MANUSCRIPT MUSIC AND LYRICS FOR "TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND."; an autograph manuscript for the first verse, chorus, and a portion of the final chorus, with the music, on a sheet of paper prepared with five-line staves, undated, but signed by Kittredge at Merrimack, N.H., Post Office, Reeds Ferry, N.H.
Merrimack, NH: nd (1882). 4to. The autograph manuscript includes the music, the title at the top, and 12 lines for the lyrics, in full: "We're tenting to night / on the old camp ground. / Give us a song to cheer our / Weary hearts a song of home. / And friends we / love so dear / Chorus / Many are the hearts / that are weary to night. / Wishing for the war to / cease. Many are the hearts / looking for the right / to see the dawn of / peace. Tenting to night. Tenting to night. / Tenting on the old camp / ground. / Last time P.P.P. Repeat P.P.P. / Last verse Dying to night. Dying to night (omit) / Dying on the Old Camp Ground. / Resp. yours / Walter Kittredge." Note on the verso in another hand "Red'd Nov. 30 / 82." Very good. Faint old fold lines. (9785). Item #61472
This popular Civil War song was composed in 1863 by the largely self-taught musician Walter Kittredge, a New Hampshire native who wrote a number of songs inspired by the conflict of the Civil War. "One of the most loved pieces of Civil War music, sung at annual encampments of the Grand Old Army of the Republic and of the veterans of the armies of the Confederacy" (Russell Sajek "American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Hundred Years," pp. 244-245; NY: Oxford U. Press, 1988).
Price: $1,500.00