Song ID Req: Shiloh?

Subject: Shiloh?
From:
Date: 05 Jun 97 - 06:19 PM

I heard a song by John Hartford that I think is titled "Shiloh", though this may not be the correct name. It is basically a fiddle tune with one verse:

I put my napsack on my back, my rifle on my shoulder. I'm going away to Shiloh, There I'll be a soldier. I checked his home page but did not find what I was looking for. Maybe it has a different name.

Any help regarding the correct title and a recorded source will be appreciated.

Bob S.

Subject: ADD: THE SECESH (SHILOH)-John Hartford recording
From: Gene Graham
Date: 07 Jun 97 - 02:29 PM

Lots of good Civil War songs w/lyrics and quite a bit of historical data on this 1991 Columbia Cassette/CT 48607

THE SECESH (SHILOH) - Recorded by John Hartford - arranged by Howdy Forrester

(Refrain 3x with instrumental breaks)

I'll put my knapsack on my back

My rifle on my shoulder

I'm goin' away to Shiloh

And there I'll be a soldier.

LINER NOTES: John Hartford, who was taught this song by Howdy Forrester, a former fiddle player in Roy Acuff's band, explains that in middle Tennessee the Secessionists were known collectively as "The Secesh" and that it was a demonstration of bravery for men and boys to line up to enlist when there were battles on the scale of SHILOH being waged. Were you man enough to have fought at SHILOH? History records that 24,000 of the 100,000 participants in the Battle of Shiloh were either killed or wounded.

Subject: RE: Shiloh?
From: Gene Graham
Date: 07 Jun 97 - 02:53 PM

Additional NFO:

1991 Sony Music Entertainment / Columbia Ct-48607 (Includes Lyrics And Other Nfo)

Songs: Side 1 / Ashokan Farewell / No More Auction Block for Me / Lincoln & Liberty / Dixie's Land / Boy / Aura Lee / Rebel Soldier / Follow the Drinking Gourd / Battle Hymn of the Republic / When Johnny Comes Marching Home / My Brother Was In the Battle / Yellow Rose of Texas.

Artists: Jay Ungar and Molly Mason / Sweet Honey in the Rock / Ronnie Gilbert / USMA Band / Kathy Mattea / John Hartford / Waylon Jennings / Richie Havens / Judy Collins / USMA Band / Kate & Anna McGarrigle / Hoyt Axton

Songs: Side 2 / Run, Mourner, Run / Give Us a Flag / The Secesh (Shiloh) / Somebody's Darling / An Old Unreconstructed / Vacant Chair / Better Times Are Coming / Lorena / Marching through Georgia / Hard Times Come Again No More / Oh, I'm a Good Old Rebel / When Johnny Comes Marching Home / Taps.

Artists: Sweet Honey in the Rock / Richie Havens / John Hartford / Kathy Mattea / Waylon Jennings / Kathy Mattea / Kate and Anna McGarrigle w/Rufus Wainwright / John Hartford / Jay Ungar & Molly Mason w/Fiddle Fever / Kate and Anna McGarrigle w/Families / Hoyt Axton / Ronnie Gilbert / Sst. Steve Luck.

Subject: RE: Shiloh?
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 07 Jun 97 - 03:19 PM

Thanks a heap Gene.Now I'll see if I can find a copy

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Shiloh?
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 07 Jun 97 - 04:44 PM

My wife is from middle TN. We went to Shiloh with the kids about 30 years ago. A very impressive place. One of the boys burned his butt by straddling a hot cannon. I don't know if you have the freedom to roam the site like we did those many years ago.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Shiloh?
From: Gene
Date: 03 Sep 97 - 11:55 AM

Refresh Post!

Subject: RE: Shiloh?
From: GUEST,Wildcard Bob
Date: 05 Sep 08 - 04:49 PM

I'd like to find the chords or sheet music to Secesh (Shiloh).
Any help out yonder?

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 04:25 PM

Did anyone ever find the sheet music for the Secesh (Shiloh)???
John Harford rocked this song and not a peep anywhere on the internet on how to get the sheet music. Anyone ? Anyone ? Please post if you got it. Thanks, from Canada.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 07:32 PM

I've never heard Hartford's version, but there's one in Irwin Silber's "Songs of the Civil War" complete with music and additional verses.

Wayne Erbsen recorded it on his album "Ballads and Songs of the Civil War." You can hear a sample:

http://www.nativeground.com/MP3s/SouthernSoldier.mp3

The CD (or just the song) is easy to get online.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: MissouriMud
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 02:52 PM

Here is the site someone made on YouTube for Hartford's Version.   Don't know where you can get sheet music for it but the tune is fairly simple - A and B parts - only sings occasionally the one verse on the A part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_qvXmNo18I

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 03:33 PM

The Beers family did one that went swing low my Shiro weep no more for me the green grass of Shiloh is growing over thee..The earth is thy sweet ?? the soft wind is thy song....blow on you all day long.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 03:58 PM

The original song didn't mention Shiloh. There's even a version from the Mexican War.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 19 - 09:10 PM

The Battle of Shiloh (Apr. 6-7, 1862), in West Tennessee, was named for Shiloh Church, a meetinghouse within the Union camp.

In the South, the battle was usually known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, for another location on the battlefield.

Before the battle, no "Secesh" would or could have been singing about "going to Shiloh" to be a soldier. At that time, Shiloh was no more than an obscure, one-room Methodist meetinghouse in Hardin County.

Though the stanza predates the battle, the "Shiloh" reference must have been inserted later. It may well have been by a Yankee, particularly since the dismissive word "Secesh" was common in the North but not the South. It was used for an individual as well as, more often, for Southern rebels collectively.

Though Tennessee was part of the Confederacy, East Tennessee, where there were few slaves, was strongly pro-Union.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Oct 19 - 09:12 PM

GUEST was me.

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 11 Oct 19 - 02:58 PM

Yes, the Mexican War version is the one I'm used to:

I'll throw my knapsack on my back,
Musket on my shoulder,
March away to Mexico,
'List* and be a soldier.

*enlist

I'll bet dozens (hundreds?) of place names got attached to that verse.

===

By the way, there's another Shiloh song, and it's a corker—related, off all things, to Burl Ives' old standard lullaby "Buckeye Jim." B. A. Botkin, in "Mississippi Folklore," prints it; my version changes it a little to remove offensive racialisms.

LIMBER JIM

Me and the big man playing seven up, I won the money, scared to pick it up,
He played a ace and I played a nine, Big man died and I went blind,
I made a motion, the big man fell, I grab the money and I run like hell,

CHO:
Limber Jim, Shiloh! Talk it again, Shiloh!
Walk back in love, Shiloh! You turtle-dove, Shiloh!

Went down the ribber, couldn't get across, hopped on a rebel louse, thought it was a hoss,
Or lor' gals, 'tain't no lie, lice in Camp Chase big enough to cry. CHO

...

Tons of verses, too many to include (I'm running late). The song ends:

And you can't go yonder, Limber Jim,
You dancin' girl, Shiloh! Sure's you're born, Shiloh!
And you can't go yonder, Limber Jim,
And you can't go-o-o—oh!

Whew! What a good song. The tune is not unlike that of Buckeye Jim, but quicker, with a thumping rhythm, evidently a Civil War-era* shanty/worksong originally.

*note localization to Camp Chase

Bob

Subject: RE: Song ID Req: Shiloh?
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Oct 19 - 07:16 PM

Hi, Bob.

For those who may not know, Camp Chase, at Columbus, Ohio, was the site one of the principal Northern prisons for Confederate prisoners of war.

The W. Va. fiddle tune "Camp Chase" was named for it.