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Today our program will be presented by Pat Bauer to History Sandwiched In at the Wisconsin Historical Museum.
and David Geister. They'll talk about their book
"B is for Battle Cry," as part
from the mid-19th century of ourAmerican music bandl War. TheyThe New Pearl Buttons.rry and Don Ladig, musicians
with clippings culled from Now the presentation will begin
Wisconsin newspapers during the Civil War. Thank you, and welcome
our speakers and our players. [APPLAUSE]
soldiers during the past week. >> June 26, 1861, Prescott. The town has been alive with
Their red uniforms and military caps meet us everywhere. The streets look as if they've
broken out with scarlet fever.
The drum and fife play the old inspiring tunes.
preparing uniforms. There has been a dinner, >> The ladies have been busy
countermarching through the streets, and we are the proud of the appearance in spirit There haof our boys.ing and
Secession at the north. >> The time has come when secession seems to be the ruling
and the times seem to justify such a movement, especially when passion of the American people,
we take into consideration that...
Grover & Baker's
sewing machine... >> Will enable any woman to secede from the close
application of her needle...
[LAUGHTER] And make an employment
an untimely grave, which has carried so many to
an amusement rather than a burden, by purchasing one of...
Grover & Baker's noiseless
The parting was a touching family sewing machines. >> June 29, 1861, Prescott, Wisconsin.
scene. How could it be otherwise?
goodbye to those who love them, as parents, sisters, or lovers, to brave the hardships When sons and brothers say
of the battlefield. But the boys went off singing cheerily, "In Dixie land of the camp and the perils
to live in die in Dixie." >> Cephalic pills cure sick headache, cure nervous headache, I take my stand
By the use of these pills the periodic attacks of nervous or sick headaches may be cure all kinds of headache.
And if taken at the commencement prevented.
of an attack, immediate relief from pain and sickness
They seldom fail in removing will be obtained.
the nausea and headache, which females are subject.
They act gently upon the bowels, [LAUGHTER]
removing costiveness. >> For literary men, students, delicate females, and
all persons of sedentary habits,
to the digestive organs, and they are valuable as a lucrative, improving the appetite, giving tone and vigor
restoring the natural elasticity and strength
Beware of counterfeits. The genuine have five signatures of the whole system.
of Henry Spalding on each box. >> July 3, 1861,
the La Crosse Republican. Prescott City Guards, composed of young, robust men,
this morning en route for Camp Randall at Madison. came down on the Sucker State
Look out for fun if the Prescott boys get among the rebels.
Here, here. A word to the boys going south. It would not be strange if, with the change of climate
you will be exposed to, in the land of Dixie, you should
stand in need of some valuable pain reliever.
Perry Davis' Vegetable
Painkiller. For the cure of colds, coughs, weak stomach and general
debility, indigestions, cramp and pain in stomach,
Don't go without a bottle in your knapsacks. bowel complaint, colic, diarrhea, cholera, etc.
few lines to inform you that being in Madison last week, >> July 31, 1861. Dear girls, I write these
that they told me to tell you that, ah, thunder, the Prescott Guards told me to tell you
that won't do. The fact is, you know you sent
down eatables to the guards by Charlie Boutin,
their new uniforms by the fullness of cakes and gratitude. and the guards were mighty glad of it, and came near bursting
That's the gist of it. Your kindness was appreciated
by the brave boys now speeding
far away to meet the uncertain issues of life or death.
The readers of the journal >> September 17, 1862.
know how the 6th Wisconsin has been impatient for battle.
the baptism of fire. Well, they have received
comprising of the 6th and 7th In the receWisconsinun battles, Geand the 19th Indiana,e, lost 780 in killed, wounded,
and missing,
the heaviest percentage of loss in the campaign. The 6th lost but 14
and 64 wounded. At last, they have been laurel
welcome home? >> Good cooks. gathering on the bloody fields. >> How warm shall be their
the mortification of having poor Ladies, if you would be known as good cooks, and would avoid
biscuits for tea when you have company,
Chemical Saleratus, and that only, and be careful when you buy to get the article in red papers, for there is
a counterfeit put up in green.
[LAUGHTER] >> December 25, 1862, from the 23rd Wisconsin.
Christmas, and no roast turkey
we shall have to put up with it. fixings, but plenty of hard bread and salt pork, rather meager fare for Christmas, but
Ran about till daylight. Are now within 25 miles of Vicksburg.
Letter from the Captain Ring to Mrs. Clark. From camp, the 2nd Wisconsin
near Vicksburg, Mississippi, Volunteer Cavalry
August 8th, 1863. >> My dear madam, it becomes my sad duty to inform you
of the death of your son, James M. Clark, late a member of my company.
half o'clock this afternoon in the regimental hospital He died at about three and a
after a short illness. He was sensible to the last and
died like a Christian soldier.
