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The National Music of America. 259
music. The influence of some of these songs in time of war can scarcely be over-estimated. There are many songs which in themselves seem simple that acquire a tremendous power by suggesting home to the soldier. Thus, for example, there is a simple melody, suggesting to us nothing much more than a few bugle calls, the Swiss "Ranz des Vaches," the call to the cows, that brought such a homesickness upon the Swiss volunteers in the great Napoleon's army, that he was obliged to prohibit it altogether, as it cost him too many troops, the Swiss soldiery deserting when they heard its strains. The Scottish melody, "Farewell to Lochaber," was, in like manner, prohibited during the Sepoy mutiny. A general of the Army of the Potomac recently informed the author that, when the troops were in winter quarters, he forbade playing or singing Charles Carroll Sawyer's famous song, "When this cruel war is over," as it made the men too |
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