Confederate "Heritage" Month 2020, April 7: Civil War songs, Army band and chorus 1963 vrsions

Here is another take on Civil War songs. This is from 1963, and it "[f]eatures the US Army Band, US Army Chorus (dressed as Yankees & Rebels) + civilians Gloria Lambert and Bill Hayes," according to the clip Internet Archives site.

Yes, that's soldiers serving in the US Army, dressing up in the uniforms of the traitors who directly betrayed the country and whose service was all focused on killing soldiers of the US Army.

Yes, this is a cultural/theatrical event, not a white power group demonstration. But there is a political element to this. After the overthrow of the democratic Reconstruction governments in the South by force, violence, and fraud, the Republican and Democratic parties adopted a narrative of North-South reconciliation. Or, put another way, a narrative of North-South reconciliation among white people

But it's also the case that Robert E. Lee and the other military leaders of the Confederacy were almost all former officers in the US Army who were sworn to support the country. Instead, they signed up with a rebellion to defend and expand slavery by overthrowing the legitimate government of the US. The symbolism of the US Army retroactively honoring those traitors is ugly.

Lincoln wrote in an 1863 letter to Erastus Corning addressing his controversial arrests of active Northern Coppperheads (Confederate sympathizers):

Gen. John C. Breckienridge, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. John B. Magruder, Gen. William B. Preston, Gen. Simon B. Buckner, and Comodore [Franklin] Buchanan, now occupying the very highest places in the rebel war service, were all within the power of the government since the rebellion began, and were nearly as well known to be traitors then as now. Unquestionably if we had seized and held them, the insurgent cause would be much weaker. But no one of them had then committed any crime defined in the law. Every one of them if arrested would have been discharged on Habeas Corpus, were the writ allowed to operate. In view of these and similar cases, I think the time not unlikely to come when I shall be blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many.

Whether one agrees with the denial of habeus corpus to some of the arrested Copperheads, Lincoln was stating the factual reality that many of the commanders who in 1863 were killing large numbers of US Army soldiers were former officers who betrayed their country and the US Army in which they had served in defense of the ownership of property in human beings.

The film is also an illustration of how historical memories are shaped and how various kinds of contemporary symbolism become attached to them. 1963 was in the middle of the centennial of the Civil War, which was very visibly commemorated by governments, civil society groups, and the popular press. This was also a year in which civil rights struggles were in an intense phase. And defenders of segregation and the suppression of black votes on which it rested celebrated of the Confederate cause symbolism for their very contemporary hostility to African-Americans and to democracy.

All of that said, the video is interesting as a snapshot of one official representation of Civil War history in a centennial event.

The website provides this list of the songs performed:

Episode opens with "Down By The Riverside"
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
"We are Coming Father Abra'am"
"Lorena"
"Tenting On The Old Camp Ground"
"The Battle" (new music & spoken word piece)
"In the Sweet By-and-By / The Army Bean"
"Yellow Rose of Texas"
"Bonnie Blue Flag"
"Home! Sweet Home!"
"Dixie"
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic"