An American Army of Two by Diane Taraz and Jim Gleason

During the War of 1812, as British ships blockaded the coast and raided coastal communities, the teenaged daughters of a Scituate lighthouse keeper saved their town through musical subterfuge. When they saw a barge of Redcoats approaching, Abigail and Rebecca Bates hid with their fife and drum behind the dunes and made such a racket that the Lobsterbacks mistook them for a Yankee encampment. This song celebrates their courage and invokes the tune they played: Yankee Doodle, whose ancient melody was known as "the air from who knows where."

from

http://www.dianetaraz.com/airsnotes.htm