As I Went Down to Newbern

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to Newbern, I went there on the tide, I just got there in time To be taken by Old Burnside." The singer complains of his treatment and bets that the Yankees will run every time they fight the Confederates
AUTHOR: (earliest form, "Billy Patterson," by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown); Emmett's song is from 1859
KEYWORDS: Civilwar prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7, 1862 - Burnside's North Carolina expedition approaches Roanoke Island
Feb. 8, 1862 - Burnside defeats Henry Wise's local troops to capture Roanoke Island
Mar. 14, 1862 - Burnside takes New Bern
Apr. 26, 1862 - Burnside captures Beaufort
July 3, 1862 - Burnside and some 7500 of his troops are transferred to the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 282, "As I Went Down to Newbern" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 282, "As I Went Down to New Bern" (notes only)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 235, "As I Went to Newbern" (1 text)
Roud #6641
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" (lyrics, theme, subject?)
cf. "Old Glory" (subject of Burnside's Carolina campaign)
NOTES [817 words]: I'm going to leave my initial notes below, because they apply to the song as it currently exists, but Carter C. has resolved the situation; his quite impressive research (along with many texts of the song) is available on Mudcat.org. He finds that both "As I Went Down to Newbern" and "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" are derived from an 1859 song, "Billy Patterson," by the famous Daniel Decatur Emmett, apparently first printed in 1863. Emmett's song was based on a joke from the 1830s, and obviously predates the American Civil War. Clearly many people took the core of the Emmett song and adapted it to a local incident. For more on the original, and its evolution, I refer you to the Mudcat thread "Origins: I Can Whip the Scoundrel," as well as the Ballad Index notes to "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"; my earlier notes about this particular version follow:
This short little item looks both fragmentary and composite; the first part is about the Union occupation of northeastern North Carolina, but the second is a boast against the Yankees. They might belong together, but I suspect the final stanza was grafted in after the New Bern song lost most of its verses.
On top of that, it derives material from "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"; if the two songs were fuller, we might well find that they are the same.
BrownSchinhan seems to imply that Brown's source notes were wrong. In all, a very confusing piece.
Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina expedition of 1862 was part of the Union strategy of blockading the Confederacy. The expedition didn't close any major harbors, so it wasn't much help to the blockade by itself -- but it gave the Union a base for ships that were blockading more important places. An account of this is found in James M. McPherson, War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865, University of North Carolina Press, 2012, starting on p. 50.
The North Carolina Outer Banks guard the entrances to three major waterways: Albemarle Sound in the north, the Pamlico River in the center, and the Neuse River to the south. The latter two flow into Pamlico Sound, with the main way from the Sound being by Hatteras Inlet near Cape Hatteras. Albemarle Sound lies behind a different barrier island, but all are separated from the broader ocean by the Outer Banks; it is possible for coasting vessels to get from one to the other without going beyond the Outer Banks, although Roanoke Island provides a clear divider between Albemarle and Pamlico Sound and is a good place to block traffic between the two.
Burnside's troops came from New England, and were carried by a fleet commanded by Louis M. Goldsborough. The fleet gathered off Hatteras Inlet at the beginning of January (McPherson, p. 50). It took some work to get all of the transports through the shallows of Hatteras Inlet, but they managed. Their first objective was Roanoke Island. The locals appealed to Richmond for more troops to defend it, but no troops came. Goldsborough's ships bombarded the fortifications on Roanoke, forcing the few Confederates on the scene to retreat; Burnside's troops landed, and took the island and 2675 defenders at a cost of 264 army and 25 navy casualties. The few Confederate gunboats in the area were also driven away (McPherson, p. 51; there are maps on pp. 52-53). This all but eliminated Albemarle Sound as a shipping source for the Confederates. That left Pamlico Sound. The Army and Navy again combined, marching for New Bern on the Neuse. They took it, though the Confederate defenders escaped (McPherson, pp. 52-54). Then the force at New Bern marched for Morehead City at the southern end of the Outer Banks, then combined with the Navy to take nearby Beaufort, which became the main Union base in the area (McPherson, p. 54). With the sole exception of Wilmington, all of North Carolina's ports were now closed.
Burnside's expedition was one of the first real attempts to tighten up the Union blockade of the Confederate seacoast. It was a clever idea, and executed well -- and, unfortunately, it caused senior Union leaders to think Burnside was competent. He was creative; he came up with original plans. But he was unable to adjust to surprises or changed circumstances, and many Union soldiers died, at Burnside's Bridge and Fredericksburg and the Crater and elsewhere, as a result.
It is possible that Burnside could have taken more of the North Carolina interior, but instead the government decided to take back about half of his force (including Burnside himself) and send them to Virginia. That didn't leave enough troops to engage in offensive operations; indeed, they were sometimes hard-pressed to hold onto what they had, and might have failed had they not had the support of Navy ships and guns. Given how poorly Burnside performed in Virginia, pulling him back was probably a mistake.
For another song about this campaign, see the notes to "Old Glory." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrII282

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