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Thanks for staying subscribed to my podcast and I hope you enjoy listening. In this episode I discuss Civil War era music and some ways teachers can use Civil War music in their classrooms.
Feedback on the show? email me at podcast@teachthecivilwar.com
Music is by the Excelsior Brigade Fifes and Drums and is used with permission.
SHOW LINKS:
Acoustic Shadows of the Blue and Gray
Library of Congress Links
Civil War Sheet Music Collection
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I have found a few more videos on YouTube that I would like to share with you.
The first two were done by Tapsbugler (those familiar with the hobby will know who this is) and the first video is Field Musicians of the Civil War and the second video is Brass Bands of the Civil War.
The next one is from Antietam and according to the title was recorded at the Pry Farm in October 2006. While not the best quality, it is an excellent rendition of Old Dan Tucker and if I’m not mistaken there are members of the 2nd S. Carolina String Band in the group. Here is a link to a video of the Excelsior Brigade Fifes & Drums playing Old Dan Tucker as well.
Here is one of Camp Chases Fifes and Drums playing The Minstrel Boy. Again, not the best quality but you get the idea. You can also view a great collection of videos of Camp Chase on YouTube.
Another great band is the 2nd South Carolina String Band and you can view a great video of them singing “Dixie’s Land” from a recent Gettysburg reenactment.
Finally, the following is not Civil War music but it is one of the coolest fife and drum videos I’ve seen. The video is the Fifes and Drums of Yorktown playing at Ft. Ticonderoga. If you look closely at about 3:30 into the video, the fifers are lined up and they are using their right hand to play the fife of the person in front of them.
Until next time…
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I have to admit right up front that I am not a big user of YouTube. I have viewed some clips that people have sent me but I’m not a regular user. That being said, someone sent me a link the other evening to a video of a Civil War Fife & Drum group playing and I thought, “hmm, how can this be used in the classroom”?
So, I started doing some searches on YouTube for Civil War related videos and came up with some interesting results that I thought I would share. These videos are a unique way to show clips of various topics on the Civil War to your classes that may otherwise be inaccessible. The following is a list of a few videos and how you may want to integrate them into your classroom.
Fife and Drum: Here is a nice video of the Excelsior Brigade Fifes & Drums playing a medley of several tunes. This video provides a pretty good view of the corp playing. Take notice of the drummers and ask your students if any of them are drummers in a band. There are four snare drums and a bass drum. How about those fifers? Loud and clear over top of the drums and there are only two of them.
Antietam: The following videos were created by a park ranger from the Antietam National Battlefield. This ranger also has a blog entitled My Year of Living Rangerously which I really enjoy reading. The first video is from the 2006 Antitem Artillery Weekend and it shows pictures and video clips of how cannons are loaded and fired. The next video shows the 27th Virginia, a Civil War reenacting group, demonstrating how soldiers would load and fire their muskets as a unit.
Gettysburg: Simply doing a search in YouTube for the word Gettysburg yields pages and pages of videos. These videos range from school projects to vacation videos. There are several that show brief tours of the battlefield or are slide shows of the monuments. I found a few with clips from different movies including Gettysburg, ones of ghost tours and one of a GNMP tour guide.
My favorite is from the 2006 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Gettysburg. This video shows a great representation of the different types of uniforms that both Union and Confederate soldiers would have worn. There are several fife and drum groups shown (including members of Camp Chase Fifes and Drums around the 5min mark) and even a brass band. Best of all is starting at about 5:25 of the movie you can hear a great fife and drum group playing the tune Garry Owen. That group is made up of fifers and drummers from reenactors including yours truly.
As a follow up to this, there is a video of the Gettysburg Address from the ceremony as well.
So, as you can see, there are many videos out on YouTube for viewing. Try some different searches for different battlefields and see what you can come up with to share with your students. Hopefully it’s not blocked by your school filter.
Until next time…
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