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In some tents vocal or instrumental music was a feature of the evening. There was probably not a regiment in the service that did not boast at least one violinist, one banjoist, and a bone player in its ranks—not to mention other instruments generally found associated with these—and one or all of them could be heard in operation, either inside or in a company street, most any pleasant evening. However unskilful [sic] the artists, they were sure to be the centre of an interested audience.

John D. Billings

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Historical Resources

See below to explore the history behind our music, sources, imagery and more!

Period Accounts

Hard Tack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life by John D. Billings

An Artilleryman's Diary by Jenkin Jones

White Jacket by Herman Melville

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Period Banjo resources

Thomas F. Briggs’ Banjo Instructor. Boston, MA: Oliver Ditson, 1855.

Phil Rice’s Correct Method for the Banjo With or Without a Master. New York, NY: Firth, Pond & Co., 1858.

James Buckley’s New Banjo Method. New York, NY: Oliver Ditson & Company, 1860.

Frank B. Converse’s New and Complete Method for the Banjo. New York, NY: S.T. Gordon & Son, 1865.
Frank B. Frank B. Converse’s Banjo Instruction Without a Master. New York, NY: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1865.


The digitized copies of the original instructors were compiled by Timothy Twiss and are available from his website at https://www.timtwiss.com/early-banjo-resources

Modern historians

Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War, by Christian McWhirter

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Music Along the Rapidan: Civil War Soldiers, Music, and Community during Winter Quarters, Virginia, by James A Davis

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