Nels found out:

 

"This was the concertina of Charles Williams, Co. H, 15th Kentucky Infantry. It was donated by his grandchildren to the Gettysburg National Military Park. Charles Williams originally came from England to Kentucky to farm just prior to the ACW. When the war began he enlisted for the Union and supposedly carried this concertina with him throughout the war."

 

So to answer the age old question - Did they play them in the American Civil War - the answer is clearly yes,with a qualifier. Charles WIlliams being just off the boat from England, that explains how he had the concertina. Other common occurences of the concertina in the 19th C US (Mormon useage, Salvation Army useage, the anglo concertina band in Massachussets) all have equally strong English emigrant connections.

 

By the way, Nels made some detailed photos and some drawings of it....perhaps I can persuade him to post some?

 

Cheers,

Dan

Edited December 12, 2012 by Dan Worrall

[MN_Fifer]

 

I received a note from Nels E., an American concertina player who went by Gettysburg to check out this concertina. Here is what Nels found out:

 

"This was the concertina of Charles Williams, Co. H, 15th Kentucky Infantry. It was donated by his grandchildren to the Gettysburg National Military Park. Charles Williams originally came from England to Kentucky to farm just prior to the ACW. When the war began he enlisted for the Union and supposedly carried this concertina with him throughout the war."

 

So to answer the age old question - Did they play them in the American Civil War - the answer is clearly yes,with a qualifier. Charles WIlliams being just off the boat from England, that explains how he had the concertina. Other common occurences of the concertina in the 19th C US (Mormon useage, Salvation Army useage, the anglo concertina band in Massachussets) all have equally strong English emigrant connections.

 

By the way, Nels made some detailed photos and some drawings of it....perhaps I can persuade him to post some?

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

There are other pictures and more detailed dimensions if anyone is interested. I would like to build a replica instrument with modern internals to play in camp at American Civil War reenactments. I am planning to attend the 150th anniversary of the battle at Gettysburg this summer. It would be great to play one that truly represents the concertinas the soldiers carried with them.

 

Your humble servant,

 

Pvt. Nels Ebbesen

Musician - Co B, 2nd Wisconsin Civil War Reenactors

[Bill N]

There are other pictures and more detailed dimensions if anyone is interested. I would like to build a replica instrument with modern internals to play in camp at American Civil War reenactments. I am planning to attend the 150th anniversary of the battle at Gettysburg this summer. It would be great to play one that truly represents the concertinas the soldiers carried with them.

 

Your humble servant,

 

Pvt. Nels Ebbesen

Musician - Co B, 2nd Wisconsin Civil War Reenactors

 

For inspiration, you might visit Bob Tedrow's website. He built a couple of replicas of my rectangular Henry Harley (my avatar photo) with modern internals and a full 30 buttons and air lever (the original has 26 buttons). He made a time-lapse documentary of the construction from lumber to finished instrument.

 

Bill

[MN_Fifer]

For inspiration, you might visit Bob Tedrow's website. He built a couple of replicas of my rectangular Henry Harley (my avatar photo) with modern internals and a full 30 buttons and air lever (the original has 26 buttons). He made a time-lapse documentary of the construction from lumber to finished instrument.

 

Bill

Bill,

 

I have seen the Henry Harley on Bob's website but not the time-lapse documentary. He currently has just one picture of the Henry Harley with several pictures of his replica. Do you have more pictures you could share of your rectangular concertina and more historical details about it? When was it built? Do you have a saved copy of the time-lapse documentary of the replica build? Thanks so much for the info.

 

Nels

[MN_Fifer]

Hey Master Chords

 

From the Montgomery County Historical Society of Crawfordsville, Indiana USA, here's an image of an anglo concertina from the US Civil War era.

http://www.lane-mchs.org/library/library-minnieball.JPG

 

A two row anglo looks like the way to go if this is accurate. It's usually the least costly way too.

 

The star shaped object is a type of minnieball fired in clusters from cannons back then. Fearsome!

 

Here is another lead in Concertina.net forums that I followed up on last year. The pictures seem to show one of the inexpensive German anglos.

 

Nels

[Dan Worrall]

Hey Master Chords

 

From the Montgomery County Historical Society of Crawfordsville, Indiana USA, here's an image of an anglo concertina from the US Civil War era.

http://www.lane-mchs.org/library/library-minnieball.JPG

 

A two row anglo looks like the way to go if this is accurate. It's usually the least costly way too.

 

The star shaped object is a type of minnieball fired in clusters from cannons back then. Fearsome!

 

Here is another lead in Concertina.net forums that I followed up on last year. The pictures seem to show one of the inexpensive German anglos.

 

Nels

Thanks for posting those photos! I have nearly the identical German concertina in my attic, in slighly worse condition. Same paint style, ornaments etc. I knew it was 19th C., but didn't know that it dated back to the 1860s.

[MN_Fifer]

Thanks for posting those photos! I have nearly the identical German concertina in my attic, in slighly worse condition. Same paint style, ornaments etc. I knew it was 19th C., but didn't know that it dated back to the 1860s.

 

Dan - I am looking for the pattern on the bellows papers of a civil war ear concertina. The Crawfordsville museum would not allow me to expand the bellows to see the pattern. Would you be able to post a detailed picture of the papers on your concertina so I can reproduce it for my replica? - Thanks, Nels

[Bill N]

Bill,

 

I have seen the Henry Harley on Bob's website but not the time-lapse documentary. He currently has just one picture of the Henry Harley with several pictures of his replica. Do you have more pictures you could share of your rectangular concertina and more historical details about it? When was it built? Do you have a saved copy of the time-lapse documentary of the replica build? Thanks so much for the info.

 

Nels

 

Hi Nels,

 

Sorry, hadn't visited Bob's website in a while- looks like he has taken down the video, and I don't have a copy. My concertina is a "Henry Harley", made no later than the mid 1870s, (the first advertizement I could find for Harley was from 1865) and owned by my Great-great Grandfather in West Yorkshire. It was brought to Canada in the early 20th century by my homesteading Great-grandfather. Harley's concertinas used the German style wooden lever action and banks of reeds on brass plates, but were "gussied up" with nicer fretwork, better than usual materials and gold embossing-perhaps to appeal to the English market. If you PM me an e-mail address I'll send you the photos and drawings I made for Bob.

 

Cheers

Bill

Edited January 3, 2013 by Bill N

[Anglo-Irishman]

Adjusting to the dance rhythms of a period dance is interesting. Everything's much slower, more stately. There's little rhythmic punch, which I find very hard to deal with. I have to keep restraining the inner Jody kruskal in me.

 

I have a colleague who plays a lot of Playford for dancing, and that's pretty fast and punchy, maybe you should persuade your reenactors to go further back in time :-)

 

An Irish dancing teacher once told me that Irish set dancing - which is quite fast and vigorous, as we all know - was derived from the courtly dances brought back from the Continent by Army officers and diplomats during the Napoleonic Wars. The peasantry, however, executed them at running pace rather than the sedate walking pace of the gentry.

We've got to remember that around 1800 it wasn't fashionable to bath frequently, let alone take a shower before and after a dance, and they didn't have modern deodorants. The best you could do was cover up the BO with eau de cologne. So it was better not to engage in too vigorous activities indoors in polite company.

Don't know about the Playford period - perhaps they still had the Elizabethan pouncet boxes - a sort of portable pot-pourri with scented herbs that you could dangle between your nose and your dancing partner?

 

Cheers,

John