Vacant Chair (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "We shall meet but we shall miss him, There will be one vacant chair, We shall linger to caress him While we breathe our evening prayer." The family remembers its beloved Willie, who now lies dead in a narrow grave, killed for his country
AUTHOR: Words: Henry S. Washburn / Music: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death burial mourning family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 250-252, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 251, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 308-309, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 167-168, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 375, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text plus a reproduction of an early sheet music cover)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 137-139, "The Vacant Chair (We Shall Meet but We Shall Miss Him)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 30-31, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2447, p. 164, "The Vacant Chair" (11 references)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 5, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 32, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #15, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 115-116, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 83-84, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 269 "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 33, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, VCNTCHAR*
Roud #7714
RECORDINGS:
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "The Vacant Chair" (Columbia A1808, 1915)
Frank Coombs, "The Vacant Chair" (Columbia A913, 1910)
Arthur Fields, "The Vacant Chair" (Grey Gull 4205/Radiex 4205, 1928)
Byron G. Harlan, "The Vacant Chair" (CYL: Edison 8535, 1903)
Charles Harrison, "The Vacant Chair" (Resona 75074, 1920)
Frank & James McCravy, "The Vacant Chair" (Brunswick 4455, 1929; Supertone 2024-S, 1930; rec. 1928)
McKee Trio, "Vacant Chair" (Victor 18230, 1917)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Vacant Chair" (on NLCREP4)
Shannon Four, "The Vacant Chair" (Pathe 20606, c. 1921)
Elizabeth Spencer, "The Vacant Chair" (Edison 1713, n.d.)
NOTES [151 words]: Ironically, this song for a dead soldier was written in early 1861, when few battles had been fought. At this time, a few tens of thousands were mourning their lost soldier boys; four years later, those who had lost a loved one or friends would number in the millions (total losses in the Civil War exceeded 600,000, with the bulk of the losses coming in 1862-1864).
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, p. 136, writes of this song, "As I have said, when anything happened that could be voiced in a song, or when the heart of the nation was moved by particular circumstances or conditions caused by the war, I wrote what I thought would then express the emotions of the soldiers or the people.... 'O, come you from the battle-field?' and 'Brother, tell me of the battle' represented the anxiety of those who had fathers or sons or brothers in the army, and 'The Vacant Chair' the mourning for the lost one."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R251

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