How closely our own history and our songs are connected! One
can not properly teach our “Star-spangled Banner” without
going quite into detail and telling the thrilling incidents
surrounding its creation. No wedding of poetry and music has
ever been made under more inspiring circumstances. It was caught
up in the camps, sung around the bivouac-fires, and whistled
in the streets. When peace was declared and the soldiers went
back to their homes, they carried this song in their hearts,
as the most precious souvenir of the War of 1812. Then there
are other patriotic songs, all one with our history. Boys, as
a rule, prefer these songs, and will sing them with a hearty
zest. I think they must appreciate the feeling of the young
major in a Confederate uniform, who said: “Boys, if we’d had
your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t
have marched and fought with such songs?”--ELIZABETH
CASTERTON, “Journal of the National Educational
Association,” 1905.
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