Video
Battle of the Bands
Transcript
In fact, that night on December 30 if you all had watched the movie or read any of the books about the Battle of Stones River, of course, you have the unique situation "The Battle of the Bands" where from soldiers' letters up and down this line, we know that anybody who had a military band around 10 o'clock or so-- they start just before tattoo, which is lights out. They start playing the evening music to try to bolster the men's spirits.
Apparently there was this cacophony of "Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Yankee Doodle" from all the bands over here and "Dixie" and "Bonnie Blue Flag" over there. And according to some soldiers, it didn't matter-- they weren't just fighting each other, trying to outdo each other. They were trying to outdo their own guys. It must have been a joyful noise.
But then somewhere, and we don't know exactly where, one of the bands struck up "Home, Sweet Home". And before you knew it, every single band up and up and down the three mile long line starts playing the tune. Soldiers start to sing the refrain.
And then it all kind of dies out together just as the bugles are blowing time for everybody to try to get some sleep, in conditions not very much different from what we're experiencing right now-- cold, muddy, wet. And every one of those soldiers now, you could have heard a pin drop out. Because they are thinking about home sweet home, and they know darn well a lot of them are never going to see it again.
Description
Hear the story of one of the most poignant moments of the Stones River Campaign.
Video filmed and edited by VIP Mike Browning.
Duration
1 minute, 31 seconds
Date Created
01/20/2013
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