1. "1890's Music"
Posted by augusta on Mar-14th-04 at 12:27 AM

Stumbled across this delightful webpage this evening and had to share it with y'all.

You can listen to 1890's music.  Choices are limited.  Mostly songs on the Spanish American War, but a few others.  Way cool.

http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_music.html



(Message last edited Mar-14th-04  12:27 AM.)

That's pretty cool!  Thanks!
I played "After The War Is Over".

Why don't we know how the Civil War and The Spanish American War affected the Bordens?

Good question, Kat. I was wondering that myself relating to the Mexican & the Civil War. The Civil War question I suppose in a way has an easy answer. Andrew Borden at the opening of hostilities between North and South would have been roughly 38.5 years old - a bit ripe you might say, to trot away to war; still, it could have happened. It's also possible that he might have hired a substitute to fight in his stead. (Using substitutes was still common - and legal -at that time, particularly among moneyed families.)

He wouldn't have had the same "excuse" 15 years earlier though, having been between 24 and 26 years old, unmarried, etc. Good question.

I don't think there was conscription in the United States during the Mexican War which began in the spring of 1846, only a few months after Andrew Borden and Sarah Morse were married. This war proved unpopular in New England and the Massachusetts legislature called it unconstitutional. During the Civil War the draft act in the North was passed in March of 1863, the same month Sarah Borden died. This left Andrew, then forty years old, to raise the couple's two surviving daughters Emma and Lizzie.

Thanks you guys.
That sounds like Andrew almost 'lucked out' in that Sarah died at a time when Andrew was vunerable?
But he did still live at Ferry Street with 4 other adults.  I guess that didn't count?
I wonder if he was rich enough by 1863 to buy a substitute?

It's weird to think of a Civil war conscription substitute!  Can you just hear that guy after he survived the war in Andrew's stead, finding out he survived Andrew's murder as well?
Just creepy supposition here...

yeah, it is weird...I had a similar problem with the mexican war service and the age, but the answer on that one makes perfect sense. It's terrible when modernity intrudes on your reason like that

At least I know who and where to ask!
Ain't I lucky!

Well, there is that

Buying a substitute ($300?) only applied when you were drafted (on or after 1863). Most of the Union army were Volunteers - long obsolete.

T Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" were the LAST Volunteer force.

You can also look up the use of the militia in 18th & 19th cent.

Rays, the entire U.S. Army, and all other military services, are now volunteer.  The draft was ended years ago.

If you read Robert Utley's "Frontiersmen in Blue" you can learn about the Volunteers of the Civil War. They were usually raised by someone who could subsidize this effort, and was then elected colonel by the men. Like in the militia, all lower officers were elected by the men (militia had a one-year term for officers; Macchiavelli explained why). When Harry Truman was elected Captain, it was a sigh of his political popularity.

Reading about Teddy's "Rough Riders", who said he took special pains to keep out "West Point martinets" from his force. Being Volunteers, they pretty ran themselves, sort of like Volunteer Fire Men today (up until recent times when they started to fix elections).

DO NOT confuse the democracy of the past w/ today's world.

I'm not aware of current programs, but when I was younger a teenager who got into minor trouble was offered a choice by the judge: join the army or go to jail (1950s-1960s). What is/was your experience?

"Ta-ra-ra-boom de-ay" (which provides the tune for the famous "forty whacks" quatrain) is conspicuous by its absence.

It's hardly current. The draft was ended in 1973, some 31 years ago.

The "program" was the use of troubled youth who committed a crime that was not serious as "volunteers" for the army or navy. "Help a young man from going bad."

The Volunteers of the Civil War era were comparable to volunteer fire men. They signed up for a limited time (6 to 24 months) and were otherwise just like the Regular Army. The lower officers were elected, upper ranks by Congress. George Custer moved to Michigan so he would be from that state and put in charge of Michigan 7th Cavalry.
Most of the Union forces were Volunteers; the Regular Army did not expand much. Most were raised on a local level (Zouaves, etc.) (I'm not a Civil War expert, but do know a little from a few books.)