Lyr Add: The Corporal's Musket (Heath, Smith, 1863

Subject: Lyr Add: THE CORPORAL'S MUSKET (Heath, Smith)
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 28 Nov 01 - 08:37 PM

In response to a recent request, here from the Uncle Jaque Archives is a transcription of the introductory text and lyrics from "The Corporal's Musket", circa 1863.

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To Maj. Genl. Geo. B. McClellan.
Waterville, Maine.
Sept. 1st 1863

General.

In the mansion house of Asa Redington, Esq., of Waterville, Maine, a Corporal of Washington's Life Guard at Princeton, for near half a century hung an old musket, of which the veteran related the following history: That he bore it at the siege of Yorktown; that when returning north he was sent to the hospital at West Point, and when discharged from there, too feeble to bear his gun, he hired a fellow soldier to help him carry it to Wilton, N.H., and agreed to pay him therefore a hard dollar or the musket; that he worked eight days to earn the dollar to redeem his musket.

My Husband, Lt. Col. Heath, late of the 5th. Me. Vols, his grandson, used to see the old musket hanging on the wall and listen, when a child, to the story of the veteran. In his diary which has been returned to me from the fatal valley of the Chickahominy, I found the following stanzas in his hand writing, supposed to have been written down before Yorktown, which with the accompanying music, is inscribed to you, whom he so much respected, and through you, to the army in which he fell. The brother referred to is Francis E. Heath, then Capt. in the 3d. Maine Vols, now Lt. Col, of the 19th Maine Vols.

Yours Respectfully

Maria (?) Heath

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Words by Col. WM. S. HEATH. Music by C. HATCH SMITH.

(Lyrics):

1. Take down the Corporal's musket, my grandsire bro't it back
From Yorktown, in the winter, on a long and weary track;
Tho' the bivouac was over, and the march and fight were done,
Thro' the mire and snow he bore it, for the soldier loved his gun.
And he hung it by his fire-side 'mid the branching pines of Maine,
Take down the Corporal's musket, we need it once again.

(Chorus) Take down the gun, the good old gun, my grandsire bro't to Maine;
Take down the Corporal's musket, 'twill help us once again.

2. The rust has slowly settled, in the years that since have flown
Upon the good old barrel, that once like silver shone;
It has a quaint and war worn look, the fashion of the stock,
Perhaps is only equaled by the fashion of the lock;
But slumb'ring sparks of seventy six, within the flint remain,
Take down the Corporal's musket, we need it once again.

3. The veteran who bore it, with the soldiers measured tread,
Awaiting the great reveille, is mustered with the dead;
But above the din of battle, upon this field of yore
His voice in martial cadence, calls to arms! to arms once more.
And in this dread and fearful strife, that call is not in vain,
Take down the Corporal's musket, we need it once again.

4. To thee and me, my brother, comes down the soldier's gun,
It tells a tale of mighty deeds, by patriot valor done,
The hurried march, the daring charge, the onset and the strife
Of clashing steel, of bursting shell, the stake a nation's life;
The seize once more that well tried gun, which idle long has lain,
Quick, seize the Corporal's musket, 'twill help us once again.


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This song was exhumed from the archives of the Reddington Museum in Waterville, Maine, by Streve MacISAAC, a CW Reenactor with the 5th Maine Regiment. He sent me a copy so that I might develop an arrangement of it to perform at our living history events. It has a catchy, albeit rather archaic tune to it; It's really too bad that it has lain in obscurity for so long. According to Steve, the musket that this song is written about is still on display in the museum. The cover illustration on the sheet music depicts what appears to be a 'Charleville' .69 cal. flintlock musket, but how much resemblance that bears to the actual relic I don't know.