This recording is a collection of instrumental dance music that was current around the time of the American Civil War. Fiddle players, dulcimer players, banjo players, guitarists, and other musicians, civilians and soldiers alike, performed these enduring tunes for square dances, hoedowns, minstrel shows, and just plain common fun. Although this music is known by only a relative handful today, it was the popular instrumental music of the 1850s and 60s.

The tunes contained in this collection fall under the category of what is known today as "traditional music" or "fiddle tunes." As instrumental pieces they generally did not have words, and, so, were not sung. Their function was to accompany square dances and, as in the case of Little Rose Is Gone and John Brown's March, simply to provide entertainment.

Documentation abounds in Civil War literature for the popularity of musicians in the army camps. With no USO, no tape decks, movies, TV, or radios, the Civil War soldier had to more or less entertain himself and provide his own music. Fiddle players particularly seemed to be in abundance during the time of the war. For example, Confederate Veteran magazine reported that in a regiment of Barksdale's Mississippians, there was one company of ninety men, seventy-five of whom were good fiddlers. Then, of course there was the immortal Sam Sweeney. Sweeney was a brilliant banjo player who was employed by Confederate calvary General Jeb Stuart to provide musical entertainment for the General and his staff while off on one of their famous raids or while in repose back in camp. Other musicians were also employed by Stuart to follow him around the countryside, and to provide music for the square dances that the General frequently arranged. This recording provides a sample of the music that would have been played for these dances, using the same instruments that were available to the musicians of the 1860s.

Of the four main instruments used on this recording (fiddle, banjo, guitar, and hammered dulcimer), probably the hammered dulcimer is the least familiar to modern ears. Although not well known today, the dulcimer was quite common in mid-19th century America. The dulcimer is a trapazoidal box with dozens of strings stretched lengthwise over one or two bridges near the center of the instrument and played by striking the strings with small wooden sticks that are usually refered to as "hammers."

Just prior to the Civil War, the hammered dulcimer experienced widespread popularity. Music books written especially for the instrument were published in the 1840s through the 1860s containing popular fiddle tunes of the day (such as the tunes that appear on this recording). By the 1850s, the dulcimer was being widely manufactued in shops throughout New England, the upper Midwest, and particularly in New York state. Several of these firms employed teams of salesmen who travelled throughout the Midwest and South demonstrating the instruments and making rather brisk sales. For a variety of reasons, many of the dulcimer factories in the North had to close down with the outbreak of war in 1861, at which time, according to one historian, "the boys demonstrating the dulcimers in the South were obliged to leave hastily."

At any rate, by the time of the Civil War there were literally thousands of hammered dulcimers being sold and played throughout the country, especially in the Ohio Valley and the South. They were used primarily as lead instruments for dances and as parlor instruments to provide background music for social gatherings. The hammered dulcimer's popularity continued after the war to the end of the 19th century when, for various reasons, it experienced a long decline that lasted until a revival of interest in the instrument ocurred in the 1970s.

For further reading on the history of the hammered dulcimer, see The Hammered Dulcimer in America by Nancy Groce, published by the Smithsonian Institution Press.

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