Who Will Care for Mother Now?

DESCRIPTION: "Why am I so weak and weary? See how faint my heated breath.... Tell me, comrades, is this death?" The dying soldier asks "Who will care for mother now?" He hopes someone will care for her, and hopes to die as a soldier should
AUTHOR: Charles Carroll Sawyer
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Sawyer & Thompson, NY)
KEYWORDS: soldier death mother Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 157-159, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 160, "Who Will Care for Micky Now" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 76-77, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2616, pp. 177-178, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (13 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 5-6, "Who will Care for Mother now" (1 text)
DT, WHOCARE*
Roud #18948
SAME TUNE:
Who Will Care for Micky Now ("Arrah! Molly darlin', I am drafted," by Eugene T. Johnston) (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 160; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177)
Who Will Care for Conscript Now! ("Oh, I am afraid and weary," by the "Dock St. Bard") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177)
Who Will Care for Niggers Now? A Parody on: Who Will Care for Mother Now ("List to me, plantation niggers") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
Who Will Care for Old Abe Now? A Parody ("Why's old Abe so sad and weary") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
The Young Conscript and His Lady ("I have come, my dearest Rosa") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 184)
Mother, Will Our Charley Come? ("Mother, I am very weary, Weary of the day now come") (Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 53)
NOTES [117 words]: The fact that this song achieved some success probably tells us more about the nineteenth century than about the quality of the song. Charles Carroll Sawyer is best known for writing the lyrics to "When This Cruel War Is Over."
Although seemingly unknown in tradition, it was popular enough to inspire a widely-printed response. According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 5, there were at least eleven broadside prints of "Answer to Who Will Care for Mother Now," beginning "Quell, oh! quell your fears my darling." It had three stanzas and a chorus, and the words were said to be by C. G. Streval. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW76

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