Give Us a Song

DESCRIPTION: "'Give us a song,' the soldier cried, the outer trenches guarding." On the eve of an attack against the Russian forts the soldiers sing 'Annie Laurie' and think about Irish Norah or English Mary. The soldier is killed by mortar fire.
AUTHOR: Bayard Taylor? (See NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Campfire-Songster-1862)
KEYWORDS: love battle death music Russia
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 108, "Give Us a Song" (1 text)
Campfire-Songster-1862, pp. 65-66, "Songs of the Camp" (1 text)
Roud #5786
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune, according to Campfire-Songster-1862)
NOTES [168 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The song seems most likely to refer to the unsuccessful assault of 18 June 1855 but it could apply to the attack later that year on 8 September immediately before the Russians abandoned Sebastopol." - BS
I would hesitate to attribute it to any particular event; there were so many small clashes in the siege of Sebastopol that the "candidate" attacks must number in the dozens. But it is patently a Crimean War song: Even if you ignore the mentions of the Russians, the description of fortifications and mortars assures that.
The curiosity is the Campfire-Songster-1862 version -- clearly the same song; it's about the Crimea, not the American Civil War. So what is it doing in a Civil War songster? Got me. It is listed as by Bayard Taylor, whose one other song in the Index is "General Scott and the Veteran" -- undeniably a Civil War song. But what was he doing writing a song about the Crimea? At least it would explain why all the references are vague. The whole thing is mysterious. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: GrD1108

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