When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely)

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks her soldier, "Dearest love, do you remember, when we last did meet, How you told me that you loved me...." She fears for him, but urges him to fight. She is "weeping sad and lonely... When this cruel war is over, pray that we meet again."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles C. Sawyer / Music: Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Sawyer & Thompson, Brooklyn)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier separation injury battle
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 103, "Weeping Sad and Lonely" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 4, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 271-274, "The Cruel War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 381, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 390, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 fragment, and mention of 2 more; the one full text is the Southern adaption of the song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 390, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 402-403, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text, partial tune, from early sheet music and broadside copies; also a text of Septimus Winner's answer "Yes, I Would the War Were Over")
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2586, pp. 175-176, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (17 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 8-9, "When this Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 124-126, "Weeping Sad and Lonely (When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 127, "Down in Charleston Jail" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 42-43, "Weeping Sad and Lonely" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 232-233, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 284-285, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 88-89, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 276, "Weeping Sad And Lonely (When This Cruel War Is Over)" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2586, pp. 175-176, "When This Cruel War is Over"
DT, WHENOVER*
ST SCW42 (Full)
Roud #3446
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(735), "When This Cruel War is Over" ("Dearest love, do you remember," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 26(673), "A new song call'd When This Cruel War Is Over"[, P. Brereton (Dublin)]; 2806 c.8(225), "A much-admired American song called Cruel War Is Over"[, Haly (Cork)]
LOCSinging, sb40571b, "When This Cruel War Is Over," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also cw106550, cw106560, cw106570, cw106580, hc00032c, "When This Cruel War Is Over"
SAME TUNE:
Down in Charleston Jail (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 127)
If This Cruel Ware Were Over ("Dearest Ella, I Remember") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 68)
Parody on When This Cruel War is Over ("Och, Biddy dear, do you remember") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
When this Cruel Draft Is Over ("Dearest William, they will draft you") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 175)
When This Cruel War Is Over, No. 3 ("Dearest Sal, do you remember?") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 176)
NOTES [399 words]: This is widely believed to be the most popular of the war songs (at least among Union troops). Note the fact that Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, pp. 175-176, lists an amazing 17 broadside editions. After the war, however, its rather maudlin sentiments caused it to lose its place to songs such as "Tenting Tonight." (For details, as well as a sample stanza, see Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army, p. 171).
According to E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, p. 98, Charles Carroll Sawyer, who was from Connecticut, "was popular on both sides of the Potomac because of the universal themes of his lyrics.... [He] took deliberate pains not to inject any partisanship into his songs. They contained no insults, no rancor, no celebration of military battle." But none of his songs save this seems to have left any real folk memory. His other song in the Index (as of this writing) is "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" - RBW
Note the Irish broadsides.
There is a cover sheet, at Historic American Sheet Music, "Weeping, Sad and Lonely; When This Cruel War Is Over," Music A-4826, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, published by Sawyer & Thompson (Brooklyn), 1863.
See the parody broadsides: Bodleian, Harding B 31(96), "When This Cruel Draft Is Over!" ("Dearest William, they will draft you"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1861-1864; Bodleian, Harding B 31(116), "Parody on When This Cruel War Is Over ("Och, Biddy dear, do you remember"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1861-1864; also Harding B 31(130), Harding B 18(394)["As written and sung by Joseph Murphy, in San Francisco"], "Parody on 'When This Cruel War is Over'"
See the parody broadside LOCSinging, cw104560, "Parody on When This Cruel War Is Over," Johnson (Philadelphia), no date
"See also broadside, Bodleian, Harding B 18(564), "Yes, I Would the War Were Over. Answer to 'When this cruel war is over'"" ("Yes, I would the war were over"), C. Magnus (New York), 1863, attributed to Alice Hawthorne.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40571b, Bodleian Harding B 18(735), Harding B 31(96) and Harding B 31(116): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40571b and Bodleian Harding B 18(735) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW42

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