You’ve heard about a “battle of the bands,” a contest among rock bands, country music bands, even high school marching bands. Long ago, a noisy competition between rival brass bands was held on a dreary December night, the prelude to an actual military battle the next day.
This is the story of the original Battle of the Bands.
There’s something particularly sad about being far from home during the holiday season, especially for soldiers in wartime. It made things worse for thousands of troops massed on the rolling hillsides of middle Tennessee at the end of 1862. The weather was cold, the men had missed being with their loved ones on Christmas Day, they were about to miss them again on New Year’s Day, they were stuck outdoors with little protection from the elements, and, worst of all, a major battle was looming.
They were gathered outside the little town of Murfreesboro, some 83,000 men in all. Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee was intent on recapturing Nashville, about 50 miles away. Major General William Rosecrans’s Union Army of the Cumberland was determined to keep that from happening.
So they shivered around campfires on that next-to-last night of 1862. The soldiers were veterans. They knew a big battle was coming the next day. That meant many of them wouldn’t survive. Melancholy filled the air.
Someone decided music was needed to lighten things up. An officer ordered a brass band to play. While we don’t know if a Northern or Southern band went first, one struck up a patriotic song. The two armies were so close together that both clearly heard the tune.
The rival camp quickly answered with one of its favorite songs. The Battle of the Bands was on.
The Yankee band played “Yankee Doodle.” The Rebels replied with “Dixie.” The Northern band played “Hail, Columbia” as other brass bands in the Union ranks joined in. The Southerners shot back with a lively rendition of “Bonnie Blue Flag,” with additional Southern brass ensembles likewise chiming in. Songs from each side grew louder and louder as opponents used music instead of muskets to defeat their rivals. Their playing grew so loud, it almost rivaled the volume of a real battle.
After a while, band members in both camps wore themselves out. As they paused for a breather, something unique in the annals of the American Civil War happened.
One band set aside the martial music and began playing a song everyone knew by heart, regardless of whether they were in blue or gray.
“Home! Home! Sweet, sweet Home!” its chorus went, a song everyone knew by heart. “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” Bands on both sides joined in. Thousands of voices sang the chorus in unison. For one incredible moment, North and South were reunited in the same sad song about the place they all longed to be.
Silence reigned in both camps as the last notes drifted off into the December darkness.
The Confederates attacked early the next morning, commencing the Battle of Stones Rivers (also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro), one of the war’s most savage battles. Fighting was so brutally intense that something unique followed. Each army being so badly mauled, they took off New Year’s Day 1863 to recuperate. It was the only major battle of the entire Civil War where both sides stopped for a day in the middle of the action.
The struggle resumed on Jan. 2 with a final round of furious fighting. Although the battle was tactically a draw, the Confederates withdrew. That allowed the Union to claim a strategic victory, giving it a much-needed morale boost just two weeks after its disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The war dragged on for two more years. Many of those fortunate enough to survive the fighting at Stones River would fall later at places such as Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Franklin.
Those who eventually made it home always remembered the night of Dec. 30, 1862, and how what began as a Battle of the Bands restored the battered bonds of brotherhood, if only for a fleeting moment.
J. Mark Powell (@JMarkPowell) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He’s VP of communications at Ivory Tusk Consulting, a South Carolina-based agency. A former broadcast journalist and government communicator, his “Holy Cow! History” column is available at jmarkpowell.com.
