Cornets Used in the Civil War

The following is an example of how music was used during the War Between the States to transcend the terrible reality of the war. This event was reported from survivor's diaries....Gettysburg, the third day..... Picketts charge had failed. And as the Confederates were struggling back across the mile of that open field now covered with their dead and dying comrades......a Federal band began playing a familiar hymn of the time..when they finished, the Confederate band on Seminary ridge..perhaps the 26th North Carolina...answered back by playing the same hymn but in a slightly higher key as was often characteristic of the southern music. This poignant episode typified the character of this war...both sides felt the sorrow of what they were doing to each other..and they would often send a music salute to the other side through their field bands.

I will play a reenactment of this occurence at Gettysburg on these cornets...first, "the Federal" on the rotary valve..then the "Confederate" response on the silver piston valve. Of special interest, the rotary valve one was actually at Gettysburg as it was owned by William McPherson, a cornetist in the 2nd Pa Cav, the escort to General Meade.and may well have actually played this hymn. The German silver cornet is typical of a Confederate horn.

So now.. just visualize that scene back then...the scattered survivors of the three Confederate infantry divisions making their way back to Seminary Ridge...the shocked and battered Federal Army of the Potomac still holding the stone wall....a Federal band begins playing... all is quiet as both armies stand and listen.......Nearer My God to Thee....

Cornet used by the 2nd Pennsylvania at Gettysburg - Click on the picture for a blowup of the picture and to hear how the horn sounded at Gettysburg

A Confederate Cornet - Click on the picture for a blowup of the picture and to hear how the horn sounds