You will feel his loss deeply, my dear madam, but let the
country and to the noblest thought that he died for his
principles ever defended by man comfort you. Although not his fate to die as
a soldier always wishes to die, on the battlefield bravely
for his country, as though fighting, yet he gave just as much, his young life
in the hour of danger, he had fallen in the face of the enemy. A good soldier, brave and cool
a warm friend, beloved by all, he has passed away. Let us trust to a better land
than this, where the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest. We have buried him
near our camp.
With respect and sympathy, I am, dear madam, yours,
Put in the crops. Owing to the scarcity of help, G.W. Ring.
country will remain uncultivated it is feared that a good deal of the tillable land in this
this season. We have no wealth here, but that
Let every acre possible be placed under culture and made to contribute which springs from the Earth.
May 28, 1864, the Prescott Journal. Captain Rollin P. Converse to the general wealth.
In the first of that terrible series of battles in the wilderness on the 5th of May he was shot.
Fell into the enemy's hands and died two days afterward.
was ever more deserving of love. >> No officer has ever been more loved by his men, and none
the coolness and judgment he always displayed in dangerous respect of his brother officers by his undaunted courage and
situations, loved friend, brave heFarewell. soldier.
Whiskers, whiskers! >> Do you want whiskers or mustache?
them to grow on the smoothest face or chin, or hair, Our Grecian compound will force
on bald heads, in six weeks. [LAUGHTER]
Price: one dollar.
Sent by mail anywhere, closely sealed on receipt of price. >> January 14, 1865,
Prescott Journal. A few days ago, John Wynn,
minus a leg, William Douglas, minus a leg,
and Ephraim Minor,
minus both arms, all crippled in the army, happened to meet together
in one of our stores. It was a suggestive incident, but the war has made sights,
Welcome home. >> The return of our soldiers has brought the terrible once strange, familiar.
to our minds realities of war more vividly
and buoyant with hope. than their departure did. They left us with full ranks, flushed with confidence
They returned with their work done, but with wasted
While the very many who are maimed give saddening evidence decimated ranks.
of the terrible ordeal through which they have passed.
In the evening, dancing was the order, and so large a social party never assembled
186 tickets being issued. As we looked on the merry throng, we thought of the sterner music to which they had
listened. How they were formed for the
deadly charge and answered the call to a very different sort of
arms from those they bore just then.
If you're wondering why there were a number of things from Prescott, Wisconsin, my dear husband hails from there
and we've done a fair amount
of research. [LAUGHTER]
things over the years. We found some very interesting
I'd also like to thank the Historical Society, though, for having this wonderful
website now,
I was able to do research and find some of the other newspaper articles without
actually coming down to Madison in the archives, like I usually have to do. And we live in Minneapolis,
so it's a long ways to go except
Well. th>> We have this book callede, "B is for Battle Cry," frequently.
that I was able to write it and Dave illustrated it. and we were fortunate enough
we made this proposal to Sleeping Bear Press, which had done his other books of children's books, and
needed to have a book about the Civil War, an alphabet book about the Civil War. before, that they really
We finally convinced them and we They weren't so sure at first.
were fortunate to get that job, because when they decided it was a good idea, a lot of other
people wanted to do it as well, so we felt very fortunate.
and then text that goes into much more detail. And the Sleeping Bear Press alphabet books have a poem
And so when we do a read aloud or anything, we do the text,
excuse me, we do the poems. The text you can do on your own.
The poems, I decided to write to fit into Stephen Foster's If we did all that now, that would take a long time.
song "Hard Times Come Again No More."
And that song was very popular
during the Civil War for obvious reasons, I think. And there was also a song
that the soldiers sang, which was a parody of that. That was called "Hard Crackers
[LAUGHTER] Come Again No More."
We've got a painting here, and in the book H is for Hardtack.
You'll see that shortly.
He's also, if you notice, the Battle of Gettysburg son-in-law, actually. [LAUGHTER]
painting on your way in, that's also Kevin
in a variety of guises. [LAUGHTER]
>> So what I'm going to do first is just sing a verse
and chorus of "Hard Times Come Again No More."
Then I'll do the same with I'm sure it will sound familiar to you.
"Hard Crackers Come Again No More."
Let us pause
In life's pleasures And count its many tears While we all sup
Sorrow with the poor
There's a song That will linger
Oh, hard times Forever in our ears
Come again no more 'Tis the song The sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times
Come again no more Many days you have lingered Around my cabin door
Oh, hard times
Come again no more Now as I said, the soldiers sang a parody of that.
