We've Drunk from the Same Canteen

DESCRIPTION: "There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers... But there's never a bond, old friend, like this: We have drunk from the same canteen!" The singer recalls when his friend came to him when wounded
AUTHOR: "Private Miles O'Reilly" (source: sheet music; see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink friend
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp. 5-6, "We've Drunk from the same Canteen" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 65-66, "We've Drunk from the Same Canteen" (1 text) (pp. 53-54 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14075
NOTES [592 words]: The listed name of the author, "Private Miles O'Reilly" is widely said to be a pseudonym for Major Charles G. Halpine of the 47th New York Volunteers. This is somewhat mis-stated: acording to NYReport, volume 2, p. 401, the 47th New York regiment went through an astounding *eight* different majors -- and none of them was named Halpine. There was also a 47th National Guard unit; it had only one major: David E. Austin (volume 1, p. 227).
Charles G. Halpine (1829-1868) was real (he has a Wikipedia entry), and he did serve in the Civil War. He even reached the rank of brevet brigadier general as of March 13, 1865 (Phisterer, p. 292) -- after he had resigned from the army. But not in the 47th New York!
Halpine in fact had very little field experience. He was an Irishman who emigrated to American in 1851 and then worked in writing and publishing-- a trade he had pursued in Ireland and England as well (DAB, p. 160). When the war started, he joined the 69th New York state militia as a private -- but that unit mustered out on August 3, 1861. A month later, he rejoined the army as a major -- but as a staff officer, in which capacity he served until resigning in 1864. (Boatner, p.367; DAB, p. 161, says this was because of failing eyesight).
Bottom line: It was the fictional O'Reilly who was a member of the 47th New York, not Halpine.
It is not instantly obvious why Halpine chose that particular regiment. It was not very famous, serving primarily in the Union army's X corps, which shuttled around the East Coast a lot; it had seven officers and 70 enlisted men die in battle, and 160 die of disease (Fox, p.478), which is not a particularly high total, and it did not fight in any of the well-known battles. It was given honors for Fort Wagner, Olustee, Coal Harbor (yes, Coal Harbor, not Cold Harbor), Bermuda Hundred, Deep Bottom, Chapin's Farm, Charles' City Cross Roads, Fort Fisher, and Raleigh (NYReport, volume 2, p. 401). Its one really bloody battle was Olustee (for which see "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"); Fox, p. 44, says it suffered 30 killed,197 wounded, and 86 missing, the highest total for any regiment in the campaign.
On the other hand, Hapine's most famous piece, and his only other one in the Index as of this writing, is "Sambo's Right to Be Kilt," about allowing Black soldiers to serve in the Union armies. This is a fairly logical poem for Halpine to write, since he was one of the officers responsible for organizing the first Black regiments in 1862 while on the staff of General David Hunter (Boatner, p. 367). Those troops served in South Carolina. And note that the 47th earned one of its honors at "Fort Wagner." Which was one of the forts guarding Charleston. So maybe Halpine was around the 47th then.
Or perhaps Halpine picked the number at random -- maybe he wanted a non-famous unit!
Halpine eventually published much of his work in The Life and Adventures, Songs, Services, and Speeches of Private Miles O'Reilly (47th Regiment, New York Volunteers), now available on Google Books; searching the Google version did not locate this song. Halpine also published The Poetical Works of Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), also on Google Books; it doesn't seem to be in that, either. His early poems were published anonymously in Lyrics by the Letter H; anthologized from various periodicals, their (lack of) quality induced at least one reviewer to say that they should have stayed there (DAB, p. 161).
He died in 1868 of an overdose of chloroform taken to deal with sleep problems (DAB, p. 161). - RBW
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