G'day all,

As Murray says, I am sure I have also heard the Abe Lincoln, harmonica link quoted.

I seem to remember that Ray Grieve, in his book Band in a Waistcoat Pocket mentions this (but I don't have my copy nearby, so I won't check right now.

I know that a number of German makers were turning out mouth organs before the American Civil War started - including Hohner, who has since bought up most of their smaller rivals. (I think the prototype I have seen illustrated is from the 1830s ... or even 1829[?].) I doubt that there was much making outside of Germany by the 1860s, but import links from Germany to the US were well established.

The mouth organ would have been ideal for Civil War soldiers, as it has been for mobile populations before and since - and its plaintive tones well suited to soldiers' sentiments (or sentimentality).

wdyat12: I don't know what music would have been available to your 17th c. Maine 'Jews' Harp' players (although, they could have played anything that they could whistle) but, by the time of the Cival War there was a burgeoning music publishing industry in the US and an equally active performing scene, so soldiers would have had a vast range of popular music to draw on.

Regards,

Bob Bolton