- Joined
- Jan 8, 2012
MacKinlay Kantor, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the infamous Andersonville prison, also wrote a novel about a Civil War fifer! "The Jaybird" describes, "the odyssey of Abner Feather, G.A. R. who once played the fife in the 148th Pennsylvania across the shell torn wheat fields of Gettysburg." Been out of print for a while, but I found a copy on ebay and I'm waiting for it to arrive, so it's next on my reading list.
Has anyone read it? Especially interested in hearing from any musicians who have read it. A drummer friend of mine told me that the fifer Abner played a fife equipped with a mouthpiece! (or "cheater" as they are commonly and inaccurately called). Since I make and sell mouthpieces for the fife, I found this particularly interesting. My friend also made a list of the tunes that Abner recalls playing while in the Union Army. These include:
Has anyone read it? Especially interested in hearing from any musicians who have read it. A drummer friend of mine told me that the fifer Abner played a fife equipped with a mouthpiece! (or "cheater" as they are commonly and inaccurately called). Since I make and sell mouthpieces for the fife, I found this particularly interesting. My friend also made a list of the tunes that Abner recalls playing while in the Union Army. These include:
- Village Quickstep aka The Picnic
- Jaybird
- Wrecker’s Daughter
- Jefferson ‘n Liberty aka Paul Revere’s Ride or Gobb-O
- Buffalo Gals
- Yankee Doodle
- Marching Through Georgia
- The Girl I Left Behind Me
- Eighteen-Twelve
- The Recruiting Sergeant
- The Raw Recruit
- Seventy-six
- The Sweet Bye and Bye
- Turkey in the Straw
- On the Road to Boston
- Kellog’s Quickstep
- O Lassie Art Thou Sleepin’ Yet
- Gary Owen
- Hail to the Chief aka White Cockade or Highland Lassie
- Black Watch
- Flying Indian
- Gilderoy
- Tell My Mother
- Hell on the Wabash
- Tallewan
- Bung Your Eye
- Miss McLeod
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