A History of the Port Royal Bands

SKU: 9781935573937

Two of the finest Union Army bands to emerge during the American Civil War were the Third Regiment Band of the New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, recruited from Fisherville (now Penacook), New Hampshire, and its successor, the 2nd Brigade Band, 10th Army Corps. Both bands were stationed near Charleston, South Carolina, and led by Gustavus W. Ingalls, a native of Bristol, New Hampshire. In later years, historians began referring to these bands as the Port Royal Bands because of their deployment to the area near Port Royal, a town not far from Charleston. This book examines the history of the two bands and the men who played in them and discusses the 2nd Brigade Band's contribution to music history—a collection of their music known as the Port Royal Band Books, highly prized by music historians and utilized by modern day Civil War reenactment bands. The New Hampshire Historical Society preserves one of three distinct sets of the Port Royal Band Books, the other two being at the Hopkinton Historical Society and the Library of Congress. Together they comprise the best-known collection of Civil War band music in existence.

Author: John Brookfield
(Softcover)