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Posted on 10/05/2004 10:34:01 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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He could make tired soldiers laugh, and his "Bonnie Blue Flag" churned southern audiences into a frenzy. That was why Harry Macarthy was loved from one end of the confederacy to the other.  Harry MaCarthy as portrayed in 'Gods and Generals' Damon Kirsche (Harry McCarthy) with Dana Stackpole (McCarthy's wife, Lottie Estelle). Harry Macarthy stood at center stage in the New Orleans Academy of Music one day in September 1861, singing to a packed house. His song was one few people had ever heard, but the audience of Confederate soldiers--men from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, passing through the city on their way to the Virginia front--took to it immediately. They stood and cheered as Macarthy sang. The consummate performer, Macarthy was not just singing; he was also playing a role, the part of a Confederate volunteer heading off to war. He was dressed in a full Confederate army uniform just like the men in the crowd. His wife, Lottie Estelle, played the sweetheart he was leaving behind. As Macarthy sang, Lottie dashed onto the stage waving a blue silk flag with a single white star on it, a popular symbol of Southern independence. When Lottie reached her husband, she threw her arms around his neck. It was a scene the young soldiers in the audience remembered vividly, and they could barely restrain themselves as Macarthy took "The Bonnie Blue Flag" into its chorus:  Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights, hurrah! Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. With every "hurrah," the soldiers jumped up to cheer. The gathering was on the verge of mayhem, so Macarthy, experienced stage performer that he was, waited until the crowd settled down before he launched into the second verse. Still, the more he sang, the more the audience howled. One soldier in the crowd, a member of Terry's Texas Rangers, was so worked up that he remained on his feet, cheering in oblivion after everyone else had sat down. His blind enthusiasm attracted the attention of a policeman patrolling the hall. The officer approached, tapped him on the shoulder, and told him to sit down. But the young man was too wound up. He responded with a blow that sent the officer tumbling.  In an instant, all was bedlam. Police tried to subdue the troublemaker, but the Rangers were not about to let one of their own be hauled off to a New Orleans jail. More police streamed into the hall to help, but to no avail. Chaos reigned until someone was struck with the good sense to summon Colonel Frank Terry and Mayor John T. Monroe. Both men rushed to the scene and called off their men. Order was restored, and Terry led his rowdy Rangers back to the relative quiet of camp. Within 24 hours of the near riot, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" had spread throughout the Confederate army. Talk of Macarthy spread, too. Not only had he given the memorable performance of the song in New Orleans; he himself had also written the stirring lyric, setting them to the tune of an old Irish folk song called "The Irish Jaunting Car." Macarthy was a hit, and for the rest of the war, he would do his best to keep his song and himself popular, taking his show on the road all over the South and providing diversion for thousands of civilians and soldiers. He lifted the morale of war-weary Southerners much as comedian Bob Hope would do for Americans during World War II. Like Hope in his days of entertaining GIs overseas, Macarthy was the most popular performer in his country, the Confederate States of America.  Actually, the South was not Macarthy's native land. He was an Englishman of Scotch-Irish descent and was 16 years old by the time he came to America in 1849. He launched his entertainment career shortly after arriving, starting out in 1850 playing bit parts in Philadelphia, and then joining an acting troupe in New Orleans in 1855. He was a talented actor with the good looks and charisma typical of a popular performer. One of the few existing descriptions of him says he was "a small, handsome man, and brimful of the humor and the pathos and impulsive generosity of the Celtic race." The only known pictures of him are those that grace the covers of a concert program and two pieces of sheet music. All were published at the height of his career and show him clean-shaven with thick black hair covering his ears. He had a straight nose and thin lips
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Morning Neil.
Miss your dial up yet? ;-)
Morning E.G.C.
Rain showed up last night and we have light rain this morning. It helped bring down a lot of leaves.
Good Morning Mayor.
Hi Feather!!
;-)
Thanks for the Norton heads-up.
I think Rather went to that school of journalism. ;-)
Morning GailA.
I get dibs on the first two pots!!
Here are the lyrics to the song about Missouri that Harry Macarthy wrote. I remember my grandmother playing it on her piano when I was a boy. She didn't sing the words. Although her family's sentiments were definitly pro southern I think she liked the melody and it also was her way of playfully reminding my grandfather that his father was a Union vet.
Missouri! Missouri! bright land of the West!
Where the way worn emigrant always found rest,
Who gave to the farmer reward for his toil,
Expended in turning and breaking the soil.
