What Soldiers Sing on Battlefields.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue II, 14 July 1900, Page 69

What Soldiers Sing on Battlefields.

If the full history of wars were written, said a retired Army officer of long- fighting experience, we should find that songs have done more than almost anything else to sustain soldiers' spirits and to inspire their courage amid the hardships of campaigns. Indeed, if it be true that, as Frederick the Great is reputed to have said, "an army, like a serpent, crawls on its stomach,” it is equally true that that army fights best which sings most.

Happily the officers of practically all the world’s armies recognise this, and singing is not only “winked at" but actively encouraged, even to the extent of providing books of martial and inspiriting songs for soldiers. I see that both in France and Belgium thousands of song-books have been distributed by the authorities among the soldiers; and not only are they encouraged to sing them, but singingclasses have been started in all the barracks to practise the songs. In the German army singing is practised more perhaps than in any army in Europe; and as many of the men have trained voices and a thorough knowledge of music, you can hear finer singing in many German barracks t han in many a concert hall. The American army has an almost unrivalled collection of war-songs, and knows how to sing them too. In the Civil War, during Sherman’s historic inarch through Georgia, when he deliberately wrecked the railway over which he had drawn his supplies, and started on his four weeks’ journey to the sea and the capture of Savannah, it was this love of singing which, more than anything, kept up the hearts of his men and made the longest and most trying day’s march

almost a bagatelle; and it was the same with the army of the Potomac on its long journey through Maryland into Pennsylvania. It was quite a common thing, when opposing armies were encamped near

each other, for one of them to join in the refrain of a song started by the other. Many of these old warsongs are as popular to-day as they were in the sixties; and in Cuba a couple of years ago such songs as

"Yankee Doodle," “John Brown’s Body. " I’he Star-Spangled Banner," Rally Round the Flag', Boys," and “Johnny Comes .Marching Home" were sung as lustily by American soldiers as ever their fathers sang them at Chicamauga or Gettysburg.

At the time of the Crimean War such songs as “Cheer, Boys, Cheer," the most inspiriting thing the veteran Henry Russel ever wrote, or sang, and “Tramp, tramp, tramp,” filled every corner of Great Britain with martial ar difur, until every tiny schoolboy squared his shoulders and strutted down the village, shouting, “I've a shilling in my fist, for a solider I will list, while the merry drum and fife bands march away!” No one can ever know how much these two songs did to cheer our men through all the rigours ami hardships of that terrible campaign. It is a .curious fact, however, that the military songs of to-day are far more popular among civilians than among soldiers. “Tommy Atkins” was sung in every village room and whistled in every village street, and the more recent “Soldiers of the Queen” has aroused the same popular enthusiasm; but neither of these songs, nor the more remote “We Don’t Want to Fight,” has ever thoroughly caught Tommy Atkins's fickle fancy. Perhaps he thinks such songs too suggestive of "shop" and not consistent with his modesty. At any rate, the fact remains that his favourites are found among the less militant songs of the “halls,” preferably those with a dash of sentiment. Tommy has a very tender place in his heart for every form of sentiment. I have seen hundreds of strong men break down altogether when listening to the "Old Brigade,” for instance. especially at those pathetic lines: — Not in the abbey proudly laid Find they a place or part; The- gallant boys of the Old Brigade They sleep in Old England’s heart. "Home, Sweet Home” has an undying fascination for Tommy, whether sung over camp tires thousands of miles from home to a silent accompaniment of tears, or sung gladly and proudly when war is over ami home, sweet home looms nearer with every day’s march. Tommy never grows weary of “The Girl I Left Behind Me." which, with its happy mingling of romance, sadness, and martial spirit, is an ideal soldiers' song. But Tommy’s repertoire covers every song that has won favour in the music halls or concert rooms, and when one of them is started on a inarch, the stragglers fall in, the laggards square their shoulders, and. with a swing, one and all step out as gaily and briskly as if they were beginning instead of ending an arduous day.