‘Home, Sweet Home’, Soldier’s Favorite Song - May ‘96 America’s Civil War Feature

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ORDNANCE

John Howard Payne’s haunting ‘Home, Sweet Home’
was the Civil War soldier’s favorite song.

By Ernest L. Abel

A few weeks after the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862), about 100,000 Federal soldiers and 70,000 Confederates were camped on opposite sides of the Rap-
pahannock River in Virginia. The battle had been one of the bloodiest of the war so far. More than 12,000 Federals had been killed or wounded; Confederate losses numbered about 5,000. The two sides were still licking their wounds, each entertaining murderous thoughts about the other.

As was customary in camp, at twilight the regimental bands on either side began their evening concerts. When they were bivouacked close together, as they were that night, the opposing bands would sometimes play at the same time, trying to drown each other out. On other occasions they took turns. Often the bands waged a musical contest, each playing their own patriotic tunes with as much panache and enthusiasm as they could muster, making many twilight concerts veritable “battles of the bands.”

Toward the end of the evening concerts, the music typically became more poignant and tender. On one particular night, a Federal band was especially melodic in its rendition of the Civil War’s favorite tune. The slow, plaintive notes floated like feathers through the air, gently nestling into homesick hearts. Night was the time when men wrote home to their mothers and sweethearts, or held silent communion with themselves. The soothing notes sent the heartfelt words of the beloved song running through their minds:

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home!
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne’er met with
elsewhere:
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home!
There’s no place like Home.

Almost as soon as the Union band began playing “Home, Sweet Home,” Confederate bands took up the strain. One after another, every regimental band in both armies joined in. Everyone ceased what they were doing. Pens were put down; books were closed; games of tag stopped; cards drifted to the ground. There wasn’t a sound, except for the music.

Then, in the words of Frank Mixson, a private in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, “Everyone went crazy.” Mixson had not witnessed anything like it before. Both sides began cheering, jumping up and down and throwing their hats into the air. Mixson had never seen anything to compare with the wild cheering that followed the song’s lingering notes. Had there not been a river between them, reflected Mixson, the two armies would have met face to face, shaken hands, and ended the war on the spot.

Fredericksburg wasn’t the only time “Home, Sweet Home” made Billy Yank and Johnny Reb forget they were enemies. In the summer of 1864, the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Jubal Early were about to confront Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan’s Federals near Winchester and Martinsburg. Their picket lines were only a few feet apart in some places. As night fell, the pickets began talking to one another. Both sides were exhausted. One of the picket officers called over to the other that he would agree not to fire on their pickets, if the other side would do likewise. This would enable both sides to get a good night’s rest. The bargain was quickly made. But though the pickets wanted desperately to sleep, they could not turn in without their evening’s musical interlude. The Confederate pickets began singing some of their favorite songs. Then it was the Federals’ turn to be on stage. After a while, the sentries on either side lined up and sang “Home, Sweet Home” and went happily to sleep.

On May 10, 1864, Confederates and Federals faced each other at Spotsylvania. To ease the tension, a Confederate band made its way from its usual position in the rear and began playing hymns. As soon as it stopped, a Federal band nearby started in with one of its own hymns. Then came a bout of patriotic songs. When a Confederate band finally launched into the familiar strains of “Home, Sweet Home,” both sides began cheering so loudly that it created a din not heard before in the hills around Spotsylvania.

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