Awake to the notes of the bugle and drum,
Awake from your slumber the tyrant hath come!
And swear by your honor your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright star to our flag of eleven.
They forced you to join in their unholy fight,
With fire and with sword, with power and with might.
´Gainst father and brother, and loved ones so near,
´Gainst women, and children, and all you hold dear;
They've o´er run your soil, insulted your press,
They´ve murdered your citizens—shown no redress—
So swear by your honor your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright star to our flag of eleven.
Missouri! Missouri! oh, where thy proud fame!
Free land of the west, thy once cherished name,
Now trod in the dust by a despot´s command,
Proclaiming his own tyrant law o´er the land;
Brave men of Missouri, strike without fear,
McCulloch, and Jackson, and Price are all near.
Then swear by your honor your chains shall be riven,
And add your bright star to our flag of eleven.
Morning PE.
Nice one. My Mom and I came through Ellis Island.
Morning Lee Heggy.
Thanks for the lyrics to the song and for sharing the story of your grandparents.
Good Morn' ya'll. Grits and coffee for everyone. Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue. Got one on my truck, inspired by wardaddy of course!
Yipppee. Grits! It's good to see you sb.
Morning stainlessbanner.
Good to see ya drop in.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on October 06:
1552 Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary (China)
1819 Willem A Scholten potatochip manufacturer
1820 Jenny Lind Sweden, soprano/nightingale (Agathe-Der Freischultz)
1824 Henry Chadwick baseball pioneer, developed 1st rule book
1831 Richard Dedekind mathematician (Nature & Meaning of Numbers)
1846 George Westinghouse, prolific inventor, held over 100 patents on creations including air brakes for trains.
1849 Sir Basil Zaharoff arms dealer, "merchant of death"
1866 Reginald Aubrey Fessenden broadcast 1st program of voice & music
1882 Karol Szymanowski Timoshovka Ukraine, composer (Stabatmater)
1884 Lloyd Spooner US, marksman (Olympic-4 gold/1 silver/2 bronze-1920)
1888 Li Ta-chao cofounder with Mao Tse-tung of Chinese Communist Party
1895 Caroline Gordon Kentucky, writer (Green Centuries)
1897 Jerome Cowan NYC, actor (Mr Dithers-Blondie, Tab Hunter Show)
1905 Helen N Moody tennis pro (8 Wimbledon titles 1927-1938)
1906 Janet Gaynor Philadelphia, actress (Sunrise, A Star Is Born)
1909 Carol Lombard actress (My Man Godfrey, In Name Only)
1914 Thor Heyerdahl Norway, anthropologist/explorer (Kon Tiki, Aku-Aku)
1917 Robert Mitchum actor (Thunder Road)
1925 Shana Alexander NYC, journalist (60 Minutes)
1930 Hafez al Assad "president" (Syria)
1942 Britt Ekland Stockholm Sweden, actress (Wicker Man, Asylum)
1942 Fred Travalena NYC, comedian/impressionist (Buy & Cell)
1947 Klaus Dibiasi Italy, platform diver (Olympic-gold-1968, 72, 76)
1959 [Dennis Ray] "Oil Can" Boyd baseball pitcher
Morning to you Sam! Your quite welcome! I live in a predominately Black and Hispanic neightborhood and I can hoist the Bonnie Blue on the pole in my front yard and nobody say's a thing about it except that it's a pretty flag. It's the same with the 1st National (Stars and Bars) or with the Missouri Confederate flag that is blue with a red border and has a latin cross in the canton but raise the southern cross and you will have a riot on your hands.
Marching Through Georgia
Bring the good old bugle, boys! we’ll sing another song
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along.
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Chorus:
“Hurrah! Hurrah! we bring the Jubilee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!”
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.
2.
How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound!
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found!
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Chorus:
3.
Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears,
When they saw the honor’d flag they had not seen for years;
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Chorus:
4.
“Sherman’s dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!”
So the saucy rebels said, and ’twas a handsome boast,
Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the host,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Chorus:
5.
So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain,
While we were marching through Georgia.
Chorus:
/troublemarker
Good morning, all! Great story!
I'm taking CarolinaScout to see one of the SwiftVets this evening, unless there's some disaster at my husband's Place of Employment. Anoreth (my 13-year-old) is on vacation, so I can't go anywhere unless the Dad gets home!
Hi Valin.
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