And as you can imagine
hardtack, or hard crackers, wasn't the most wonderful food in the world, but fortunately
did keep them in food when they were very hungry. So they had kind of a love/hate relationship, I think.
So I'm going to just sing this
one quickly so you get an idea of how they did it.
Let us close
The cook tent's door Our game of poker Take our tin cups in hand While we gather round
Where dried mummies Of hard crackers Are given to each man
Oh, hard crackers Come again no more
Hard crackers Hard crackers, 'Tis the song The sigh of the hungry
Come again no more Many days you have lingered
Upon our stomach sore [LAUGHTER]
Oh, hard crackers [LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE]
Maybe you'd like to explain what the picture is they've been
looking at the whole time. >> Yes, absolutely.
This is not from the book.
purely for myself. >> I would be happy to. This is a painting that I did a number of years ago
for many years the stories of soldiers north and south meeting my favorite Civil War painting. I had been enamored
bullets, they exchanged words, each other across creeks, and instead of exchanging
and tobacco, and coffee, and newspapers, with the understanding
that tomorrow, they may be back at it again.
So, I painted it for myself, and it's probably my favorite
of all that I've done.
Unfortunately, it's somewhere in the south owned by someone, they're not killing each other. [LAUGHTER]
and we don't know where it is. >> Yeah, I sold it in a gallery.
I haven't seen it.
>> So if anybody sees it, let us know. >> Yes, please.
So we're going to go through
So, A is for Abraham Lincoln. and And I'll sing this,ough just so you get the idea. He was called Honest Abe
The Rail Splitter, too
But through the years He became so much more The boy who loved to read
Became the president
[LAUGHTER] Who led our country Through the Civil War >> I will not be singing.
B, well I don't know about that. "B is for Battles." Battles were fought in
the north and in the south. At crossroads, creeks,
up the air as the soldiers and railroad towns. Cannons fired and smoke filled
charged across the ground. >> C is for the Confederacy.
symbol for the states in the The Southern Cross was the
south known as the Confederacy. Folks were loyal to their states and not the USA, so they
formed their own country. >> D is for Diseases. Soldiers were sick
Illness struck with the measles and the pox.
Diseases many a courageous soul. It wasn't only guns that killed the boys and men.
Important words were written took a mighty toll. >> E is for Emancipation Proclamation.
on paper by a man who had this goal in mind: sweet freedom for those who were slaves.
This document Abe Lincoln did sign. >> F is for Fort Sumter.
when shells hit Fort Sumter before dawn. The war began in April of 1861,
and soon the Union soldiers were gone. The fort was short of ammunition, men, and supplies
in Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. >> G is for Gettysburg. A three-day battle was fought
It was a small town. Thousands of soldiers fell during the fight and are
buried in this hallowed ground. >> H is for Hardtack. Rations of hardtack,
The soldiers crackers as hard as rocks.
would often break them up. They dunked them in their coffee
Sometimes weevils floated to the top. [LAUGHTER and GROANS] or s>> I is for Ironclads.oup.
Sailors fought in wooden ships
and the ironclad ship was born. f>> J is for Jefferson Davis. Civil War, when iron was placed on the outsides of the hull
of the Confederate states. Jefferson Davis was the only president
K is for Kepi. He led his new country in a war against the north until the surrender on that April day.
Men wore kepis perched upon their heads. Soldiers wore them in rain
or shine. Whether they were from the north
or from the south, the men looked like soldiers so fine.
L is for Letters. Dearest papa, we wish that you were home. We missed you
more than words can say.
Mama's helping me to spell and she sends her love. We pray you'll walk through
the door some day.
>> M is for Music. Soldiers marched to the beat
Or whistled As they stood in line Some had tears in their eyes Of the fife and the drum
Of home sweet home As they sang
Very nice. And the girls That they had left behind
[APPLAUSE] N is for Nurses.
in the Civil War. Angels of the battlefield. Women served as nurses
Their skills They cared for the sick and wounded men.
to all the men. heThey told the soldiers. >> O is for Officers. Officers gave orders
and generals, too. when to fire. Captains, majors,
The best ones were loved and admired.
Many a soldier from the north and from the south >> P is for Prisoners of War.
others were exchanged, but many died before peace was restored. wer>> Q is for Quartermaster.r. Some were kept in confinement,
was to supply the army's needs. Wagons traveled many miles The quartermaster's job
over the ground. Taking rations to the soldiers
and hay for the mules,
Yelling like demons, ammunition must be hauled around. >> R is for Rebel Yell.
striking terror I sayin the enemy's eyes.s... [YELLING] Rebels went on the attack,
[YELLING] The southern soldiers shrieked out their cries. shouting>> Very good.ranks...
