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Song of the First of Arkansas.
[Philadelphia?] : Published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, [1863]. Songsheet, 8.875” x 5.75”. CONDITION: Very good. A songsheet comprising eight verses written in dialect by the white captain of an African American regiment and published by the Philadelphia-based Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments to encourage more Black men to enlist. One of the earliest colored regiments of its kind, the First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment (African Descent) began recruiting on the heels of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and was sworn into service on May 1st, 1863, with formerly enslaved recruits in Helena, Arkansas. In November the regiment gained as captain a young New Jersey lawyer named Lindley Miller (1834–1864), who had requested service with Black troops following the death of his young wife and infant in childbirth. The regiment saw action at a skirmish at Mound Plantation and a few days later at Goodrich’s Landing, and spent much of the rest of the war in Vicksburg. Composed and sung to the tune of “John Brown’s Body,” this “Song of the First of Arkansas” is printed here with the following introduction: “The following song was written by Captain Lindley Miller, of the First Arkansas Colored Regiment. Captain Miller says the ‘boys’ sing the song on dress parade with an effect which can hardly be described, and he adds that ‘while it is not very conservative, it will do to fight with.’” Early verses boast that “We can hit a rebel furder dan a white man eber saw,” and “We mean to show Jeff. Davis how the Africans can fight.” The third and fourth stanzas proclaim an end to their former way of life, and paint what, to Southern slaveholders, would have been a nightmare scenario of reparations and respect for African Americans: We hab done wid hoein’ cotton, we hab done with hoein’ corn, Dey will hab to pay us wages, de wages ob their sin, Subsequent verses touch on “Father Abraham” and “de proclamation,” and the final stanza urges: “Den fall in colored bredren, you’d better do it soon / Don’t you hear de drum a beatin’ de Yankee Doodle tune?” Miller was promoted to Major, but died of a fever before he could take up his new post with an African American regiment in Missouri. In addition to this Civil War-era printing, his verses were published in standard English almost a century later by Irwin Silber under the title “Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment.” The Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments was founded in the summer of 1863 by prominent Philadelphia businessman and reformer Thomas Webster (1818–1894). The Committee engaged with free African Americans in and beyond Pennsylvania to encourage them to join the military, distributing advertisements urging them to take up arms for those still enslaved and to demonstrate their equality as American citizens. Webster also established and served as chair for the Free Military School for Applicants to the Command of Colored Regiments, and became an eminent figure in military circles, corresponding with those at the highest commands, including Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and President Lincoln. The Military School trained nearly 500 officers for the newly-organized Black regiments during its short period of operation. REFERENCES: LCP exhibition catalogue, Negro History, entry #139; “Abraham Barker collection on the Free Military School for Applicants for the Command of Colored Regiments” at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania online; “Frederick Douglass Thomas Webster, August 18, 1863” at The Frederick Douglass Papers online; “Men of Color To Arms” at the Library Company of Philadelphia online. “Lindley Hoffman Miller Letters” at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum online.
We are colored Yankee soldiers now, as sure as you are born;
When de Massas hear us yellin’ dey’ll tink its Gabriel’s horn,
As we go marching on.
Dey will hab to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin,
Dy will hab to gib us house-room, or de roof shall tumble in,
As we go marching on.
Item #9955
On Hold
Price: $975.00
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