RELIGIOUS MUSIC AMONG THE SOLDIERS.–

26. March 2008 by admin.

A letter from Hatteras Inlet, N. C., says: The New England troops excel in the musical faculty, and in every regiment from Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New Hampshire, music teachers or good singers abound, and many an otherwise tedious evening has thus been beguiled by the elevating influence of music. In this respect, no regiment, perhaps, is more favored than the Massachusetts Twenty-third, composed chiefly of Salem, Marblehead, Danvers, and Boston men. Many of the officers were members of the best musical societies, and leaders or pillars in their church choirs at home. Could their friends have looked in upon us on board of the Highlander, during many of the boisterous nights we have been anchored in this Sound, while the storm howled without, they might have heard:

“Perhaps Dundee’s wild, warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name,
Or noble Elgin beat the heavenward flame.”

On board of the Huzza, which carries the left wing of the Twenty-third, they have their full share of sweet singers, and a very excellent band of music, under the lead of Henry C. Brown, of Boston. In the centre of the fleet, which covers an area of some two miles of the bay, is anchored the S. R. Spaulding, the present flag-ship of Gen. Burnside. From her high deck he can easily survey the entire fleet, and observe all that is going on. On the deck of one or two vessels near us are gathered quiet groups of soldiers, and the sublime strains of “Old Hundred,” which float across the waters, human voices mingling with the bands, testify that they are engaged in religious worship. To many of these brave and earnest men it will be, perhaps, their last Sabbath on earth.

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