S is for Spies. Wild Rose was a lady
who spied for the south. There were more
who also did the same.
Harriet Tubman passed information to the north.
we'll never know their names. >> T is for Trains. Trains carried soldiers to the battlefields.
Tracks crisscrossed the south and the north.
Telegraph wires stretched across the land, and messengers
were sent back and forth. >> U is for Union.
There were 23 in all. The soldiers fought to keep their country as one, and after four years the south did fall.
V is for Vicksburg. Vicksburg families huddled
and starvation was near. inside caves. Shells were bursting
The Union Army had put the city under siege. For many weeks,
the people lived in fear. >> W is for Women.
and fought beside the men. Some disguised themselves as soldiers
Some stayed home and worked upon the farms.
and wounded, Others nursed the sick
and scrounged for supplies. They tried to keep their families safe from harm.
X is for Appomattox.
had empty haversacks. General Lee surrendered to General Grant in a village called Appomattox.
Y is for Yankee.
A Yankee was a soldier who fought for the north. To preserve his country
was his goal. His president was Lincoln,
who wanted all to be free. The Yanks won,
but it took a mighty toll.
>> Z is for Zouaves. Some had jackets trimmed
These brightly dressed soldiers had a name. Zouaves they were called in the north and in the south, and in
the end they gained great fame.
The end of the alphabet.
[APPLAUSE] There are a couple things in here that I always
like to comment on. We'll be eternally grateful that
the war ended in Appomattox. That has an X in it.
Xs are not easy to find,
Appomattox, because the end of the war at the beginning of the book just wouldn't have We couldn't have done A is for
So I'm very happy about that. And people often wondered about Z, how you come up with Zs, and Zouave worked much better
than zebra would have,
that's for certain. And there were Zouaves in the north and in the south.
We tried very hard when we did
this book to balance between north and south, so that there
southerners, in particular. No, but that it would be a good balance. would be no complaints from
to do when we did that. We're going to do a reading, We felt that was very important
of the Gettysburg Address. and hopefully get a few volunteers to join us,
What we'll do, is we've got copies of it here, with a line or two that is highlighted.
What we'd love to do is get some people who would be willing
to volunteer to do that. >> If you would be so kind.
I'm wondering, though,
gentleman in the back, do we need to bring them
If they would. to the front probably?
>> That would work best. That would be good. So if you would be willing
to read a line
from the Gettysburg Address. >> Any takers?
Oh, good. >> Thank you. >> And if you could come up, Very good.
We have another line here. I think, just so that we..
Anybody? You can do it jointly.
Another one here. Very good. Thank you, sir.
I'm sorry, madam. Very good. Excellent, yes. Ah, there we go!
Yep, yes, yep, Sir, thank you. One more.
Would you care to go, my dear? I bet you'd be quite grand
And when we're finished we will take questions at it.
if anybody has them. >> Anybody over here?
We could certainly use another. Thank you, madam. How about over here?
Anyone care to? Sir? One of you perhaps?
>> They don't have to. >> Thank you, sir.
We have just a few more.
We could use one more here. Thank you so much. We're getting there,
ladies and gentlemen. Would one of you care to? >> If anybody has a question
No? Gentlemen? before we start, I can help out.
>> If anybody has glasses, you can borrow my glasses.
We're getting very close >> How about over here perhaps?
I think, Don, If you would be so kind. >> Dave, I'd be happy to take one.
You will be busy with that, yes. >> I'll take another one.
Do you need another reader? >> His is extremely short.
I think we may well have our assembled cast, if you will.
And behind us, momentarily
here, we recently came from a visit to Gettysburg, and while we were there,
we live in Minnesota now
but I'm from Wisconsin and he's from Wisconsin,
there, and we visited the site so we have a special affinity
at the Gettysburg cemetery where there are 73 Wisconsin
are labeled as unknown. We thought this might work men who are buried, many of whom
Let's see how this goes, well to put it at the end with the Gettysburg address.
shall we? Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, that all men are created equal.
testing whether that nation, or any nation,
so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. >> We are met on
We have come to dedicate a great battlefield of that war.
a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives
that we should do this. t>> But, in a larger sense, >> It is altogether fitting and proper
we cannot hallow this ground. >> The brave men, living we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate,
far above our poor power and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,
to add or detract. >> The world will little
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. note, nor long remember what
to the unfinished work >> It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
to be dedicated here >> It is rather for us
to the great task remaining before us, that from those honored dead
we take increased devotion
That we here highly resolve that these dead thshall not have died in vain,e of devotion.
shall have a new birth that this nation, under God,
of freedom. >> And that government of the people, by the people,
and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE]
>> Thank you for your help. >Very good. We shall, if you want.
yes.