Chord Req: All Quiet along the Potomac To-Night

Subject: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: WyoWoman
Date: 05 Dec 00 - 11:16 AM

Hi, music pals,

I found the words to this lovely tearjerker in the Digitrad, but not the chords. Anyone know 'em?

A is good for me. Is it good for you? Is it good for this song?

WW

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: NightWing
Date: 05 Dec 00 - 12:43 PM

Well, drat! I've got sheet music for this ... at home (and I'm at work right now). I'll try to post something tonight or tomorrow if nothing's come up before then.

BB,
NightWing

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: WyoWoman
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 10:32 AM

It apparently didn't, so if you could, that'd be great. Or would you rather PM me and I'll send you my snail mail address and you could just make a copy of the music. Would that be easier?

I'm so glad you have this !

ww

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: WyoWoman
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 07:22 PM

freshen up

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 09:52 PM

Rita says it's in the Levy collection..full sheet music......there are links to that on the link page....

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 10:30 PM

Or "The PICKET-GUARD" By Ethel Lynn BEERS (1827 - 1879).

Yes, a very pretty, sad song - one of the earliest of the "War Protest" songs.

I do it in "G", which works pretty well for my voice range (Baritone). I think that it is in 6/8 time, but don't quote me on that; it has a very waltzlike meter. I play it on guitar with a soft, melodic fingerpicking style.

It would take me all night to line up lyric and chord notation, so I'll give you a string of the chords which I worked out by ear (probably not to be found in any reputable book) and you can figure out where to plug them in. There are several "Pop-Chords" covering only one or two beats, and I will mark them with an (*).

Verse: G, C*-G, D*- G*-C*-G, D, (D7), G. G, D*-G, D*-G, D, A7@"Hid", D. D, D7, G, D(2bts),G , C@"Count", D7; C, D7, C*-AM*-B7*-C ("..ONE OF THE MEN") C, G, D, D7*-G.

Refrain (not written in all versions):

"All Quiet... along.... the Poto-mac to-night..." G, G7, D7, G (C, G, D Instr. "trailer")

The last verse is truncated, using the melody lines of the first and last two lines of the verse. I like to use the first verse as the last to kind of "hammer it in". Apparantly this piece was inspired by a newspaper account which reported, then seemed to trivialize, the killing of a lone Picket or Sentry. This is a great late-night campfire song!

Uncle Jaque, Musician, 3rd Reg't Maine Vol. Inf.

Subject: RE: Correction: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 10:33 PM

I erred in stating that I put the normally first verse in as last; that should be NEXT to last, the last verse being the truncated one (."...moaning out all alone the death rattle")

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: Ferrara
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 09:38 AM

There were tunes written for this song in both North and South. John Hill Hewitt wrote the Confederate tune, which is the one in the Levy collection. It's also the one the DT links to. Unfortunately Levy's sheet music is in key of b-flat so even if you read music, it would be hard to get the chords.

Levy's search page is at This address

which will be a blue clicky thing if I haven't misread the HTML example in the little cheat sheet at the front of "Web Pages for Dummies."

I typed in "all quiet along the Potomac" in quotes and got one set of reproduction sheet music plus some "stuff."

The northern tune, given in Irwin Silber's "Songs of the Civil War," was written by W.H.Goodwin.

Here's part of Silber's intro to the song:

"During the first days of the war, a familiar War Department announcement as it appeared in the nation's newspapers was: "All quiet along the Potomac." [This was during the period when McClellan was "waiting for supplies" and doing damn-all; and Lincoln sent his famous telegram, "Mr. McClellan, if you are not using the Army of the Potomac just now, I should like to borrow it." - RF] One day, in SSeptember, 1861, to the above announcement was appended the words, 'A picket shot.'

"This brief newspaper report was, supposedly, the inspiratin for this song which was written by Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers of Goshen, New York. It was printed in Harper's Weekly, ... [as] 'The Picket Guard'; within a short time it had been set to music by a number of composers."

He says it was immensely popular throughout the South as well, with Hewitt's tune. Major Lamar Fontaine of Mississippi also claimed to have written the poem, (not at all uncommon behavior in that era...-RF) but Mrs. Beers is considered the true author.

This is why there's an extra half-verse in some versions: She didn't give her poem an even number of verses. Various versions include/omit different half-verses to come out even.

Silber also says that some editors took offense and even refused to include the words "not an officer shot, only one of the men" because it was considered unpatriotic.

BTW when Walter Kittredge wrote "Tenting Tonight," he sought in vain for a publisher because the song was considered unpatriotic and anti-war. Finally he took it to the Hutchinsons, a very successful singing family who were also outspoken abolitionists. They published it and of course the rest is history; probably no other song was sung as often by the soldiers of either side....

Well WW none of this gets you any info about the chords, but since we have chords now i hope that's not a problem. Have you tried it yet with Uncle Jaque's chords? I'm going to steal them too, Uncle J. I usually sing it unaccompanied but have been trying to get re-acquainted with my guitar. The sheet music does say it's in 6/8 time.

Subject: RE: CHORD req: QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC
From: WyoWoman
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 12:46 PM

I'll try to apply Uncle J's chords this weekend. (Thanks for the chords, Uncle J.) And, Ferrara, thank you so much for the history on this song. I didn't know it was an actual song from the era -- just thought it was one written about that time.

I'm working on a novel that takes place during and just after the civil war, so this is perfect for that. I hadn't necessarily tied the two together, but my writerly psyche obviously did ...