Songs of Civil War: Mother and Family

The civil war wasn't about one country divided into two different land, but it also torn apart family, a suffering that affected soldiers and officers alike. Mothers are one of the biggest victims of the war as they are constantly worried about the well-being of the son(s) that went to fight the civil war. Thus, the music about Mother and Family was formed.

Songs such as "The Dying Mother's Advice to Her Volunteer Son", composed in 1863 by A.J. Higgins, and "Dear Mother I've Come Home to Die", composed by Henry Tucker in the same year, combines the feeling of Motherhood and death into one song. These music generally combined the nurture feeling of motherhood as it symbolized fidelity, innocence, hearth, and home. As the horror of the war became better understood, the images of nation were replaced by images of mother. Most of these songs, however, had been more depressing as it generally focus on the feeling of the son to his mother before death, the feeling of the mother when she new the truth, or both.

There are other subgenre such as soldier's feeling to his children, but the other most famous subgenre would be songs that was about the son's feeling when they're imprisoned by enemy soldiers. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp" (The Prisoner's hope), composed by George F. Roots, is one good example as it shows the feeling of prisoner of war, especially when prisoners tried to hold back tears when singing the second sentence of the lyric "Thinking Mother dear, of you."

Original Artist: George F. Root
Represented Artist: Harlan and Stanley
Represented Title: Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!
Represented Album: Edison Amberol
Represented Label: Creative Engineering, Inc.
Catalog Number: Not Available

Full Version: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr%201=21&query=civil%20war&num=1&start=10&sortBy=&sortOrder=id
Alternative Full Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0I3inaIQPA&fmt=18

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